DOI Artikel:
Triggs, Harry Inigo: Small country houses and cottages
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.41879#0024
SMALL COUNTRY HOUSES AND COT-
TAGES. BYH. INIGOTRIGGS, A.R.I.B.A.
MODERN domestic architecture is a subject about which
so much has been written that it would he difficult, if not
indeed impossible, to avoid going over ground that is already
familiar to most of those who take an interest in it. The
desire to settle in the country has led to a considerable increase in the
number of those who wish to build their own houses. The changes
that have led up to this state of things are partly economic and partly
aesthetic. The day has now gone by when the letting of a thoroughly
well-built country house at a rental ot over fifty pounds a year can
be made a sufficiently profitable investment to induce a speculating
builder to risk the necessary capital. A country house that will bring
in a rental of fifty pounds a year involves a total outlay for building,
land, and fencing of at least one thousand pounds, and 5 per cent, is not
enough inducement to make such an investment worth while. If such
a house remains empty for one year in seven, and allowing the very
moderate sum of five pounds a year for repairs and redecoration, the
return is reduced to 3^per cent. The speculative builder’s only chance
of making a profit is by selling the house whilst new and by the
creation of a ground rent. Unfortunately the purchaser of such a house
can only judge his bargain by external appearance, and as it is well-
nigh impossible to draw up an effective guarantee, the quality of the
timber and the solidity of the brickwork must remain largely a matter
of chance, unless he has been able to inspect the house during erection.
Thedevelopment of
gardensuburbs, star-
ting with the laying
out of the Bedford
Park Estate in the
west of London
some thirty years
ago, has led to such
an improvement in
the design of small
houses, that the diffi-
culties of finding a
well - designed and
well-planned house
in the suburbs have
considerably de-
creased. Butbeyond
the outskirts of our
large towns the case “ garden hill,” petersfield. unsworth and triggs, architects
12
TAGES. BYH. INIGOTRIGGS, A.R.I.B.A.
MODERN domestic architecture is a subject about which
so much has been written that it would he difficult, if not
indeed impossible, to avoid going over ground that is already
familiar to most of those who take an interest in it. The
desire to settle in the country has led to a considerable increase in the
number of those who wish to build their own houses. The changes
that have led up to this state of things are partly economic and partly
aesthetic. The day has now gone by when the letting of a thoroughly
well-built country house at a rental ot over fifty pounds a year can
be made a sufficiently profitable investment to induce a speculating
builder to risk the necessary capital. A country house that will bring
in a rental of fifty pounds a year involves a total outlay for building,
land, and fencing of at least one thousand pounds, and 5 per cent, is not
enough inducement to make such an investment worth while. If such
a house remains empty for one year in seven, and allowing the very
moderate sum of five pounds a year for repairs and redecoration, the
return is reduced to 3^per cent. The speculative builder’s only chance
of making a profit is by selling the house whilst new and by the
creation of a ground rent. Unfortunately the purchaser of such a house
can only judge his bargain by external appearance, and as it is well-
nigh impossible to draw up an effective guarantee, the quality of the
timber and the solidity of the brickwork must remain largely a matter
of chance, unless he has been able to inspect the house during erection.
Thedevelopment of
gardensuburbs, star-
ting with the laying
out of the Bedford
Park Estate in the
west of London
some thirty years
ago, has led to such
an improvement in
the design of small
houses, that the diffi-
culties of finding a
well - designed and
well-planned house
in the suburbs have
considerably de-
creased. Butbeyond
the outskirts of our
large towns the case “ garden hill,” petersfield. unsworth and triggs, architects
12