DOI Heft:
Great Britain
DOI Artikel:British domestic architecture: Notes on the illustrations
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42698#0015
BRITISH DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE
NOTES ON THE ILLUSTRATIONS
THE two blocks of small cottages at Walgrave and in Bucking-
hamshire (pp. 13 and 14), designed by Mr. Allen for the use
of country workers, approach as near the minimum as regards
accommodation and cost as dwellings well can. True, each
cottage contains on the ground floor a small bathroom—an unusual
feature in similar work—but the owners in either case consider the pro-
vision of such to be a necessity rather than a luxury. There are no out-
houses, the necessary offices being included in the main building.
Fitments, built in as fixtures, include a copper and sink (with a large
draining-board) in sculleries, a dresser and cupboard in each living-room,
and a good-sized cupboard upstairs, where there are three bedrooms.
Externally, the keynote is simplicity, which makes for fitness and
economy in first cost and upkeep. The roofs, unbroken from end to
end, are covered with local tiles, and the bricks, also made in the neigh-
bourhood, were picked for facings, those of an indifferent colour being
clothed with roughcast. The cottages cost under each.
Keldy Castle, Yorkshire (p. 15), was originally a moorland farm-house,
to which was added, before the middle of the nineteenth century, a
square block, in the battlemented stucco manner, which converted it
into a shooting-box, and gave it its name of “ castle.” A kitchen wing
had been added before the property was acquired by its present owner.
In 1906-7 a drawing-room wing was added to the west of the south
front of the castellated part of the house, with an archway between the
two which gave access to the entrance, then on the west. All this older
part has recently been taken down and rebuilt, and joined up to the
drawing-room wing. The entrance is now on the east side of the house,
the new rooms on the south front (from the east) being the hall,
smoking-room, and schoolroom. The tower behind contains the prin-
cipal staircase, with a service stair in an attached turret. The hall is
panelled in oak. The dado panelling of the smoking-room came from
Dr. Phene’s collection, and originally (it is believed) from one of Wren’s
City Churches; it is very similar in character to some work in St. Mary
Abchurch (see “ A. A. Sketch Book,” 1911). The new work has been
designed by Mr. John Bilson.
“ Blythe Court ” (p. 16) occupies a site in the well-known residential
suburb of Edgbaston, within two and a half miles of the centre of the
City of Birmingham. The house is built of bricks drawn from yards
in what is known as the Black Country, about seven miles away. These
bricks are extremely hard, and vary in colour from a plum red to a dark
purple. The roofs are covered with old tiles. The lead-work to the bay
window on the entrance front is of milled lead, with a repousse pattern
upon it.
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NOTES ON THE ILLUSTRATIONS
THE two blocks of small cottages at Walgrave and in Bucking-
hamshire (pp. 13 and 14), designed by Mr. Allen for the use
of country workers, approach as near the minimum as regards
accommodation and cost as dwellings well can. True, each
cottage contains on the ground floor a small bathroom—an unusual
feature in similar work—but the owners in either case consider the pro-
vision of such to be a necessity rather than a luxury. There are no out-
houses, the necessary offices being included in the main building.
Fitments, built in as fixtures, include a copper and sink (with a large
draining-board) in sculleries, a dresser and cupboard in each living-room,
and a good-sized cupboard upstairs, where there are three bedrooms.
Externally, the keynote is simplicity, which makes for fitness and
economy in first cost and upkeep. The roofs, unbroken from end to
end, are covered with local tiles, and the bricks, also made in the neigh-
bourhood, were picked for facings, those of an indifferent colour being
clothed with roughcast. The cottages cost under each.
Keldy Castle, Yorkshire (p. 15), was originally a moorland farm-house,
to which was added, before the middle of the nineteenth century, a
square block, in the battlemented stucco manner, which converted it
into a shooting-box, and gave it its name of “ castle.” A kitchen wing
had been added before the property was acquired by its present owner.
In 1906-7 a drawing-room wing was added to the west of the south
front of the castellated part of the house, with an archway between the
two which gave access to the entrance, then on the west. All this older
part has recently been taken down and rebuilt, and joined up to the
drawing-room wing. The entrance is now on the east side of the house,
the new rooms on the south front (from the east) being the hall,
smoking-room, and schoolroom. The tower behind contains the prin-
cipal staircase, with a service stair in an attached turret. The hall is
panelled in oak. The dado panelling of the smoking-room came from
Dr. Phene’s collection, and originally (it is believed) from one of Wren’s
City Churches; it is very similar in character to some work in St. Mary
Abchurch (see “ A. A. Sketch Book,” 1911). The new work has been
designed by Mr. John Bilson.
“ Blythe Court ” (p. 16) occupies a site in the well-known residential
suburb of Edgbaston, within two and a half miles of the centre of the
City of Birmingham. The house is built of bricks drawn from yards
in what is known as the Black Country, about seven miles away. These
bricks are extremely hard, and vary in colour from a plum red to a dark
purple. The roofs are covered with old tiles. The lead-work to the bay
window on the entrance front is of milled lead, with a repousse pattern
upon it.
1