Warren House

Summary

A Modernist house of 1935 on the Dartington Estate, designed by American architect William Lescaze for German émigré and renowned choreographer, Kirt Jooss. Part of the Dartington Experiment, where Dorothy and Leonard Elmhirst sought to rehabilitate an agricultural economy, while bringing education and the arts to its heart.

Reasons for Designation

Warren House, a Modernist house, built in 1935 by William Lescaze, restored in the early C21, is listed at Grade II* for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* a Modernist house of excellent quality in its planning and design, carefully composed with a series of interlocking cuboid forms set over three levels, which survives very well;
* skilfully planned around an upper-ground floor central entrance hall, with evolving modes of living reflected in the flexible living and dining rooms and the integrated accommodation for staff, and with a specialist function evident in the dance studio;
* an excellent collection of internal fixtures, including the high-quality, bespoke walnut unit to the dining room; the curvilinear balustrade; and a collection of stone chimneypieces.

Historic interest:

* designed for choreographer Kirt Jooss according to his requirements. The building fabric directly illustrates the historic connection through the dance studio;
* a product of the Dartington Experiment, demonstrating the Elmhirst’s investment in and commitment to providing a good-quality housing for the community;
* designed by William Lescaze of Howe and Lescaze of America, an internationally significant Modernist architectural firm.

Group value:

* along with several other houses, representing the stylistic diversity of the estate’s domestic building stock;
* Dartington has the largest concentration of Lescaze’s buildings in England, several of which are listed, and together with High Cross House, the houses on Warren Lane, and the boarding houses on Park Road, it represents a rich collection of Lescaze’s domestic work.

History

At the centre of the Dartington Hall Estate are the surviving parts of the great C14 medieval house (listed Grade I, wider area scheduled), which was almost derelict by the time it was purchased by Leonard and Dorothy Elmhirst in 1925. The Elmhirsts began the Dartington Experiment, using their substantial wealth with the aim of rehabilitating the neglected agricultural estate. New initiatives would improve opportunities for estate workers and research and develop new methods of agriculture, alongside providing liberal educational, cultural, and research ventures, emphasising the importance of the arts. The couple made Dartington their home for the rest of their lives, drawing to them artists, thinkers and craftspeople who were eminent in their fields, creating a community of specialists, and investing significant sums of money into the estate. 

Choreographer Kurt Jooss (1901-1979) arrived at Dartington from Germany in 1934. Jooss had established a reputation for artistic innovation, though his progressive ideas and affiliations were incompatible with the new Nazi regime, leading to his decision to emigrate. Together with his colleague Sigurd Leeder, Jooss found a new base at Dartington, where the Elmhirsts financed the founding of the Jooss Leeder School of Dance.

The Elmhirsts commissioned a house for Jooss by William Lescaze, an American architect who had first worked at Dartington in 1932, designing High Cross House (listed at Grade II*) for headteacher W B Curry. Lescaze subsequently collaborated with estate architect Robert Hening, whose local knowledge aided the process of design and construction. The new house was designed according to Jooss’s needs, and included a large practice studio and a self-contained nursery wing. Construction was by the estate’s firm, Staverton Builders.

An extension was made to the lower ground floor and the kitchen in 1969 by Hening. A meticulous scheme of renovation was undertaken in the early C21; extensions were removed and interiors largely returned to their original form.

Details

House, 1935, by W E Lescaze of Howe and Lescaze of America, assisted by R Hening, commissioned by Dorothy and Leonard Elmhirst for Kurt Jooss.

MATERIALS: brick cavity walls, cement rendered and painted.

PLAN: situated on the west side of Warren Lane on a sloping site, partially excavated. A roughly L-shaped plan over three floors, where the lower ground floor contained a garage, with living accommodation on the upper ground and first floors.

A flight of steps leads to the main entrance at upper ground floor level, where there is a porch in the angle of the L-shaped plan. This opens into a central hall which gives access to all ground floor rooms, with the stair on the north side. Living and dining rooms to the south, separated by a sliding partition; veranda to the dining room. Kitchen in the south-east wing over the lower ground floor level garage; 'back' stair adjacent to the kitchen removed. Curved partition wall separating the hall from the drawing room at the back (west). Dance studio to the north with a study library off to the east. First floor similarly laid out, with two principal bedrooms; a dressing room; bathrooms; visitors' bedrooms and former nurseries and the nurse's and maid's rooms. The south-eastern bedroom has a balcony on the flat roof of the kitchen wing; north-west bedroom has a smaller balcony over the studio; both were intended for outside sleeping. Stair rises to tower giving access to flat roof terrace.

EXTERIOR: Interlocking cuboid volumes create asymmetrical elevations with three roof heights. Principal elevation faces east; entrance porch, reached by a flight of steps, with a flat canopy supported on steel post, set in the angle between the tall northern block and lower blocks to the south and east. Tall block with regular window openings, rising to stair tower opening onto the flat roof. The southern block is lower and has a horizontal window band on the first floor with French doors giving access to the roof terrace over the projecting kitchen wing. Kitchen with a window band on the right-hand corner and tall vertical window to the left. Garage at the lower ground level. All the windows are steel frame casements and the doors flush plywood.

The north elevation has a narrow horizontal window band lighting the dance studio, a deeper rectangular window to the adjoining library, and a deeper window band on the first floor.

On the rear, west, elevation, the dance studio projects on the ground floor to the north, over which there is a roof terrace with access from a doorway in a band of windows lighting the former maid’s room and day and night nurseries. Stair tower set back on the roof above; its flat roof is cantilevered forming a canopy, with a doorway leading onto the roof terrace. The roof terraces have a steel tube and wire net balustrade. A rendered chimney rises from the flat roof of the lower block to the south.

The south elevation has asymmetrically disposed windows. The ground floor right of the higher block is cut away to form a veranda, with the corner above supported on a slender steel post. Large windows to the dining room on low wall with slate sill.

INTERIOR: square geometry of exterior countered in the entrance hall by the quadrant corner in the plasterwork, the sinuous partition to the drawing room and the upward curve of the balustrade to the stair. The stair is a dog-leg with a solid balustrade faced in Columbian pine plywood with moulded black ebonised handrail. Drawing room has a small fireplace with an asymmetrical tiled surround and a shelving niche above-left. The dining room has a fitted cupboard faced in walnut plywood forming a screen, with drawers and serving hatches with wooden roller shutters. Sliding flush panel doors between living and dining rooms. Living room fireplace with a polished grey Italian marble surround, and a bench window seat. The first floor has a fitted wardrobe in one room. Other rooms have small simple fireplaces with tiled or slate surrounds. The doors throughout are flush plywood. Skirtings are metal, coved at the junction with the floors, which are hardwood boarded in the hall and jarrah in the dance studio; other rooms have softwood boards.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

101055

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Bonham-Carter, V, Dartington Hall - The Formative Years: 1925-57, (1970)
Pevsner, N, Cherry, B, The Buildings of England: Devon, (2004), 317
A house at Dartington in The Architect and Building News, (22 November 1936), 254-256

Websites
Toepfer, K, Jooss, Kurt (1901–1979), choreographer and teacher of dance. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 23 September 2004, accessed 15/08/2025 from https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-60590

Other
The Home of Ballet Jooss, Country Life, 4 June 1938, 590

End of official list entry

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