This London Home Is Built Into a Railway Viaduct

In London, people get creative about where to live. This might be the most creative example yet. Archway Studios, in Walworth in south London, is a two-bedroom, two-bath home built in and around the arches of a 19th-century railway viaduct. The trains still run overhead. From the street, it looks like a sliver of rusty metal attached to the bridge. Inside, it opens up into roughly 1,665 square feet of bright, curving, surprisingly calm living space.

Living Life Under the Rails

Designed by Didier Ryan Architects, the house is wrapped in a weathered Corten steel shell. The steel has rusted to a coppery finish, so the house looks like part of the bridge itself. Behind that shell is a soundproof acoustic envelope designed to keep railway noise out. It won the London Architecture Awards' House of the Year in 2013 and was featured in the RIBA Annual Exhibition in 2025. What the photos don't make obvious, as one Redditor pointed out, is that the living space extends into the arches beneath the tracks, and the front door sits right under the bridge. Commenters had practical questions. Some wondered whether the soundproofing handles vibration as well as it handles noise. Others predicted delivery drivers would assume their GPS had sent them to a maintenance tunnel.

Skinny Outside, Surprising Inside

The design is built around a slender, three-story glass atrium that pulls daylight down into a whitewashed, open-plan ground floor. Gentle curves divide areas for cooking, dining, and lounging, and the interior follows the bends and bows of the old viaduct. At the far end, a mezzanine holds a home library with built-in shelving. A sculpted spiral staircase rises to a glass-railed landing and the second bedroom, which sits across from a shower room finished in rubber surfaces. One more cantilevered steel staircase climbs to a study tucked right under the glass ceiling. The home is a leasehold with about 125 years remaining, and it's a short walk from Burgess Park and the Elephant & Castle tube station. As for Reddit, one commenter summed it up as the chance to finally become a troll who lives under a bridge. Others joked that a big enough freight train might take care of retrieving books from the top shelf.

The Internet Has Thoughts

Naturally, this listing caught the attention of Reddit's r/zillowgonewild community. See what people are saying about it here.

Whether you're an architecture buff or just someone who doesn't mind a train for an upstairs neighbor, this one is worth a look. View the full listing here.