DOI issue:
No. 73 (April 1899)
DOI article:Townsend, Horace: Notes on country and suburban houses designed by C. F. A. Voysey
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19231#0174
Country and Suburban Houses
feature of the plan is the care with which children's
and servants' quarters are cut off from the other
part of the house.
In Mr. Rickard's house at Windermere (page
159) we have an ideal bachelor's country quarters,
the plan so arranged that all the service of the
house can be comfortably carried on, access gained
to store cupboard, and so on, without infringing on
the bachelor's private domain.
The site of this house, also, Mr. Voysey charac-
terised as superb, and assures us his chief care was
to endeavour to harmonise his house with its sur-
roundings. A fine site, in his estimation, helps to
create a beautiful house if the architect is careful
not to come into competition with the country
surrounding him, but endeavours to subject himself
to nature's architecture. It is, I think, this con-
stant subjection to nature as the chief source of
inspiration which is one of Mr. Voysey's leading
characteristics as a decorative designer; and one
can see by studying these views of Mr. Rickard's
house how admirably he has applied the same
principle to his architecture. One can imagine
how this design, with its mingling of reticence and
modest assertion, would appear to be a part of its
surroundings. It is this appearance of natural-
ness, of having grown by degrees rather than hav-
ing been put there at a single stroke, which is the
greatest charm a house in the country can possess,
whether it be a simple Surrey cottage or a weather-
stained grey stone hall with the traditions of cen-
turies clinging around it. Reverting once more
to this Windermere house of Mr. Voysey's, it is
finished in his favourite rough-cast, roofed with
green slates, while the chimney-pots which crown
the sturdy chimney-stacks are coloured black, no
shade of red having by experiment been found to
properly harmonise.
Travelling south to the pleasant lanes and well-
wooded heights of Sussex and Surrey, we have first
Mr. Newbold's house at Westmeston, the lower
view of which, as given on the accompanying full-
page illustration (page 163), shows us Mr. Voysey
at his very best. There are few who could have
treated the long stretch of unbroken and unrelieved
wall space so efficiently, in the relations of wall
and window openings, as here appears, while even
what one might otherwise feel inclined to stigmatise
as the baldness of the porch appears to fit naturally
into the scheme. Effective, too, is the garden view
of the same wing of the building, with its arched
openings—utilitarian, yet strikingly decorative—
which give light and air to the tradesmen's entrance
corridor. Turning to the plan of this house, we
find the staircase well lit by the lantern-light, which
offers a picturesque external feature.
I may say in passing that Mr. Voysey charac-
terises himself as a " stickler for light," though, by
those who lend a mere surface consideration to his
work, he is often found fault with for the smallness
of his windows. He points out, however, that
such critics do not take into consideration the size
and height of the rooms these long low windows
are intended to give light to. In proportion to a
COUNTRY HOUSE
160
DESIGNED BY C. F. A. VOYSEY
feature of the plan is the care with which children's
and servants' quarters are cut off from the other
part of the house.
In Mr. Rickard's house at Windermere (page
159) we have an ideal bachelor's country quarters,
the plan so arranged that all the service of the
house can be comfortably carried on, access gained
to store cupboard, and so on, without infringing on
the bachelor's private domain.
The site of this house, also, Mr. Voysey charac-
terised as superb, and assures us his chief care was
to endeavour to harmonise his house with its sur-
roundings. A fine site, in his estimation, helps to
create a beautiful house if the architect is careful
not to come into competition with the country
surrounding him, but endeavours to subject himself
to nature's architecture. It is, I think, this con-
stant subjection to nature as the chief source of
inspiration which is one of Mr. Voysey's leading
characteristics as a decorative designer; and one
can see by studying these views of Mr. Rickard's
house how admirably he has applied the same
principle to his architecture. One can imagine
how this design, with its mingling of reticence and
modest assertion, would appear to be a part of its
surroundings. It is this appearance of natural-
ness, of having grown by degrees rather than hav-
ing been put there at a single stroke, which is the
greatest charm a house in the country can possess,
whether it be a simple Surrey cottage or a weather-
stained grey stone hall with the traditions of cen-
turies clinging around it. Reverting once more
to this Windermere house of Mr. Voysey's, it is
finished in his favourite rough-cast, roofed with
green slates, while the chimney-pots which crown
the sturdy chimney-stacks are coloured black, no
shade of red having by experiment been found to
properly harmonise.
Travelling south to the pleasant lanes and well-
wooded heights of Sussex and Surrey, we have first
Mr. Newbold's house at Westmeston, the lower
view of which, as given on the accompanying full-
page illustration (page 163), shows us Mr. Voysey
at his very best. There are few who could have
treated the long stretch of unbroken and unrelieved
wall space so efficiently, in the relations of wall
and window openings, as here appears, while even
what one might otherwise feel inclined to stigmatise
as the baldness of the porch appears to fit naturally
into the scheme. Effective, too, is the garden view
of the same wing of the building, with its arched
openings—utilitarian, yet strikingly decorative—
which give light and air to the tradesmen's entrance
corridor. Turning to the plan of this house, we
find the staircase well lit by the lantern-light, which
offers a picturesque external feature.
I may say in passing that Mr. Voysey charac-
terises himself as a " stickler for light," though, by
those who lend a mere surface consideration to his
work, he is often found fault with for the smallness
of his windows. He points out, however, that
such critics do not take into consideration the size
and height of the rooms these long low windows
are intended to give light to. In proportion to a
COUNTRY HOUSE
160
DESIGNED BY C. F. A. VOYSEY