Walk down Rose Street in Wokingham and you could easily miss what is right in front of you. Many of the buildings present neat Georgian and Victorian brick frontages to the pavement, respectable and familiar, but behind those facades sit timber-framed hall houses dating to the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries — medieval structures still standing, still occupied, simply dressed in later clothes. It is a quality I find genuinely compelling in a town: the willingness to adapt rather than demolish, to add layers rather than start again. As an architect, that instinct to work with what already exists, to understand a building's bones before deciding what it needs next, is something I recognise deeply. It is, in many ways, the principle that runs through everything we do at Gresford Architects.
Award-winning Architects in Wokingham
Trusted Expertise for a Town That Values Its Buildings
I founded Gresford Architects in London in 2006. What started as a conviction — that sustainability and sensitive design are not competing priorities, but the same thing — has only deepened as we have grown. We are now an Oxford-based practice working with clients across the country, and that principle runs through every project we take on. The Deerings, our Passivhaus home in Hertfordshire, won a RIBA East Award in 2018. The Old Water Tower was shortlisted for the RIBA South Awards. We were finalists for Sustainability Architect of the Year at the Building Design Awards, and I was invited to judge the British Homes Awards in 2025. As RIBA chartered and ARB registered architects, and members of SPAB, the Passivhaus Trust and The Green Register, we bring the heritage knowledge and environmental ambition that a town like Wokingham — with its Grade I listed Lucas Hospital, its Grade II* Town Hall, and its thirty-two listed buildings on Rose Street alone — rightly demands.
Working With Wokingham's Layers of Character
Renovations in Wokingham often begin with a question of layers. A building on Rose Street or in the town centre conservation area may present one face to the world while its structure tells an entirely different story — Tudor timber framing behind brick cladding, medieval proportions behind a later shopfront. Working with buildings like these requires patience, knowledge of historic fabric, and a willingness to let the building guide the design rather than imposing a predetermined vision. My membership of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings reflects that commitment. Whether the project involves a listed building requiring listed building consent through Wokingham Borough Council or a sensitive intervention in the town centre conservation area, we approach every renovation with the care these buildings have earned over centuries.
EnerPHit, the Passivhaus retrofit standard, is particularly relevant for older homes in Wokingham. The town's housing stock spans centuries — from those medieval timber frames through to the Arts and Crafts villas of the Murdoch Road conservation area, designed by the local firm Morris and Son in the early twentieth century, and on to post-war suburban development. Many sit uncomfortable in their own period: beautiful facades masking poor thermal performance, draughty windows, heating bills that penalise age rather than reward care. EnerPHit offers a disciplined route to genuinely better comfort — upgraded insulation, airtightness and ventilation — while respecting the materials and character that justify keeping these homes in the first place.
Extension Design is where many homeowners in Wokingham find themselves starting. The town has grown significantly but much of its established housing — the Victorian and Edwardian terraces, the inter-war semis, the generous plots along roads like Murdoch Road — was designed for a different era of family life. An extension that works is one that reads the existing building carefully: its proportions, its materials, the way light enters the rooms. In conservation areas, planning consent requires demonstrating that new work preserves or enhances the area's character, and we see that discipline as an asset rather than an obstacle. It produces better architecture.
Wokingham's recent town centre regeneration — Peach Place, Elms Field, Carnival Hub and the newly completed Carnival Place — shows a town that takes the quality of its built environment seriously. That same ambition should extend to the homes being built around it. Sustainable Design is the thread that connects all of our work, and for new homes it means designing from the outset for comfort, durability and genuine efficiency in the use of energy and materials. New Build Design gives us the freedom to set that standard without compromise, while PassivHaus Design takes it further still — homes with exceptional thermal comfort and outstanding air quality built into the fabric itself, not bolted on afterwards. With Wokingham Borough Council's Local Plan directing significant new housing across the borough, there is a real opportunity to ensure that what gets built next meets the standard the town deserves.
Beyond the town, the countryside around Wokingham retains a character quite different from the built-up area. For those with a site in the open countryside, Paragraph 84 of the National Planning Policy Framework provides the route to a genuinely exceptional rural home — but the design must be outstanding, sensitive to its setting and demonstrably innovative. We have the design ambition and environmental credentials to meet that threshold.
Wokingham is a town that understands the value of its buildings — a place where medieval timber frames have survived because people chose to keep them rather than replace them. That same instinct, the willingness to work with what exists before deciding what comes next, is what drives us. If you are thinking about a renovation, an extension, or a new build, we would welcome the chance to talk about it.