At home with...Matthew Williamson

The designer’s Belsize Park flatis a grand canvas for his ever-changing colour palette

- CHARLOTTE DUCK

Matthew Williamson's life has changed significantly since he bought this two-bedroom flat in Belsize Park in 2012. "I've had lots of great parties and dinners here. It's a good place to pile back to after a night out and I had one party - for my 43rd birthday - when there was music and cocktails. It was at a time when I was knocking around with Paloma Faith and she got up and sang for all the guests which was incredible."

Now 53, the designer, who was once a mainstay of the London party scene, splits his time between this, his London base, and Deià, Majorca, where he moved with his partner Joseph Velosa, after they welcomed daughter Skye nine years ago. "I still get that rush from London, and I want to get stuff done; in Majorca, I'm in a different mindset." He comes here for one week every month for meetings and work and his partner does the same thing on a different week. "It's concentrated time and it seems to work well."

Williamson's ground-floor flat, one of six in a converted Victorian block, includes an enormous drawing room, which is where Faith did her impromptu concert. With high ceilings and the original coving, the space wouldn't look out of place in a grand, stately home. The designer thinks it was once a dining room, back when the property was a single house, and admits it was what he fell in love with. "To this day, people walk into it and are impressed. It's a barrel shape and the windows and walls are curved. There's something special about the way it's been constructed. I wanted to live here, it had me immediately; I didn't need to see the rest of it."