Summary
House, 1966-1967 by Beryl and John Higgins.
Reasons for Designation
High Bank, a house of 1966-1967 by Beryl and John Higgins for themselves, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* as an inventive work of modern domestic architecture, designed by architects for themselves on a small budget;
* for its ingenious use of a steel frame to realise the frameless clerestory glazing: a creative device giving the impression of levitation between floors, bringing light into the depth of the plan and giving spatial interest;
* for the subtle hierarchy of the interior finishes, including the shadow gap of the plastered walls and use of timber in the principal spaces;
* for its clever, compact planning which includes an open flow of living areas and the separation of children’s and adults’ spaces;
* for its thoughtful, integrated relationship with its landscape setting.
Historic interest:
* for its rarity as a little-altered house of the post-war period.
History
High Bank was built in 1966-1967 to designs by architects John and Beryl Higgins for themselves and their young family.
The opportunity for the Higginses to design and build their own home came when they purchased a site at Brockham near Dorking in 1963. It was a long and relatively narrow ½ acre plot, running east-west on the greensand ridge above the River Mole. It was accessed from an unsurfaced bridleway and was occupied by a dilapidated bungalow. Despite posing some challenges, the elevated position offered the potential for stunning views over the river and agricultural land to the south. It had mains water, electricity and gas, but the existing house relied on a septic tank for drainage. The only access to the main drains for any replacement house was into the manhole of the adjacent property. To maintain a minimum fall, the new house would have to be located nearly half-way down the site, and transversely across it, an orientation which also had the advantage of maximising the light which could enter the building.
Beryl and John both drew up designs for the new house and agreed that they would ask an architect colleague to choose between the schemes. It was John’s which was selected, and despite expecting to have to tone down its strongly modernist design to obtain the necessary planning consent, the scheme was approved by Dorking Urban District Council without amendment. The house was built by local builders, Pledge and Keen, who started work in October 1966 and completed in December 1967.
To take full advantage of the views to the south, the living room of the house was placed on the first floor and floor-to-ceiling windows were used extensively to bring light into the house. As well as a bedroom for each of the three boys, and a playroom, a spare bedroom was needed for visiting guests and Beryl was keen for an ensuite to the master bedroom. A conservatory was also included in the design to house her cactus collection.
The intention was to make the first floor of the house appear to float, an idea influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, Pennsylvania, USA of 1935. The ground floor is steel-framed, the first floor carried on a steel platform which cantilevers out to all sides, but more so to the south, where a balcony takes advantage of the views. Clerestory glazing at the ground floor wall heads, both internal and external, enhance the impression of the floating upper storey. As well as allowing additional light into the building, this glazing gives views out of, and through, the building at various points.
The interrelation between the house and its garden was an important consideration in the design of both. The garden, envisioned as a series of outdoor rooms, was laid out at the same time as the house. These garden rooms, and views into and out of them, are framed by the house and elements of hard landscaping. Terraces, ramps and steps, particularly around the south-west corner of the house, integrate internal and external living areas. The treatment of the first floor living room terrace, with its pergola and stair, is a nod to Patrick Gwynne’s The Homewood, 1938-9, a building Beryl studied as a student at Kingston.
High Bank illustrates that a small budget, intelligently used, can result in an inventive work of modern domestic architecture. There is a close attention to practical detail, stylishly executed. It is a house of subtle virtues which demonstrates the truth behind the ethos of its architects, that good design does not cost money.
John Arthur Cecil Higgins (1928-1974) studied at the Architectural Association, qualifying both as an architect and a town planner. Following national service, he joined London County Council’s newly formed General Division of architects in 1953, where he was to meet his future wife. Shortly after his marriage to Beryl in 1957, he qualified as a landscape architect and went on to become Principal Landscape Architect to the Department of the Environment.
Beryl Ruby Higgins (née Cook 1928-2022) studied at Kingston School of Art, where she qualified as an architect. She worked for Paddington Borough Council from 1950 before joining the General Division at LCC in 1953. Beryl left the LCC to start a family in 1959. She never returned to architecture professionally, instead she committed the rest of her working life, which stretched into her 90s, to the study of local history through work with various Surrey-based historical and archaeological groups.
Details
House, 1966-1967 by Beryl and John Higgins.
MATERIALS: steel frame and dark brown brick to ground floor, load-bearing light-weight thermal block clad in brown hexagonal hung tiles to first floor. Internal walls are of plastered blockwork. Glazing is generally held in its original aluminium frames with sliding double-glazed sashes which can be lifted out for cleaning. On the first floor these are held in timber sub-frames. There is some use of steel-framed Crittal glazing/glazed doors. There are painted timber balustrades to balconies and external stairs. uPVC replaces painted ship-lap fascias. The roof is felted.
PLAN: the house is rectangular in plan and has two storeys. The roof reads as being flat, although a very subtle pitch is disguised behind the fascia. A small timber-framed and clad structure on the roof houses the water tank and soil stack.
The ground floor is divided into two blocks of unequal size. A wide through-passage divides the two blocks and shelters the building’s entrance. The smaller block to the north contains a workshop and garden store and the larger one to the south contains the principal ground floor accommodation of entrance hall, dining room and stair, study, kitchen, utility room and cloak room.
The upper floor bridges the two blocks below and has a slightly larger footprint. The southern half of the plan is occupied by the living room which opens onto a cantilevered balcony with small conservatory and steps down to the garden below. The north part of the plan is occupied by two bedrooms, a bathroom and three small bedrooms arranged around a space designed as a playroom.
EXTERIOR: the house is strongly rectilinear. The tile-hung first floor cantilevers out on all sides over the brick ground floor; the exposed edges of the supporting steel platform painted black. The cantilever is small to the north, east and west, and substantial to the south. The white boarded fascias (now uPVC) were capped in aluminium; this has been replaced in bitumen felt.
On the first floor, glazing is held in floor-to-ceiling timber screens. These have wide, flat mid-rails, a detail which continues in the rail of the balustrades of square balconies cut back into the volume to east and west. The balustrade rail is held on paired timber posts. The cantilever to the south supports an open, decked balcony and fully glazed conservatory. The fascias at the wall heads extend outward over the balcony, meeting at a corner post and forming a pergola-like structure which frames the volume. A flight of steps leads down to a raised terrace in the garden.
The ground floor has a more understated character. A continuous band of clerestory glazing runs between the brick wall heads and the underside of the steel deck above. The glazing is set back from the outer face of the brick, and the top course of the brickwork is laid at a slight angle to throw water away from the building. This detail recurs in the window sills. Glazing takes the form of horizontal windows cut down from the clerestory. A wide, three-pane sliding glass door opens from the dining room onto a terrace to the west. The principal entrance is beneath the through-passage; this comprises a flush-panel timber door with ribbed-glass side light. A brushed steel letterbox cut into the brickwork disgorges directly onto the desk of the study on the other side of the wall. There is a secondary 'tradesman's' entrance to the east.
INTERIOR: frameless clerestory glazing runs throughout the ground floor internally. An off-centre spine wall faced in vertical timber panelling separates the hall, study and dining room to the east from the service areas to the west. Other walls in these principal ground-floor spaces are plastered to include shadow gaps at their edges. The floor is laid in beech, linoleum in the service areas. Door joinery is flush-panel, a mixture of sliding doors and those on rising hinges which can be easily lifted off to further open-up the space. The kitchen and utility units are a mixture of simple, bespoke, built-in cupboards and standardised, commercially-produced units. An open-tread dog-leg stair with wide, flat, timber balustrade rises up from the dining room to the first-floor living room. There is a large, built-in planter over the half-landing.
The living room is heavily glazed, the flat mid-rail of the timber screens is left unpainted internally with a natural wood finish. This treatment continues to the balustrade around the stair well, which matches the detail of the external balcony balustrades. Sliding aluminium doors open out onto the balcony. A door leads into the small conservatory, where valley gutters on the glazed roof channel water to an internal water butt.
A door leads from the north end of the living room to a hallway from which the bedrooms are reached. The master bedroom has built-in cupboards, a small ensuite shower room and a small balcony facing east (also accessible from the living room). The children’s bedrooms have simple built-in cupboards and are reached across the playroom, which opens onto the small balcony to the west (shared with the guest room). All of the upstairs rooms have simple anodised aluminium lever handles.
SUBSIDIARY STRUCTURES
A brick screen wall runs to the right of the path between the garage and the house. Regular vertical gaps offer glimpses into the garden.
To the south-west of the house, an external stair between ground- and first- floor terraces links the principal interior spaces of the house.
