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Lutyens Houses and Gardens open to the public in 2008 To plan a tour of Lutyens Buildings BERKSHIRE DERBYSHIRE
Mothecombe House, Holbeton, South
Devon. Tel: 01752 830-444 (Mr & Mrs A. Mildmay-White). GLOUCESTERSHIRE HERTFORDSHIRE
NORTHUMBERLAND SOMERSET SURREY Munstead Wood, Godalming (Sir Robert & Lady Clark). Garden only: Sunday 20th April and 18th May 2-5 pm. EAST SUSSEX PLACES WHERE ONE CAN STAY IN A LUTYENS BUILDING
EAST LOTHIAN HERTFORDSHIRE KENT LONDON Grosvenor
House Hotel NORTHUMBERLAND
GERTRUDE JEKYLL & HER GARDENS GARDEN OPENINGS 2006
1. Munstead Wood, Nr Godalming, Surrey. (Sir Robert & Lady Clark). Garden only: Sunday 20th May and 18th May 2-5 pm. NGS
EXTERIORS WHERE LUTYENS WORK CAN BE SEEN CENTRAL LONDON 1931 Clock, Royal Academy of Arts,
Piccadilly, W1 NORTH LONDON 1908 Hampstead Garden Suburb (Manse,
Institute, houses in North Square and Erskine Hill) SOUTH LONDON 1911 Roehampton House, Wandsworth,
SW15, (additions and garden) for A. M. Grenfell LONDON INTERIORS THAT CAN BE VISITED CENTRAL LONDON 1922 Midland Bank, 196 Piccadilly,
W1 NORTH LONDON 1908 Hampstead Garden Suburb (St. Jude's, Free Church) SOUTH
LONDON TO PLAN A TOUR OF LUTYENS BUILDINGS The common legacy (or at least some of it) follows, without reference to private houses that cannot be seen from a public road or path, unless they are open at least occasionally for charity Buildings, etc., are grouped geographically (except that I have added a list of churches and chapels). This is essentially a 'starter kit' and further references should be made, especially to the county volumes of the Buildings of England series. THE SOUTH EAST In south-west Surrey, Thursley, the village of Lutyens's childhood, would still be recognizable to him. He lived in the Georgian house in the centre of the village, west of the road Junction: it was, unbelievably (for a family of fourteen), smaller in his day. The Corner, north of Thursley Street, was where he did his first additions for Mr Edmund Gray. Half-way down the lane south-wards is the Institute he built for the Revd Gooch, the vicar and a family friend (now Prospect Cottage, etc.), and this lane leads to the church, St Michael's. In the churchyard are Lutyen's memorials to his mother (1906) and to Derek Lutyens (1918). Milford House, the home of Robert and Barbara Webb, has remained a sad ruin, beside the road northwards out of the village towards Godalming, since the fire in 1981. There are constant schemes for restoration, but the Wren-like details that so inspired the young Lutyens are gone for ever. There are cottages by Lutyens to the west, in the centre of the village on the road to the church - which has some curious old Webb family tombs. The small bronze tablet Lutyens designed in memory of Barbara Webb is on the chancel wall of All Saints, Witley, on the A283 south from Milford. The village school opposite is Lutyensesque - and note the White Hart as typical of the Surrey picturesque that inspired Helen Allingham, Randolph Caldecott and Ned Lutyens. Farther south on the A283, over the railway and east of the road, is Wood End (1897), and farther on, at the turning to Hambledon, is Tigbourne Court, the exciting and beautifully crafted house of 1899 built by Sir Edgar Horne M.P. for his daughter. By travelling east from Milford to Milford Station (where Lutyens often travelled with 'Angelina' in the guard's van), following Station Lane cast to Hyde-style crossroads and turning left and north into Hambledon Road, you will climb through a definitive Jekyll-style hollow lane, where she loved to drive her pony and trap, fast! At the top of the hill, on the right, are some of the cottages built for Jekyll family retainers, and a turn right, a little further on into Homefarm Road will bring you face to face with Gertrude Jekyll's Hut (1894), once secluded in the garden of Munstead Wood, but now right on the Brighton Road. Across the Brighton Road, Munstead Heath Road passes, on the right, Munstead House (private) built for Mrs Julia Jekyll by J. J. Stevenson and later the home of Sir Herbert and Lady Jekyll. On the left, glimpsed via Heath Lane, Munstead Wood (private), where the garden is open occasionally for the National Gardens Scheme. By walking down Heath Lane, Lutyens's Thunder House on the wall, Miss Jekyll's former stables and gardener's cottage (Munstead Orchard), may be glimpsed. The lane meets the main road at St John's Church, Busbridge. The war memorial is a Lutyens Cross; in the church there is a beautiful chancel screen for the Mellersh and Graham families, friends of the Jekylls and Webbs, and immediately outside the east end of the church, the Jekyll family tomb and the Julia Jekyll and Francis McLaren graves. In Godalming High Street, the museum has Lutyens and Jekyll exhibits. At Compton take Down Lane (leading to the Watts Gallery and Mortuary Chapel), and a footpath westwards follows the Pilgrim's Way (passing Limnerslease, Watts's house by Sir Ernest George) to Lutyens's Pilgrim's Way Bridge (1931) for the original Godalming bypass. In Shalford off King's Road, the B2128, there is a car-park for the Chinthurst Hill open space, where part of the land which Maggie Guthrie acquired so mysteriously now offers walkers her view, one of the finest views in this countryside of fine views. Her Lutyens house is in the trees on the south slope and private, but the lodges can be seen in Chinthurst Lane, Wonersh. Follow the Dorking road, the A248, eastwards through Chilworth and Albury the Tillingbourne valley road that Lutyens so often travelled. In Shere, where the Bray family are still lords of the manor, are Lutyens's cottages, last but one on the left before East Lodge with its prominent green gable. In the Street, Summers' Barber's Shop still has its sign (1894), and the lynch gate at St James Church is well worth close examination. Continue east along the Abinger Hammer and turn right for Abinger Common: here is another Lutyens War Cross and, to the west of the path, next to the wall, there are the tombs of Sir Frederick and Lady Mirrielees, the builders of Goddards. Directly outside the east end of the church are John Arthur and Emily Gibbs 'of Goddards'. The house itself is clearly visible on the west side of the green with the Victorian well on it, south of the Church. In Pixham Lane, Dorking, is a marvellous small church by Lutyens of 1903, to serve the expanding community and paid for by Miss Mayo, who lived in Pixham Lane. Back in west Surrey, at Tilford the Institute or Village Hall cum cricket pavilion (1896) is on the green and still the backdrop for famous matches. It will be remembered that Gerard Streatfeild of Fulbrook was a supporter of the Tilford team for many years, and so was J. M. Barrie - whose Black Lake Cottage is just outside the village. David Rayner Allen's 'Peter Pan and Cricket' is recommended reading. In Farnham's South Street, next to Sainsbury's car-park, is the Liberal Club (1894), built under the patronage of Arthur Chapman of Crooksbury by a local builder, Mr Patrick, who stood much of the cost himself. It originally included a library, reading-room, billiard-room (the best in town) and meeting-rooms. Hampshire
Kent
London
and Environs From Westminster, walk up Whitehall, passing the Cenotaph to Trafalgar Square: the fountains, similar to those in New Delhi, and the paving, are the memorial to Admirals Jellicoe and Beatty. Their busts are by Sir William Reid Dick. (The lions are, of course, by Lutyens's godfather, Sir Edwin Landseer.) In Pall Mall no. 67-68 has a facade by Lutyens for Victor Behar (1928); there was originally a banking hall below with flats above - note that the windows of each floor are different. No. 120 was for Crane Bennett & Company. North, in St James's Square, no. 7, on the corner of Duke of York Street, was the town house of Gaspard and Henry Farrer. The mews behind, Apple Tree Yard, was where Lutyens had Delhi office and William Nicholson his studio - nothing of either remains, all the character engulfed in soulless offices. Across Jermyn Street walk through St James's Church to get the feeling of Wren before Lutyens's Midland Bank, 196a Piccadilly, comes into view; the banking hall is well preserved. Farther west, in Park Lane, Lutyens did the facade of Grosvenor House Hotel (1926) and in Victoria of Terminal House (1927), Grosvenor Gardens. Note: Almost all of Lutyens's London commissions of the 1920s and 30s were for exteriors only (often with entrance halls and directors' offices), but interiors, for banking or offices, were a specialized, cost-controlled job for bread-and-butter architects, and have usually been endlessIy refurbished. Conversely, the private houses, many in Mayfair, where Lutyens worked show no signs of his attentions on their outsides. A second clutch of London buildings will be found in the West Central area. Lord Cheylesmore's Memorial is in Embankment Gardens. Nos 2-10 Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, was the original Country Life office of 1904 for Edward Hudson; 42 Kingsway was for 'The Garden' (1906) for Hudson and William Robinson. In Great Russell Street, the Bedford Square end, is Lutyens's YWCA building (1928) which has an interesting history, good stairways, Queen Mary Hall and small library surviving. Most of these rooms are let for various uses, and can most likely be seen upon inquiry. In Tavistock Square is the memorial to Dame Louisa Blake (the corner of Endsleigh Place), and via Tavistock Place and Cartwright Gardens is Lutyens's Burton Street facade of the original Theosophical Society building for Mrs Annie Besant (1911). The building was never finished for the TS, it was bought by the British Medical Association and completed by C. Wontner Smith. A City group begins in Fleet Street, with Lutyens and Wren together again, with Reuters, 85 Fleet Street, for Sir Roderick Jones (1935), cheek by jowl with St Bride's Church. There was originally the Cogers public house (now the photographic library) for the journalists. In St Paul's, besides Lutyen's pupil, Curtis Green's, plaque in the crypt, is Lutyens's tomb for Admiral Beatty and the gold flagon, chalice and paten and silver-gilt vases as a memorial to Lord Stevenson of Hombury, who died in 1926. Outside, the west front lamp standards are by Lutyens. The Midland Bank headquarters building has facades on Poultry and Princes Street, next to the Bank of England. The banking hall is in splendid Lutyens grand style. In Finsbury Circus is the large headquarters building, for Anglo-Persian Oil, later BP and now back in the same company ownership after an interval as let offices and various refurbishments. Lutyens did the entrance hall, lifts and stairs to the directors' suite, as he did at the Midland Bank. Moorgate Station is by Lutyens, part of the office building development. Also the City branch of the Midland, 140-144 Leadenhall Street. On Tower Hill is the Mercantile Marine Memorial, 1926-8, added to by Sir Edward Maufe after the Second World War. At Greenwich, in the Maritime Museum, memorial to Sir James Caird. The Royal Naval Division Memorial is at the Horseguards Parade. To the west of London Hampton Court Bridge pays another tribute to Wren's Palace building., the corner pavilions were never built and the bridge was altered for traffic reasons after the Second World War. At Hampton Court Palace the Chapel Royal has the splendid large altar cross in brass designed for Charlotte Dalison (Beresford Peirse) in memory of her husband (see Dalison tombs, above). At Runnymede the road (A308) layout and bridge over the Thames were designed in connection with the gift of Runnymede to the nation, but have been altered for traffic reasons (the M25 now uses the bridge). The memorial to Urban Hanlon Broughton (d. 1929) who gave Runnymede, consists of the kiosks, piers and lodges at the Windsor end. The Broughtons (Cara Broughton became Lady Fairhaven) lived at Park Close - opposite them Mrs Julia Clark lived at Parkwood - and Mrs Clark's tomb, and that of her parents, Lord and Lady Baillieu, are probably two of Lutyens's finest. They are in the churchyard of St John's, Windlesham. In Windsor the Doll's House is at the Castle; Lutyens designed the tomb for King George V and Queen Mary in St George's Chapel, and his memorial to King George V is at the corner of Datchet Road. In Eton, beside the College playing fields, is the bridge erected in memory of Denys Finch-Hatton, killed in a flying accident in Africa in 1933 - his story is told by Karen Blixen in 'Out of Africa' Berkshire
Middle
England Victoria
Park, Leicester, the war Memorial and Gate THE NORTH Liverpool Barrow-in
Furness Gullane,
East Lothian Whalton Manor, near Newcastle, in the village street. Lindisfarne Castle, on Holy island, belongs to the National Trust Heathcote can be seen from the Kings Road Ilkley, and from below in Grove Road. Head office of N G Bailey & Company, to whom requests to visit may be made. EASTERN ENGLAND Knebworth House in Hertfordshire (open to the public): much of Lutyens's work for his sister-in-law, the Countess of Lytton, can be seen, in the entrance hall, picture gallery, library and white drawing-room; the formal layout of the garden was entirely done by Lutyens and the Countess (with at least one visit from Miss Jekyll). In the park, the old church overflows with the sense that, at the last, Lutyens ministered to the sad and untimely ends of his patrons - in the church are the memorials to the Lyttons' sons, John and Antony, the former killed at El Alamein in 1942, the latter killed flying in 1933. The churchyard, south side and south-east corners, has the distinctive Lutyens tombstones for the Lytton family, the Lafones (Pamela Lytton's sister Beryl), the Buchanans and the family nannies. In new Knebworth is St Martin's church, pantiled and rather alarming, but with definite Lutyens style inside; it was completed by Professor Albert Richardson. In the old village there are many Lutyens cottages alongside the earlier building patronage of the Lyttons, and evidence, in Deards End Lane, of the houses and golf clubhouse, part of a development Lord Lytton planned with Alfred Lyttelton's help before the First World War. The holly edges were part of Lutyens's plan. East Wreatham, off the Thetford-East Dereham road, just north of Thetford, has the beautiful memorial to Marc Noble in the little church set in an unchanged countryside remoteness. Belton House, Lincolnshire, has a curious cross on the outside wall of the east end, next to Lord Brownlow's tomb (an unidentified detail but similar to Aubrey Herbert's chapel at Brushford). On the north Norfolk coast a walk around Overstrand (for which there is a leaflet to guide you) will reveal all the towers, gateways and quirks of Lord Battersea's building at the Pleasaunce, plus another curious Lutyens chapel, with pantiles and tiled decoration. THE WEST OF ENGLAND At Mells a leaflet describes the interesting buildings - Lutyens's memorial to Mark Horner is opposite the village shop, the war memorial to Hedward Horner (Sir Alfred Munnings's equestrian statue) and Raymond Asquith and various gifts from Lady Horner, who was a skilled embroideress. The churchyard, on the south-east, has the Horner tombs (and, not by Lutyens, those of Mgr Ronald Knox and Siegfried Sassoon) and the McKenna graves; the yew avenue was Lutyens's idea and the manor can be seen from the churchyard. Near Stroud, in Gloucestershire, Misarden Park, Miserden, the garden where Lutyens worked for the Wills family, is opened midweek throughout the summer (and also for the National Gardens Scheme). Farther north, at Stow-on-the-Wold, Nether Swell village green has the war memorial and bus shelter paid for by Mark Fenwick: Abbotswood garden is open for the National Gardens Scheme. Back South, Hestercombe near Taunton in Somerset is open every day from May to September. Castle Drogo, National Trust, is opened as advertised by the Trust. In south Devon, the coastal footpath along the Erme estuary, approached via Mothecombe (the house Lutyens altered for the Mildmays), will not reveal any Lutyens work in detail but follows the former Barings' Membland estate road and explains why they loved this part of the world - the path westwards leads to Stoke Point (now a caravan site) and the church of St Peter the Poor Fisherman, on the beach, from which the Revelstoke title was taken. Mothecombe House garden is occasionally open (National Gardens Scheme). REPUBLIC OF IRELAND The gardens of Howth Castle are open to the public. The large and eminently sad Irish National War Memorial is next to the rowing club at Islandbridge, Dublin, on the other side of the river from Phoenix Park. Much more cheerful but not dissimilar in style is Heywood House garden, the Salesian Fathers' Community School at Ballinakill in Port Laoise, which is open to visitors under Irish government ownership. FRANCE Les Bois
des Moutiers at Varengeville, Lutyens's house for the Mallet family is
open throughout the summer and makes a convenient prelude to the roads
south to the war memorials. The major Lutyens works are: USA In Washington, DC, the British Embassy is in Massachusetts Avenue, just west of Dupont Circle. INDIA The President's House, Rashtrapati Bhavan, is not normally accessible to foreigners, but the garden is usually open to all in February and March. Note on Churches There is still a Betjemanesque legacy that favours architects who worked on churches. Edwin Lutyens longed to do churches to emulate Wren, but he was never associated with any church establishment. His churches came via private clients and are as follows: The Cathedral of Christ the King, Brownlow Hill, Liverpool (crypt only built, but marvellously impressive). The Great Model for the Cathedral is in the Walker Art Gallery. Hampstead Garden Suburb: St Jude's Church and the Free Church in Central Square, Hampstead. St Martin's, Knebworth, Herts (completed by Sir Albert Richardson). Church in Pixham Lane, Dorking, for St Mary's, Dorking, for Miss Mayo. Campion Hall, Oxford, chapel. Hon. Aubrey Herbert Memorial Chapel, Brushford, Somerset. Methodist Chapel, Cliff Road, Overstrand, Norfolk. Taken from 'Lutyens and the Edwardians, an English architect and his clients' by Jane Brown. Published by Viking 1996. |
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