Property spotlight: Arts & Crafts houses

The Arts & Crafts style conjures up thoughts of William Morris in England and Charles Rennie Mackintosh in Scotland. It was inspired by the perceived decline in standards and quality of design created by mass-production and machine making. Perhaps there’s a need again now for a similar movement.

In looking for genuine Arts & Crafts houses currently on the market, I was dismayed to find so many of them so ‘modernised’ that they’ve completely lost their aesthetic identity. The three we’ve chosen below have been sympathetically brought into the 21^st century. In addition, The Old Lodge has the most envy-inducing outdoor kitchen, incorporating an Argentinian Asado grill.

£475,000 – Blythbank, St. Abbs Road, Coldingham, Eyemouth TD14 5NR

A rare opportunity to purchase a magnificent Edwardian Arts and Crafts house, which has stunning period features… This stunning home has been sympathetically upgraded without losing any of its charm…

• Detached Edwardian house
• Stunning Art & Crafts features
• Outbuildings, parking & garage
• Large gardens & summer house
• Coastal village location
• Award-winning beach nearby
• 4 bedrooms, bathroom & WCs
• Breakfast room & kitchen

£600,000 – The Old Lodge, Hamsterley Hall, Hamsterley Mill, Rowlands Gill, County Durham NE39 1NJ

Originally constructed in stone under York stone tiles circa 1900, The Old Lodge is a striking Arts & Crafts home with beautiful mullioned windows, parquet wood ﬂooring and a mix of cast iron and stone inglenook fireplaces.

• Charming period lodge
• Exquisite interior décor
• Fantastic outdoor entertaining areas
• Grade II listed
• Elegant & inviting accommodation
• Gardens & parking
• Beautiful parkland surroundings

£6,500,000 – St Georges Road, Twickenham TW1 1QR

This original Arts and Craft property, built in the late nineteenth century, is believed to be the first house constructed on the road, and it certainly befits that status. There is expansive and elegant accommodation laid out over the ground floor, offering an array of formal and more open plan reception areas. Over the top two floors, there are six bedrooms complimented by three bathrooms.

• 6 bedrooms
• 5 reception rooms
• 3 bathrooms
• 0.35 acres
• Communal garden
• Conservatory
• Detached
• Garden
• Parking
• Patio
• Single garage
• Private parking
• Cellar
• Lake view

Property spotlight: Tudor houses

Today, we’re having a look at some of the Tudor houses that are currently advertised as for sale. Not ‘mock Tudor’, ‘Tudor style’ or ‘Tudor revival’ but the real McCoy.

Tudor architecture, generally considered to be built between 1485 and 1603 (the start of the reign of Henry VII to the end of the reign of Elisabeth I), has a number of tell-tale visual features. The most well-known one – and the most visible – of these is probably the ‘criss-cross’ black wooden decoration – rightly referred to as half-timbering.

Wings Place (the third in our list below), also known as Anne of Cleves House is one of the most wonderful properties we have ever laid eyes on; it’s handsome on the outside, tastefully decorated and has an interesting history. We’d snap it up in an instant if we had two and a quarter million to spare!

£329,950 – Tudor Cottage, Lydbury North, Shropshire SY7 8AU

Tudor Cottage is the very essence of a picture postcard English country cottage. A Grade II listed building which oozes charm throughout, from its wealth of ceiling beams and herringbone wall timbers, its carved and arched internal door frames, to its delightful inglenook fireplace and the three Tudor painted wall panels.

• A quintessential country cottage
• In an idyllic village setting
• Characterful semi-detached home
• 3 bedrooms, bathroom & WC
• Living room, kitchen/diner and utility
• Fabulous mature gardens and parking
• Historic Grade II listed building

£750,000 – 36 Tilehouse Street, Hitchin, Hertfordshire SG5 2DY

A charming three bedroom detached cottage situated on one of Hitchin’s most sought after roads on the edge of the town centre… this beautiful Grade II listed home is bursting with character with exposed beams and floorboards and offers versatile and well-balanced accommodation arranged over two floors.

• A detached period cottage
• Full of character and charm
• Situated in one of Hitchin’s most iconic streets
• Town centre location
• Catchment area for Hitchin Girls and Hitchin Boys Schools
• 1.1 mile, 22 mins walk to Hitchin train station

£2,250,000 – Wings Place, 24 West Street, Ditchling, Hassocks, Sussex BN6 8TS

Wings Place, sometimes referred to as ‘Anne of Cleves House’, is one of the very few Grade I listed houses in private ownership in Sussex. The property is steeped in history and has been described as one of the best timber framed Tudor houses in the county. The property stands on a site which has been inhabited for almost a thousand years.

Wings Place is an incredible example of Tudor architecture, with an exemplary range of original features both on its exterior and interior. The timber-framed structure is defined by a distinctive gable at the northern end, which overhangs the first floor, along with intricate ornamental bargeboards. Inside, 16th-century inglenooks, tall brick chimneys, mullioned and lead windows, and two magnificent oak staircases are a testament to the history of the building.

Designer Desire: Ron Arad

Justin was watching an episode of George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces programme on television recently (see below) that highlighted the Design Museum in Holon, Israel. It’s an incredible, one-of-a-kind building, designed in 2010 by Ron Arad.

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Ron Arad studied at the Jerusalem Academy of Art prior to emigrating to London in 1973. In the early 1980s, he founded his own practice in London and set up One Off Ltd with his partner Caroline Thorman, focusing on limited-edition objects.

Throughout his career to date, Arad (b. 1951) has created sculpture, furniture, jewellery and audio equipment using materials including glass, textile, metal, wood, ceramic, marble and plastic. He is a master of design!

Designers accuse me of being an artist, artists accuse me of being an architect, and architects accuse me of being a designer. But it doesn’t bother me too much; that’s just the way the fragmented world works. _{Ron Arad}

Arad has worked with many leading design firms such as Kartell, Vitra, Driade, Guzzini and Moroso. He has collaborated with Fiat, Swarovski, KENZO, Samsung, Adidas and many more.

His more famous works include the award-winning ‘This Mortal Coil’ bookshelf, ‘Big Easy’ chair and ‘Victoria and Albert’ sofa.

There are over 50 examples of his work in the V&A collection in London and at least half a dozen in MoMA in New York.

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Additional image credits:
Bukowskis | Phillips

Designer Desire: Wells Coates

Born in Tokyo, Wells Coates (1895-1958) was a British modernist architect and designer of Canadian parentage. Greatly inspired by the likes of Le Corbusier, he designed a number of public and private commercial and residential buildings.

My first proper introduction to Wells Coates was when I was at the University of Brighton. I did a summer school course in photography where I focussed on capturing images of Embassy Court (seen at the top of our montage above) – my favourite building in the city – located on the seafront in Hove. It was the mid-1990s at the time, and the building (erected in 1935) was in a very sorry state; the 11-storey façade was rusty, crumbling and strewn with ugly satellite dishes – but its beauty still shone through. Today it’s a des-res and one of the 72 flats would set you back a cool half a million pounds and more!

In 1934, he designed the Isokon / Lawn Road Flats, Hampstead for Molly and Jack Pritchard. The couple and their family lived at the address, with some of the other 32 flats being occupied by design greats of the time; Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer and László Maholy-Nagy.

The following year – with David Bartholomew Pleydell-Bouverie – Wells Coates designed the Sunspan Houses. Fifteen of them were built; including one in Portsmouth, another in Burnham, Buckinghamshire, three on Woodlands Avenue in New Maldon, Essex, Chadwell St Mary, Essex and Esher in Surrey.

In 1939, he designed 10 Palace Gate, a block of luxury flats in London’s Kensington for construction company, Randall Bell. Flats currently command rents of over £1,000 per week. A space in the building’s underground car park is currently for sale for the princely sum of £65,000.

He designed the Telecinema – one of the 1951 Festival of Britain buildings. Apparently it was:

…the first theatre in the world in which big screen television, 3-dimensional pictures and tereophonic (sic) sound took its place on par with the cinema… spectators wearing (the) special stereoscopic spectacles…

The woven upholstery fabric for the Telekinema’s seating was designed by Lucienne Day in 1951.⁠⁠

In addition to buildings, he designed office furniture for Kingfisher Limited of West Bromwich, some examples are included in our montage above. He also created 9 models of radio for Ekco including the round Bakelite AD65 (1934), AD75 (1940), A22 (1945) and rectangular A33 RadioTime (1946).

There are a number of books that investigate the man and his works. His daughter, Laura Cohn, authored The Door to a Secret Room: A Portrait of Wells Coates. There’s a 1970s monograph written by Sherban Cantacuzino and a more recent one by Elizabeth Darling.