Lutyens Houses on the Market
Richard Page’s regular property column
It’s been a busy summer and autumn for the country-house market, predominantly driven by high demand from those moving out of cities due to changing working practices and other circumstances resulting from the pandemic.
In Kent, a sale has been agreed on Lutyens’s house in his Wrenaissance style, The Salutation – designed in 1911 for Henry Farrer and occupied by him and his brothers – to UK buyers at around the guide price of £4.75m. In Scotland, a sale has been agreed on Ferry Inn at Rosneath in Dunbartonshire – a building altered and extended by Lutyens in the 1890s to create a dream cottage for Princess Louise, daughter of Queen Victoria – which had a guide price of £875,000. In Surrey, the Grade II*- listed Munstead Orchard, originally the gardener’s cottage at Gertrude Jekyll’s property Munstead Wood, remains available at £1.25m through Hamptons.
Fairwood House, Hampstead Garden Suburb
Last sold in April 2018 for £13.75m, Fairwood House at 16 Ingram Avenue is back on the market. This distinctive house was commissioned by Reginald McKenna, Chairman of Midland Bank, in 1935 as a wedding present for his son, David, and daughter-in-law, Lady Cecilia Keppel. McKenna, who was married to Pamela Jekyll, daughter of Herbert Jekyll and niece of Gertrude, was one of Lutyens’s most loyal clients. He commissioned three Lutyens houses for himself – 36 Smith Square, London of 1911, Mells Park House, Somerset of 1925 and Halnaker Park, Sussex of 1938 – and commercial buildings using his influence as Midland Bank’s chairman. The bank buildings included its HQ at 27 Poultry (built from 1924 to 1937), now hotel The Ned; and its branches at Piccadilly of 1922; 139-144 Leadenhall Street (1928), which has a Lutyens-designed façade, and King Street in Manchester (built from 1933 to 1935).
Working in collaboration with John Soutar, consultant architect to the Hampstead Garden Suburb Trust, Lutyens provided Classical elevations for Fairwood House with its silver-grey brick façade with red brick dressings, twin forward pavilions, a thick cornice and steep tiled roof. The house was Grade II-listed in 2003 and its interior underwent extensive alteration and updating, including the addition of a basement in 2006.
The accommodation, which extends to 11,000sq ft, includes a triple-height reception hall, drawing, dining and sitting rooms, library, large kitchen and family room with orangery, gym/cinema room with sauna and bar, principal bedroom suite with twin bathrooms and dressing rooms, a further seven bedrooms and bathroom suites, a staff suite and garage. The garden is just over half an acre and backs on to a seven-acre bird sanctuary. Fairwood House is available through Glentree Estates at a guide price of £15m.
Temple Dinsley, near Hitchin, Hertfordshire
The historic, Grade II*-listed manor Temple Dinsley (formerly home to Princess Helena College, founded in 1820 for daughters of officers who served in the Napoleonic Wars) is for sale. Mentioned in the Domesday Book in 1086, it was held by the Knights Templar in the 12th century, then by the Knights Hospitallers. After the dissolution of the monasteries in the 16th century in England, Wales and Ireland, the Sadler family owned the estate until 1714. It was acquired by Benedict Ithell of Chelsea and the existing Tudor manor house demolished and replaced by one in the Queen Anne style.
In 1908 the estate was bought by HG Fenwick, who commissioned Lutyens to enlarge and remodel the house and, collaborating with Gertrude Jekyll, he created formal gardens, all appropriate for entertaining on a grand scale. (Bertie was a cousin of Mark Fenwick, owner at the time of Gloucestershire country house Abbotswood to which Lutyens made additions from 1901.)
Lutyens increased Temple Dinsley’s size fourfold, adding long, symmetrical two-storey wings on each side of the seven-bay house, each linked by a recessed bay with a Dutch gable. The architectural detail on the new wings followed the style of the original house except for the chimneys. To the east, a new kitchen wing was added in 1908, while an 18th-century stable block was converted into a racquet court. To the north, a new formal walled garden was planted by Jekyll.
Lawrence Weaver commented: “The old work has been respected in all faithfulness and the new rhymes with it delightfully, but does not fail of showing the individuality of its creator”. Nikolaus Pevsner thought the house was “so much enlarged by Lutyens that the whole appears entirely a Lutyens house”. Lutyens wrote to his wife in August, 1910: “Temple Dinsley is having a succès fou and Mrs Fenwick is so nice to me about the house and everything”.
Further work followed in 1911, with Lutyens adding a nursery extension to the east of the kitchen wing with a stone arcaded ground floor with Tuscan columns. A terrace of staff cottages was also built in the village and, in 1913, home farm buildings and cottages were added.
Princess Helena College moved to Temple Dinsley in 1935 and alterations to it were carried out, including raising the roofs of the Lutyens wings by 4ft to provide headroom for dormitories – work done by Felix J Lander. It closed in 2021 due to financial difficulties exacerbated by Covid-19. It’s considered suitable for continued use as an educational facility or to be redeveloped into alternative uses, subject to planning.
Temple Dinsley, set within grounds of approximately 84 acres, has accommodation extending to over 69,000sq ft. It’s available at a guide price of £8m via Savills.
Apartments in Lutyens buildings
A number of apartments in Lutyens buildings are currently available. A two-bed, third-floor flat in the chequerboard-patterned apartment block on Page Street in Westminster is for sale through Garton Jones for £525,000. On Kingsway, Holborn, a two-bed, third-floor flat in the former offices of The Garden is available for £2.55m through The London Broker.
On Park Lane, Mayfair, a two-bed, first-floor flat in Aldford House overlooking Hyde Park is available through Knight Frank at £3.45m. In Walton-on-the-Hill, Surrey a three-bed, first-floor flat in the former Dormy House, an annex to the clubhouse at Walton Heath Golf Club, is available for £480,000 through Clarendons. In Buckinghamshire, a two-bed, first-floor flat in Nashdom, built for Lutyens’s clients, Prince and Princess Alexis Dolgorouki, is available through Penny & Sinclair at £825,000.
Richard Page’s 40-year estate-agency career has included senior roles at Savills, John D Wood & Co, UK Sotheby’s International Realty and Dexters. He is now an independent marketing consultant and director of www.themarketingcafe.net, a video production company.
Over the years, he has handled or advised on the sale of several Lutyens houses, including Deanery Garden, The Salutation and Marsh Court. He is currently in contact with a number of buyers looking to purchase a Lutyens house. For further information or if you have any Lutyens-related property news, please contact Richard at landseer75@hotmail.com.
Disclaimer: prices and availability correct at time of going to press.
