Homewood, Knebworth
| Homewood | |
| Hertfordshire | |
|---|---|
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TL23871983 |
| Location: | 51°51’48"N, 0°12’9"W |
| Village: | Knebworth |
| History | |
| Built c 1900 | |
| For: | Edith Bulwer-Lytton by Edwin Lutyens |
| Country house | |
| Arts and crafts | |
| Information | |
| Owned by: | Pollock-Hill family |
| Website: | homewood-bb.co.uk |
Homewood is an Arts and Crafts style country house in Knebworth in Hertfordshire. It was designed and built by the architect Edwin Lutyens around 1900–3, using a mixture of vernacular and Neo-Georgian architecture, it is a Grade II* listed building.[1] The house was one of Lutyens' first experiments in the addition of classical features to his previously vernacular style,[2] and the introduction of symmetry into his plans.[3]
The gardens, also designed by Lutyens, are Grade II listed in the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.[4]
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House
Lutyens designed the house for his mother-in-law, Edith Bulwer-Lytton, the dowager countess of Lytton, and her daughter, the suffragette Constance Lytton.[5] It was built at the southern end of Park Wood on the Lyttons' Knebworth estate, about half a mile south-east of Knebworth House, using whitewashed brick, weatherboarding and plain tiles.[4] Construction was carried out by the estate builders, to a tight budget.[5] Sources differ on the dates, ranging from 1900,[6] to 1903.[2]
The house's square plan has been compared to Philip Webb's earlier design for Joldwynds, in Surrey. The northwest, entrance front with its three gables is very like that of Joldwynds. The southwest, side elevation has only two gables, however. The southeast, garden front differs radically from Webb. The roof is cut away in the centre to reveal a two-storey, classical facade with Ionic pilasters,[2] creating the appearance of an embedded villa,[7] emerging from the vernacular covering of tiled roofs and elm weatherboarding, which elsewhere around the house come down to the tops of the ground floor windows. The garden front is flanked by two loggias facing each other across a terrace.[2] Other classical touches, on the house's entrance front, include a central, rusticated porch,[7] which has been called 'Mannerist',[2] and two flanking small pavilions with rusticated piers.[1] The western pavilion contained a darkroom, and the northern one a larder and scullery.[3] There is a small extension on the northeast, service side of the house.[2]
The interior is classical, with the rooms laid out compactly on a grid of three by three units.[2] At the centre is a large, well-lit staircase.[5] The centre of the garden front is occupied by the dining room,[3] with large french windows leading onto the terrace.[2] From the entrance front, the porch is entered via an arched door which Lutyens surmounted with an open, unglazed tympanum.[5] This leads into a long passage, with a door on the right giving access to the vestibule.[3] This arrangement produced draughts and helped to make the house cold in the winter; Edith's bedroom gained the nickname "Vladivostok".[5] The house only had one bathroom.[8]
After her ordeals in Holloway Prison, a result of her suffragette activities, Constance's failing health led to a stroke in 1912, and she spent the rest of her life at Homewood with her mother.[9] She died in 1923, only days after moving out of Homewood to a flat in Paddington, Middlesex, in an attempt to restart an active life.[10]
When Edith died in 1936, the house passed to her son Victor Bulwer-Lytton (later 2nd Earl of Lytton) and in 1947 to his daughter, Hermione Cobbold. In the early 1970s, the Pollock-Hill family bought the house. They have restored it, mostly following Lutyens' plans, but have added some bathrooms.[11]
Garden
Beyond the house's southeast front with its stone-flagged terrace are yew hedges and flowerbeds, and a lower area of lawn below a retaining wall. There are views to the southeast over farmland towards distant hills. Beyond the southwest elevation is another lawned area and a raised croquet lawn.[4]
Outside links
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 National Heritage List 1102736: Homewood
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 Gradidge (1981), pp. 46–9.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Butler (2003), pp. 31–6.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 National Heritage List 1000911: Homewood (gardens)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Ridley (2002), pp. 139–42.
- ↑ Richardson (1981), p. 193.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Amery (1981), p. 85.
- ↑ Jenkins (2015), p. 71.
- ↑ Jenkins (2015), pp. 195–6.
- ↑ Jenkins (2015), pp. 228–30.
- ↑ Jenkins (2015), pp. 234–6.
- Amery, Colin (1981). "The Practice Grows". Lutyens: The Work of the English Architect Sir Edwin Lutyens (1869–1944). London: Arts Council. ISBN 0-7287-0304-1.
- Butler, A. S. G. (2003). The Domestic Architecture of Sir Edwin Lutyens. Woodbridge: Antique Collectors' Club. ISBN 1-85149-100-7.
- Gradidge, Roderick (1981). Edwin Lutyens: Architect Laureate. London: George Allen and Unwin. ISBN 0-04-720023-5.
- Jenkins, Lyndsey (2015). Lady Constance Lytton: Aristocrat, Suffragette, Martyr. London: Biteback Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84954-795-6.
- Richardson, Margaret (1981). "List of Works by Sir Edwin Lutyens". Lutyens: The Work of the English Architect Sir Edwin Lutyens (1869–1944). London: Arts Council. ISBN 0-7287-0304-1.
- Ridley, Jane (2002). The Architect and his Wife: A Life of Edwin Lutyens. London: Chatto & Windus. ISBN 0-7011-7201-0.