Reasons for Designation
* A small cottage designed by a notable designer and architect of the late C19-early C20 that references boat design and was conceived as the land-based accommodation at the mooring point for the client's houseboat, also by the same architect.
* It retains many original features, including architect designed fixtures and fittings and garden hard-landscaping, which has been carefully conceived and constructed.
Details
This List entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 06/09/2017
1212/0/10022
COOKHAM,
SPADE OAK REACH,
Bourne End,
The White Cottage (originally The Log Hut)
(Formerly Listed as: Riverbank Cottage (originally The Log Hut))
20-MAY-08
II
Cottage, 1919 by George Walton, designer and architect, C21 kitchen extension.
MATERIALS: Rendered brick walls and deeply hipped tile roof.
PLAN: Rectangular plan, of two storeys with first floor within the roof space. Large modern single storey kitchen extension to west which is not of special interest. Cottage ground floor has a central living room flanked by paired small rooms. North-east pair of cabin bedrooms either side of the enclosed spiral staircase; south-west bathroom and hallway (the former kitchen). Central bedroom above with landing and staircase to the north-east and bathroom (former tank room) to the south-west.
EXTERIOR: Rendered exterior walls; deep hipped tiled roof with sprocketed eaves. Upper storey within the roof void and lit by dormers. A broadly symmetrical building with its main façade on the north-west garden side facing the River Thames. North-west and south-east facades have central folding glazed French doors flanked by paired wooden casements. Single chimney stack to the west which is brick built with tile detailing to the cap. Small verandah protecting a glazed door at the junction of the original house and the modern flat-roofed kitchen extension. Paired wooden framed casements at ground floor to the north-east elevation and a small dormer above. South-west elevation broadly similar on design drawings but now largely masked by modern extension although the first floor dormer is visible. Single-storey kitchen extension to west is not of special interest. It has a flat roof and windows echoing those of the original house.
INTERIOR: Original cottage door to south-west now joins the cottage and the modern extension. Surviving architect designed fitted furniture and internal doors. Living room has a wood block floor, closely spaced cross beams to the ceiling, original fireplace with wooden mantle and brick and tile surround. Some remodelling to south-west where former small kitchen area now a hallway linking the modern kitchen and the living area and to south a small bathroom which has also experienced some modernisation. North-east cabin bedroom doors, cupboard door and enclosed staircase door are all architect designed with broad planks, ribbed detailing and brass fittings. Very steep spiral staircase with simple wooden banister (part removed). Inserted bathroom to south-west within former tank room. Fixtures and fittings largely original, some fitted cupboards which also have ribbed detailing to match the doors as well as built in shelves; some remodelling but in a sympathetic manner.
ANCILLARY FEATURES: The house is raised on a paved terrace with steps down to the lane to the south and providing access to the garden and River Thames to the north; all part of the original design.
HISTORY: The cottage was designed in early 1919 by the Glaswegian architect and designer George Walton (1867-1933). As a young man he worked in a bank while attending classes at Glasgow School of Art until able, in 1888, to establish 'George Walton & Co Ecclesiastical and House Decorators'. Many private and then public commissions followed, initially with Walton in the role of interior decorator with his firm producing the stained glass, metalwork, fireplaces, furniture, wall coverings etc, and then increasingly as architect designer. His early schemes include a number of interiors which were highly praised at the time including William Rowntree's tea and coffee rooms in Scarborough, and his collaboration with a young Charles Rennie Mackintosh at Glasgow's Buchanan Street Tearooms in 1896. He is considered a key figure of a group of Glasgow artists, designers and architects in the late C19 to early C20 responsible for a distinctive idiom known as the Glasgow Style.
The Log Hut was designed by Walton for George Davison. Walton and Davison met in London in the late C19. Davison worked for the Eastman Photographic Company (later Kodak Ltd) and initially commissioned Walton to design a photographic exhibition for him having been impressed with his ground-breaking design for The Photographic Salon exhibition at the Dudley Gallery, London in 1896. He subsequently commissioned a number of designs from Walton including the interior of a new headquarters building for the company in Clerkenwell Road, London (1898) as well as shops (in collaboration with the architect Edward Spencer) on Brompton Road (1900), West Strand (1901) and Regent Street (1898) and other examples in Glasgow, Dublin, Brussels, Milan, Vienna and Moscow. Davison was to become Walton's major client, if not patron, with the architect designing a houseboat (1902-3), several houses including their furnishings - The White House, Shiplake (1908, Grade II) and Wern Fawr, Harlech (c1908-11) - and St David's Hotel, Harlech (completed 1910). Walton was also close friends with J.B.B. Wellington, also in the photographic industry, for whom he designed The Leys, Elstree (1901, Grade II*).
The Log Hut was built at the site of Davison's River Thames mooring point for his houseboat 'The Log Cabin', situated some distance upstream from his property The White House, Shiplake. Davison had bought the land in 1917 but by late 1918 decided that a small cottage would be a useful addition and turned to Walton to deliver this. The house was quickly designed and built and exhibited some similarities with both the house-boat and The White House and was to prove the inspiration for the subsequent Lodge at the Leys built in 1923 (listed Grade II).
SOURCES:
K. Moon (2004), George Walton - Designer and Architect, specifically pp164-5.
H. Muthesius (1979), The English House, pp52-4.
REASON FOR DESIGNATION:
The White Cottage (also known as The Cottage and formerly as The Log Hut) is a detached house of 1919 designed by the designer and architect George Walton. It is designated for the following principal reasons:
* A small cottage designed by a notable designer and architect of the late C19- early C20.
* The house plan references boat design and was conceived as the land-based accommodation at the mooring point for the client's houseboat, also by the same architect.
* It retains many original features, including architect designed fixtures and fittings and garden hard-landscaping, which has been carefully conceived and constructed.
