CANCELLED

Goddards Open Days (Landmark Trust)

Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 June 2020 – 10am to 4pm

Abinger Common, Surrey RH5 6JH

No booking required.

Goddards was built by Edwin Lutyens from 1898–1900 and enlarged by him in 1910. It is considered one of his most important early houses, designed in the traditional Surrey style and with a garden laid out in collaboration with the celebrated garden designer, Gertrude Jekyll. The commission was an unusual one. In the words of Lawrence Weaver, writing on Lutyens’ houses in 1913, it was built ‘as a Home of Rest to which ladies of small means might repair for holiday’. This was the idea of Frederick Mirrielees, a wealthy businessman who had married an heiress of the Union Castle shipping line. A central range with common rooms on both floors divided two cottages, the southern of which also contained a bowling alley. Here Lutyens played a game of skittles in 1901 with the three nurses and two old governesses then staying here. They all loved the house and ‘invariably weep when they leave it’.

This is a rare opportunity to see inside this important building.

Free Admission and leaflets on the building’s history. Click here for location.

Please follow signs for parking. For further information please contact Booking Enquiries. The Booking Office is open Mon to Fri – 9am to 5.30pm.