In 1994 conservation architects Roger Mears Architects were appointed to repair and/or reinstate the hugely significant plasterwork, panelling, doors, windows and other joinery and to return the houses to use as single family dwellings. New brick ground floor frontages replaced the shopfronts, to a design appropriate to the elevations above, and the first floor brick cornice was reinstated. Residential London, particularly outside Westminster and the City, is essentially an 18th- or 19th-century city. Even in the centre, there are few brick houses this old, pre-dating the Great Fire of 1666. One of the properties has been extensively renovated under the guidance of Bere Architects (Islington).