A Glut of Lut Houses
By Michael Hanson
Over the past 12 months, at least a dozen Lutyens houses have come on to the market for sale (or, in at least one case, to let). Unlike previous boom years, however, when Lutyens houses – especially those with Jekyll gardens – quickly sold like proverbial hot cakes, often for considerably more than their asking price if they were in the sought-after Home Counties, not as many have yet changed hands.
Of those that have been sold, the most outstanding is probably Little Thakeham at Storrington, West Sussex, a ten-bedroom house in five acres of gardens. Designed in 1902 for Ernest Blackburn, and described by Lutyens as “the best of the bunch” in a letter to his wife, it had been run as a country house hotel for 20 years by Tim and Pauline Ratcliff until its sale last year. It was bought more than £2m for conversion back to a private house, but sadly several pieces of furniture made for the house were sold at auction in October.
Middlefield, the perfect country house for today, being an eight-bedroom Grade II* listed house set in more than ten acres of well-kept gardens at Great Shelford, on the outskirts of Cambridge, was designed in 1908 for Dr. Henry Bond, who later became Master of Trinity Hall. Sold in 1993 by local agents Bidwells for the then record price of £865,000, it was once again the most expensive country house to come on the market in the Cambridge area last year, when it sold for well over its asking price of £2m.
Also sold successfully was Ferry Inn at Rosneath, 28 miles NW of Glasgow. Originally designed in 1896 by Lutyens as a major extension to an inn that stood beside the jetty for the ferry that ran from Rosneath to Rhu, on the opposite side of Gare Loch, it became a four-bedroom house in its own right when the inn was demolished in the 1960s. Commissioned by Queen Victoria’s daughter, Princess Louise, who later became the Duchess of Argyll, it was never occupied by herm being simply one of the properties at Rosneath that she and her husband (then the Marquess of Lorne) owned. It attracted huge interest when it came on to the market with two acres of garden last August, when offers over £295,000 were invited. Viewed by more than 40 people, it eventually sold for around £390,000 to buyer from Glasgow who sails on the Clyde.
More expensive than any of the foregoing was The Grange at Plaxtol, Kent, a Grade II* listed house built in 1702 for Thomas Dalison and altered in 1926 for Max Dalison. He gave it “the eccentric 18th-century front” that fooled Pevsner, and also its new dining room and service wing. Sold in 1987 for well over £750,000, it was sold again last year with 43 acres of gardens and grounds (redesigned some years ago by Anthony du Gard Pasley) for more than £3m.
It is a measure of how much London property prices have risen than one of the terrace of eight houses in North Square, Hampstead Garden Suburb, designed in 1910, was quickly sold just before Christmas for more than £1.25m despite being in need of updating. However, the house is much larger than one might think, being on three floors and having seven bedrooms in its 3,106 sq ft of floor space, but only a small rear garden.
Among the Lutyens houses not yet sold are at least four with Jekyll gardens, including one of the most important of all, Munstead Wood Hut, a Grade II cottage with a Grade I listed garden of two-thirds of an acre, for which offers over £775,000 were being sought last summer, but which has since been withdrawn from FPD Savills.
The Quadrangle, Miss Jekyll’s collection of potting sheds, barns, stables and workshop adjoining Munstead Wood, which were converted into a five-bedroom house in the 1950s by the present vendor and her late husband, is for sale at £975,000 (down from £1.2m). The buildings are listed Grade II but the acre of gardens (which include Gertrude’s Grey Garden) are Grade I.
The Hollies, one of a pair of gardeners’ cottages at Munstead designed in 1895 for Miss Jekyll, is still for sale at £325,000. Wood End at Wormley, Surrey, just up the road from Tigbourne Court, is a Grade II listed house with 1.35 acres of unlisted Jekyll gardens. Its price has been reduced from £950,000 to £850,000.
The Salutation at Sandwich, Kent, which many people regard as the perfect Lutyens house, is still for sale at £1.9m with 3.5 acres of walled Jekyll Gardens. Bathgate House, which is the central portion of Langley End (formerly Hill End), which Lutyens designed for Mrs. H G Fenwick in 1911, is still for sale with half an acre of garden for £575,000 (down from £600,000).
A buyer has yet to be found for the most expensive property with Lutyens associations. Offers around £5m are being sought for Tyringham Hall in Buckinghamshire, the Grade I listed mansion designed by Sir John Soane, for which Lutyens designed two garden pavilions and an outdoor swimming pool and associated landscaping works in the 28 acres of gardens and grounds for F A König in 1926.
At the other extreme, the cheapest Lutyens property for many years has found a buyer, but it is not a house. The Pimple, originally designed in 1909 as an entrance to a private underground reservoir to supply Littlecourt and other houses built by the Duke of Bedford at Tavistock, Devon, stands on top of Whitchurch Downs. Keen to get rid of their maintenance liability, South West Water invited offers over £1 for this Hurdwick stone structure with its pyramidal slate roof last September, and it was sold by private treaty for an undisclosed sum to a local couple, who are happy to see it continue to be used as a public shelter.
Finally, the Grade II* Adam house at 13 Mansfield Street, London W1, which Lutyens lived in from 1919 until his death on New Year’s Day 1944, has been withdrawn from the market. Having failed to find anyone interested in paying £2.7m for a 125-year lease in its rundown condition, or renting it for £375,000 a year, Brancaster, the company that bought the property in 1997 from the Royal College of Midwives, is about to start a complete refurbishment under the supervision of architect Nigel Stock and English Heritage. This will restore the house to its full glory – but still as 10,286 sq ft of offices. However, the mews at the rear will be extended to create a four-bedroom mews house with off-street parking for two cars, but this will probably be sold (or let) with the offices. Work is expected to be completed before the end of this year.
