Reasons for Designation
Yes, list
Details
ABINGER
1834/0/10006 HOLMBURY HILL ROAD
18-FEB-11 The Wilderness
II
Private house 1938-9 for Sir Wilfrid Greene, Master of the Rolls, by Tecton under the leadership of Berthold Lubetkin, and supervised by his wife, the architect Margaret Church, who was Greene's god daughter. The conservatory, added in 2008, is not of special interest.
MATERIALS AND STRUCTURE: The house is set into the side of the hill supported on the outer face on concrete piers and by a terraced revetment. The shell is built of load-bearing 13" brick with reinforced-concrete floor slabs which extend over the south elevation as a first-floor balcony and as a gutter fascia with a deep lip which is taken through to form the gable wall verges. The balcony and gutter fascia are supported on reinforced concrete piers. The south-facing façade, containing door and windows openings, is set back behind a projecting screen or mantle of columns, fascias and parapets. Timber pitched roofs are clad in slate. Metal-framed windows survive on the upper floor of the S elevation; elsewhere they are replaced in aluminium or uPVC.
PLAN: two parallel, pitched-roof, two storey blocks laid out on the 'thick back wall' principle favoured by Tecton, whereby principal rooms in the front range are served by a shorter service range, organised around a central axis. The southern block was laid out with a living room, a study, a dining room and a sun room on the ground floor; each with large south-facing windows or in the case of the sun room an open front. Above, and opening on to the balcony, were four bedrooms and three bathrooms. The rear block, cuts into the rear of the front block and contains the hall and stairs, kitchens and a back stairs leading to two former maids' rooms on the first floor. The sun room is now enclosed by a later C20 glazed screen wall, set back from the building line (and not of special interest) and rear service rooms have been opened up.
EXTERIOR: South elevation. The balcony and gutter fascia are visually supported on reinforced concrete piers, which appear to pierce the balcony. The south-facing façade, containing door and windows openings, is therefore set back behind a projecting screen. The centrepiece, the study, and the first-floor room above it, has a concave profile, which is accentuated by a deep overhanging canopy. Small windows in the concave centrepiece are deepset, and, like windows at the rear and flank walls, have masonry cills and lintels; above the entrance the window unit is set within a horizontal panel. Either side of this bay, external first floor walls are faced in shiplap, wooden cladding. Concrete, which was originally board-marked, but is now heavily painted, is visible on the soffit and faces of the upper balcony. This is an early example of its use. The entrance, on the north elevation, is set back under a deep concrete canopy supported on concrete piers and flanked by glazed panels. Metal-framed window units survive on the upper floor of the south elevation, giving access to the balcony but elsewhere are replaced in aluminium or uPVC. Doors are replaced. The former, open, sun room on the south facing elevation has inserted doors set back from the wall line. Replaced, metal-framed external stairs on the eastern gable descend from a projecting concrete balcony or landing.
INTERIOR: the concrete slab is exposed over the stairs, which rise from the rear hall. Stairs are of masonry with integral moulded steps and skirtings and a grey polished stone coping to the balustrade. The entrance leads to a small lobby divided from the hall by a timber screen with a central doorway with a deep rectangular architrave. The living room has a brick and tile fireplace in a plain flush surround, in traditional rather than Modernist manner and projects forward into the room on a deep chimney breast. The curved screen at the back of the dining room, which was shown on the original plans, was removed some years ago creating a single rectangular space; the former sun room is now internal. Access to the conservatory, which was added to the south-west gable in 2008, breaks through the gable wall. On the first floor, bedrooms give on to a shallow balcony. In the ground floor principal rooms and rear of the hall, and on the first floor corridor, floors are of cork with shallow, integral moulded cork skirtings. Doors are flush-panelled, some with original door furniture.
HISTORY: The Wilderness was designed and built in 1938-9 by the eminent C20 architectural practice, Tecton, under the supervision of Margaret Church. It stands in the grounds of Joldwynds, which had been built in 1933 by Oliver Hill. Joldwynds was owned by Sir Wilfrid Greene, Master of the Rolls, who had commissioned Hill to replace the large vernacular revival house also known as Joldwynds, built in 1873 by Philip Webb. However, he found Hill's house cumbersome and expensive to maintain, particularly the flat roof which leaked.
Greene turned to Berthold Lubetkin, whose wife Margaret Church, also an architect, was his god-daughter. Rather than repair Joldwynds, it was decided to build afresh on the wilderness garden, where Greene insisted on a traditional design with a pitched roof. With war imminent, all the materials were purchased before the project began. The construction was intended to be straightforward, suitable for a small local contractor.
Tecton, under the leadership of Berthold Lubetkin, was one of the most advanced architectural practices of the inter-war period, for their far-reaching Modernist, functionalist approach to design which reflected current trends in Europe. Their first work was for London Zoo with the Gorilla House of 1932, followed in 1934 by the Penguin Pool (both Grade I). Finsbury Health Centre, designed 1935-6, and opened in 1938 (also Grade I), echoed architecturally new concepts in combining health provision under one roof. The practice built relatively few private houses, and pre-war examples of individual houses and housing included Six Pillars, Dulwich built in 1934-5 (Grade II), Bungalows A and B, Whipsnade, of 1933-6 (Bungalow A, listed at Grade II*), and most notably Highpoint I and II of 1933-5 and 1938, both Grade I. Only a few other houses, for example, Beach House, Aldwick Bay, West Sussex (1933-4), which is now very altered, and the Whipsnade bungalows, were designed by Lubetkin, while the gatekeeper's lodge at Himley Hall, Dudley is the only other house by Margaret Church. The practice disbanded following the outbreak of the Second World War.
The Wilderness stands outside the norm for Tecton's work, but is seen as a watershed between pre- and post-war design, in attempting to reconcile, both stylistically and structurally, the Modernist and the traditionalist, to create a native British modern house, anticipating post-war house design. Lubetkin was not alone in this, on the Continent Rietveld was exploring similar paths in re-appraising the form and function of the modern house. Although the Wilderness suffers structurally and to some degree aesthetically from the constraints imposed by the brief, it carries considerable importance for its position in the evolution of the inter-war house, designed by a practice of international repute.
The Wilderness continues a tradition in Holmbury St Mary of an unusually rich range of bespoke houses by architects including GE Street, Norman Shaw, Sir Edwin Lutyens, CE Voysey and Sir Alfred Waterhouse.
Aside from his career at the bar, Greene was Chairman of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts and President of the British Records in 1937, while from 1941-5 he was chairman of the National Buildings Record.
SOURCES
Allan, J, Berthold Lubetkin, Architecture and the tradition of progress (1992)
Allan, J, Berthold Lubetkin (2002)
Coe, P, Reading, M, Lubetkin and Tecton: architecture and social commitment: a critical study (1981)
Dean, D, The Thirties - recalling the English architectural style (1983)
Tinniswood, A, The Art Deco House (2002) p. 120-123
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, www.oxforddnb.com/view/printable/33538 accessed 12/07/2010
REASONS FOR DESIGNATION
The Wilderness, Holmbury St Mary, designed and built in 1938-9 for Lord Greene, Master of the Rolls, by Tecton, under the leadership of Berthold Lubetkin, supervised by Margaret Church is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Architectural interest: rare, near intact example of a private house designed by the internationally influential architect Berthold Lubetkin, supervised by his wife Margaret Church; a watershed between pre- and post-war design, reconciling the Modernist and the traditionalist idioms in style and structure, to create a native British modern house, that anticipated post-war house design;
* Plan: 'thick back wall' layout favoured by Tecton, of two parallel blocks, where principal rooms in the front range were served by a shorter rear service wing, organised round a longitudinal axis.
* Construction and finishes: early use of board marked concrete;
* Setting: strong link with the site, where it is built against the southern slope of the hill, in the manner of a classical temple;
* Historical interest: built for Lord Greene, Master of the Rolls, it continues a tradition in Holmbury St Mary of an unusually rich range of bespoke houses; rare example of the work of Margaret Church, giving prominence to a female architect, which was unusual at the time.
