They’re calling it “broken plan”. With more of us now working from home, possibly for the long term, households want personal space for office, study and leisure — so Londoners are carving up their old open-plan homes into personal hubs.

“Dividing and zoning space is the new norm,” says Merlin Wright, design director at British Standard/Plain English, which has been installing kitchen-diners for decades.

“The old trend for knocking through and opening up no longer works, and in winter big spaces are expensive to heat.”

At London architectural design and build practice Zulu Fish (zulufish.co.uk), Felix Milns confirms: “Our clients are reorganising. They are dividing homes, converting spare rooms into offices and generally creating multifunctional spaces where parents and kids can operate.”

Meanwhile, a new report from John Lewis (johnlewis.com) reveals one in five customers is rejigging open-plan space to accommodate many different activities throughout the