Heathcote, subsidiary buildings and structures, and entrance walls, Ilkley, Bradford

Summary

House, subsidiary buildings and structures, and entrance walls. 1906-8 by Edwin Lutyens. Guiseley sandstone with Morley ashlar dressings, red Roman pantile roofs. Classical villa with strong Italianate influences from the work of San Micheli, compositional influences from Francois Mansart, and Lutyens own inventiveness.

Description

House, subsidiary buildings and structures, and entrance walls. 1906-8 by Edwin Lutyens. Guiseley sandstone with Morley ashlar dressings, red Roman pantile roofs. Classical villa with strong Italianate influences from the work of Sanmicheli, compositional influences from Francois Mansart, and Lutyens own inventiveness.

PLAN: rigorously symmetrical house with a three-storey central block of three bays to north and south sides with hipped roof, flanked by single-bay, two-storey pavilions with separate hipped roofs projecting forward one bay on both north and south sides. Single-bay, single-storey outer pavilions with hipped roofs flanking the north ends of the pavilions. Partial basement on east side of house.

A central axis is avoided with the central front door leading into a vestibule running to the right. This opens into a circular lobby for the main hall, centrally placed on the south, garden side, and the main stair hall on the west side. In the north-west corner opening into the single-storey pavilion is the billiard room. In the opposing north-east corner is the service wing with the kitchen in the single-storey pavilion. Off the main hall is the sitting room in south-west corner and the dining room in south-east corner. The service staircase is on the north side of the dining room. There are five bedrooms on the first floor with two bathrooms (one now converted to contain a modern staircase to the second floor). The second floor also had five bedrooms, now reconfigured.

The house stands on an approximately rectangular plot located between Kings Road to the north and Grove Road to the south. The front entrance is off Kings Road with entrance walls, piers and double gates opening into a semi-circular forecourt. The entrance walls are flanked by Heathcote Cottages on the north-east side and the motor house and workshop building on the north-west side. On the south, garden side is a terrace, steps and two reflecting canals, apsidal garden shelters set against the east and west boundary walls closing the terrace vistas, garden steps and piers in the garden, and piers and a gate forming the south, garden entrance from Grove Road.

MAIN HOUSE:
EXTERIOR: the north, main entrance elevation has ashlar quoining to the three-storey central block and the projecting two-storey pavilions with banded rustication on the ground floor of both and hipped, pantile roofs. Between the ground and first floors is a moulded, ashlar band with blind panels. The eaves level of the two-storey pavilions is continued across the front of the central block with a shallow roof of pitched pantiles over and the recessed second floor is in effect an attic. The ground floor of the central block has three round-headed, blind arches with stepped voussoirs and giant keystones, and the single return bays of the pavilions have similar arches. Set within the central arch is a rusticated, round-headed door architrave with panelled double doors reached by a semi-circular flight of shallow stone steps. The archway to each side contains a corbelled and rusticated, round-headed window architrave with small-pane leaded windows. Beneath are small, blind windows with giant keystones. The returns have similarly detailed windows. The north elevations of the pavilions each have two small, rectangular windows with giant keystones and voussoirs and small-pane leaded glazing. On the first floor of the central block are three segmental-arched windows with eared architraves and giant keystones with narrow-coursed stonework between framed by ashlar with rusticated verticals. The first floor of the pavilions is similarly detailed with a single window to the return faces and the north elevations. The attic storey of the central block has three square windows with moulded ashlar frames and small-pane leaded windows. There are very tall idiosyncratic paired chimneys in the form of doorways with banded rustication (some open) to the centre of the main block to the rear of the ridge and to the outer edge of each pavilion. The single-storey outer pavilions are situated behind the courtyard walls. Both have hipped, pantiled roofs.

The south, garden elevation has a less austere appearance. The three-storey central block and projecting two-storey pavilions have ashlar quoining and banded rustication on the ground floor. The central block has a deep, hipped pantile roof and the first and second floors slightly recess twice towards the centre with small hips to the roof and the eaves lifted in two successive steps. Between the ground and first floors is a continuous cornice with a triglyph frieze supporting a shallow, pitched pantile roof. The cornice is supported by attached Doric pillars and pilasters which disappear into the rustication on the south elevations of the pavilions. These elevations are modelled on Sanmicheli's Porta Palio in Verona. The effect is of a screen behind which each pavilion has a central window and flanking blind panels. The windows have slightly stepped voussoirs with relief-carved giant keystones. The ground floor of the central block has a similarly detailed window in the recessed central bay flanked by two smaller windows with giant keystones. The outer bays each have a wide doorway with a double-stepped architrave with relief-carved keystones, and timber and glazed double doors. In the centre of the first floor and rising through to second-floor level is a tall, round-headed balcony doorway with a shallow balcony with iron railings and a relief-carved swag over. To each side is a first-floor, segmental-arched window with eared architrave and relief-carved keystone. The eaves level of the pavilions is continued across the outer bays of the central block with a shallow pantile roof to each bay. In the centre of the south elevation of both pavilions is a similar first-floor window flanked by circular niches containing lead urns. The attic level of the central block has a small square window to both outer bays and a central square window above the moulded eaves course. There are similar tall, paired chimneys to the outer edge of each pavilion. The set-back, single-storey pavilions have Venetian windows in their south elevations, that to the east side with a blind central niche for a statue rather than a window.

INTERIOR: the interior retains many of Lutyens original fixtures and fittings including panelled doors, window shutters, decorative grilles for the air ducted heating system set in walls and panelling, and built-in furniture. The rectangular entrance vestibule has quadripartite vaults to the ceiling, walls panelled in Morley ashlar stone with a fireplace in the south wall and a doorway with fielded double doors to the right, and paired doors in the end walls. The floor is paved in white marble with panels off pink granite replacing the original herringbone red brickwork. The circular lobby and main staircase hall have geometrically-patterned marble floors of purple-veined fleur de peche panels with white marble borders. The doorway from the staircase hall into the lobby has a segmental pediment with a cherub head on an Ionic scroll surmounted by a capital H. Beneath the staircase on the north side is a round-headed apse with two angled doorways with relief-carved semicircular tympanums, leading into the billiard room and a lavatory and cloakroom. The open-well staircase rises in five flights with quarter landings. It has black marble treads and a delicate, scrolled iron balustrade. The ceiling is coffered below which are fluted Ionic pilasters to the first-floor walls, those round the staircase rising from a black marble band level with the top treads, and a landing arcade of fluted Ionic columns with scrolled and pilastered iron balustrades between. The billiard room has a wooden floor, walnut panelled walls and a sail dome over the site of the table, which was lit on three sides by Venetian windows. On the south side is a white marble, bolection-moulded fireplace. The hall has a tripartite division with a higher ceiling to the centre with a bold, coffered design and a segmental apse at the inner end of the room, which has fluted Ionic pilasters between the bolection-moulded marble fireplace and two built-in china cabinets with small-pane glazing. The lower side aisles have barrel-vaulted ceilings and are separated from the centre by arcades of paired Siberian green marble Tuscan Doric columns with arched openings. Their floors are geometric purple-veined fleur de peche marble with white marble borders, and each has a built-in china cabinet. The sitting room has panelled walls and a coved ceiling. There is a pedimented overmantel (originally with a mirror) above the fireplace which has a white marble mantelpiece and eared architrave with a dark-grey marble pulvinated frieze with a central block of orange-veined marble. There are wooden carved scrolls to each side of the architrave. The polished steel fire surround is a later addition. To each side of the fireplace are built-in cupboards with drawers and doors above with small-pane bevelled mirror glass. The left-hand top drawer opens down to form a writing slope. The dining room has panelled walls and a dentil cornice. In the centre of the east wall is a very large fireplace with an elaborate bolection-moulded surround of white and purple-veined fleur de peche marble, which is also used to panel the polygonal fire recess. There is a small brass grate in the centre. On each side of the window in the south wall is a built-in cupboard with small-pane glazing. The north wall has twin recessed doors, the left-hand one a cupboard and the right-hand one opening into the service wing. The service wing has two-panelled doors. The service staircase rises in a long flight broken by two landings before curving round onto the first floor. It has a Chinese Chippendale pierced balustrade and screen with a ramped handrail. The kitchen floor is half slate-flagged and half wooden parquet. The butler's pantry has built-in cupboards, the upper ones with small-pane glazed doors, a safe, and a small, corner fireplace. The corridor has small, hexagonal red tiles on the floor which also wrap round as a skirting. Similar flooring remains in the cloakroom next to the billiard room.

The first floor contains five bedrooms, each with individual fireplaces. The NW bedroom has a fireplace with a sandstone surround with pulvinated frieze and black and white marble panels in a geometrical pattern. The room has a double-moulded cornice. The NE bedroom has a sandstone surround of architrave, frieze and mantelshelf with white, veined marble panels. The room has a double-moulded cornice. The SE bedroom has a broad fireplace recess flanked by panelled pilasters. The fire surround has a beige marble bolection-moulded surround with a panel over and flanked by splayed cupboards with flush, panelled doors. The room has a deep, coved ceiling. The SW room has a fireplace recess fully glazed with small, square, blue-green tiles including the hearth with a contemporary electric coal effect fire. The room has a double-moulded cornice. The principal bedroom is in the centre of the south side of the house and is raised over the hall below, with a short flight of steps up to the doorway on the east side. The north wall has a full-width, curved recess containing a central fireplace with a surround of small, square blue-green tiles. To each side is a recessed cupboard with curved, three fielded-panel doors. The room has a double-moulded cornice. Between the principal bedroom and the SE bedroom is a bathroom with a quadripartite groined plaster vault. The walls are tiled with small, square green tiles and floor has small, hexagonal red tiles. Similar wall and floor tiles are found in a former bathroom between the principal bedroom and SW bedroom, now containing a modern, timber staircase up to the second floor (the tiling to the bathrooms is repeated in the bathrooms at Marshcourt, 1901-5). On the north side of the building is a segmental barrel-vaulted corridor with panelled walls and a fireplace in the south wall with a surround of white and purple marble. This is flanked by two round-headed doorways with glazed doors with timber tracery, curved and arched to fit the curved door head.

The original staircase between the first and second floors has wooden stick balusters and a swept wooden handrail, ramped on the second-floor landing. A mid-point landing has a set-back timber balustrade with turned balusters facing a full-height window in the east wall which rises through the first and second floors. In the centre of the south side of the second floor is a box room with an exposed timber framing to the roof with closely-spaced common rafters, a purlin to each side and king-post trusses with splayed struts.

The basement has a series of rooms opening off a circulation corridor. The wine cellar has a wide, arched opening with an iron-barred screen with a security gate.

EXCLUSIONS: the entrance vestibule screen with glazed, aluminium doors, secondary glazing, strip lighting and under-drawing ceiling panels, and wiring trunking all relating to the office use between 1958 and 2013 are not of special architectural or historic interest and are excluded from the listing.

HEATHCOTE COTTAGES:
EXTERIOR: this pair of cottages fronts King's Road with a symmetrical north elevation. The long, rectangular block stands on the north-east side of the main house and abuts the entrance wall. It is of two storeys in narrow, shaped and coursed rubblestone with ashlar dressings forming a plinth, quoins of banded rustication, and a moulded cornice. It has a hipped, pantile roof with two stone ridge stacks. In the centre of the elevation is a round-headed tunnel entrance with banded rustication to the jambs and giant voussoirs, which leads to the entrance doorways in the south elevation. This is flanked by two square, first-floor windows with plain ashlar surrounds. Towards the outer edges of the ground floor are small, paired, square windows with similar surrounds.

Interior not inspected.

ENTRANCE WALLS, PIERS AND GATES AND FORECOURT TO NORTH OF HEATHCOTE:
Facing onto Kings Road is a high entrance wall of narrow, shaped and coursed rubblestone with ashlar coping and banded, rusticated quoins at the junction of the semi-circular curve to the central gateway and at the right-hand end. The gateway has tall ashlar piers topped by stone urns. Decorative ironwork double gates replace the original solid panelled timber gates in the Parisian 'Hotel particulier' manner (Country Life photograph held in NMR and described on the 1976 List Entry; LE No.1133519). On the left-hand side of the wall are two round-headed openings flanking a smaller, square opening, all with giant, banded voussoirs. Recessed inside the round-headed openings are segmental-arched windows (lighting the laundry). Within the entrance gateway is a semi-circular forecourt enclosed by walls which extend from the house and converge in a semi-circle on the entrance. There are east and west openings in the forecourt walls with stone piers topped by urns and decorative iron double gates. In the centre of the central, circular grassed area is a circular planter with moulded edging stones, which is historic fabric but not part of Lutyens original design (does not appear on 1910 Country Life photograph).

MOTOR HOUSE AND WORKSHOP BUILDING:
EXTERIOR: this low, single-storey, rectangular building stands on the north-west side of the main house fronting onto King's Road. It is slightly recessed from the corner of the entrance wall, and is built of narrow, shaped and coursed rubblestone with an ashlar frieze band and a moulded cornice. It has a hipped, pantile roof with a stone ridge stack. A central window rises through the frieze band and is flanked by lower, narrow side-lights. On each side are two evenly spaced, square windows, all with leaded casements. The south elevation lies in an inner yard reached through the west gateway in the courtyard wall. At the left-hand end is the motor house with a wide rectangular opening with a set of three timber and small-pane glazed double doors (possible replacements) beneath a deep, cantilevered, glazed canopy with a RSJ frame set into the wall of the adjoining property on the left-hand side and now supported by a slender, square column on the right-hand side. To the right of the motor house are two wide, tall doorways with a domestic doorway at the right-hand end.

INTERIOR: the rooms are faced in painted brick. The motor house has a wooden block floor with an inspection pit and decorative iron floor grilles next to the walls. There are two RSJs running across the motor house set in brick piers on the north side and supported by slender iron columns on the south side adjacent to the double doors, which also support the cantilevered RSJs of the external canopy. The ceiling is boarded. The workshops have wooden parquet flooring. The interconnecting doorways have timber board doors.

SERVICE BUILDINGS TO REAR OF ENTRANCE AND FORECOURT WALLS:
EXTERIOR: between the west end of Heathcote Cottages and the rear of the eastern arc of the forecourt wall is the former laundry. It is built of narrow, shaped and coursed rubblestone with an ashlar parapet. The south entrance has double doors and two adjoining windows beneath monolithic ashlar lintels. The timber and glazed double doors and the timber window frames are modern replacements. Between the east end of the motor house and workshop building and the rear of the western arc of the forecourt wall is a small yard with enclosing stone walls entered through a round-headed opening on the west side. Within the yard is a lean-to glasshouse built against the rear of the entrance wall with cold frames in front. In the corner angle is a shed with a second, smaller shed built against the north side of the south yard wall. On the south side of the south yard wall is a second lean-to glasshouse with a sunken doorway at the west end.

INTERIOR: only the former laundry was inspected. It contains no original fixtures or fittings of interest.

EXCLUSIONS: the fixtures and fittings in the former laundry are not of special architectural or historic interest and are excluded from the listing.

TERRACE ON SOUTH SIDE OF HEATHCOTE WITH STEPS AND CANALS:
The axial terrace, steps and canals are part of the design of the house by Lutyens and contemporary with it. The terrace runs along the south front of the house. Its surface is constructed of stone slabs with geometric inset, textured panels of closely-set narrow stones laid on end. Walls are of narrow, shaped and coursed rubblestone with ashlar detailing. The upper stage is bordered by three shallow steps which are concave to the centre of the house. The lower stage links with walkways to the two, boundary apsidal garden shelters and has a parapet wall with five banded openings in front of the house, three with balconies with decorative, cast-iron railings. At the end of this central parapet are steps down to the garden in four short flights with semi-circular steps to the final stage which are aligned with the outer balconies of the terrace. Bounding the upper flights of steps are parapet walls. On the south, garden side are two oblong canals flanking an area of geometrical beds and paving. Their curved, north ends are encompassed by rusticated, ashlar detailing to the parapet walls with fountains in the form of relief-carved lion heads.

APSIDAL GARDEN SHELTER ON BOUNDARY WALL EAST OF HEATHCOTE:
The apsidal garden shelter is part of the design of the house by Lutyens and contemporary with it, closing the eastern vista along the south terrace. The shallow, rectangular building is constructed of narrow, shaped and coursed rubblestone with a slight batter to the side walls and red tiles to the gable. The inset, round-headed apse is flanked by ashlar pilasters with a moulded impost band and moulded, ashlar voussoirs encompassing a sunburst of shaped rubblestone. There is a fixed semi-circular bench with timber panelling rising up to the impost band.

APSIDAL GARDEN SHELTER ON BOUNDARY WALL WEST OF HEATHCOTE:
The apsidal garden shelter is part of the design of the house by Lutyens and contemporary with it, closing the western vista along the south terrace. The shallow rectangular building is a mirror-image of the east apsidal shelter, constructed of similar materials with a round-headed apse with a sunburst of shaped rubblestone above a fixed semi-circular bench with timber panelling rising to the impost band. Detached, Tuscan columns flank the apse and are linked to it by a timber pergola.

STEPS AND PIERS IN GARDEN SOUTH OF HEATHCOTE:
The axial steps and piers towards the southern end of the garden south of Heathcote are by Lutyens and contemporary with the house, the piers framing the view of the house from the south entrance to the garden. The steps are of the Bramante type in two semi-circular flights, the lower convex and the upper concave. In between is the base for a sundial which was mounted on a moulded baluster (now missing). The steps are flanked by rectangular ashlar piers supporting moulded, oval flower basins.

PIERS AND GATE FORMING THE SOUTH ENTRANCE TO THE GARDEN OF HEATHCOTE FROM GROVE ROAD:
The axial south garden gateway is by Lutyens and contemporary with the house. A decorative ironwork gate is flanked by square ashlar piers, originally topped by banded spheres (now missing).

EXCLUSIONS: the small, flat-roofed building on the north side of the east carpark and a similar, small, flat-roofed building on the south side of the motor house and workshop yard, both of which are modern additions, are not of special architectural or historic interest and are excluded from the listing.

Pursuant to s.1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’) it is declared that the items listed under the EXCLUSIONS paragraphs above are not of special architectural or historic interest.

History

Edwin Lutyens was commissioned to design Heathcote in 1906 by John Thomas Hemingway, owner of Bradford wool exporters 'George Richardson & Co'. The site was approximately four acres in size in a suburban location in Ilkley, West Yorkshire. Hemingway reportedly gave Lutyens complete artistic control. The villa he designed, inspired by the work of Michele Sanmicheli in Verona, was markedly different from his earlier, Arts and Crafts vernacular houses in rural locations. Lutyens also designed the built-in furniture, and reportedly chose every hanging and carpet. The garden was designed in collaboration with Gertrude Jekyll.

Heathcote remained as a private family residence until 1958 when it became prestige offices. In 2013 it again became a private residence.

Edwin Lutyens (1869-1944) commenced practice in 1889 when he also first met his mentor, Gertrude Jekyll for whom he designed Munstead Wood near Godalming in 1895-7. Over the next few years he designed a series of houses in a romantic, vernacular style, confirming his reputation. In 1906 Heathcote broke with this style in its symmetrical, Classical design. Later Edwardian houses in England used a simpler neo-Georgian vocabulary, but his designs for New Delhi from 1912, particularly the Viceroy's house, used a monumental classicism with detailing from Mughal, Hindu, and Buddhist architecture. Lutyens also used an abstracted monumental classicism for the Cenotaph and the Memorial Arches at Etaples and Thiepval to the fallen of the First World War. He used St Paul's Cathedral as the basis for his 1929-40 unfinished design for the Roman Catholic Cathedral of Liverpool. Lutyens was knighted in 1918.

Reasons for Listing

Heathcote, its subsidiary buildings and structures, and entrance walls of 1906-8 by Edwin Lutyens are listed at Grade I for the following principal reasons:
* Architect: the house and its subsidiary buildings and structures were designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, one of the foremost British architects of the very late C19 and the early C20 whose pre-eminence is acknowledged in the large number of highly graded buildings to his name as well as the Grade I listed Cenotaph in Whitehall, one of the most universally admired war memorials in the world;
* Historic interest: Heathcote is a pivotal building for Lutyens, being the first building in which he fully embraced a more challenging Classical form of architecture and as such is of great significance in his career;
* Architectural interest: based on Classical forms, Heathcote is an imaginative and inventive essay in Mannerism which shines with Lutyens' very particular brand of creativeness, expressed in two very different main elevations; that to the north, entrance side is austerely formal with a determinedly urban character, while the south, garden side is much livelier and busy incorporating a witty reinterpretation of San Micheli's Porta Palio in Verona;
* Composition: Lutyens applied a formal, symmetrical layout to the whole site, designing a forecourt with flanking subsidiary buildings on the north, entrance side and strategically placed hard landscaping features and structures on the south, garden side which close or enhance vistas and create a strong axial line to complement the Classical symmetry of the main house;
* Materials: a sumptuousness is achieved through the quality and craftsmanship of the materials, externally through the attention to detail and carefully considered juxtaposition and sizing of sandstone and ashlar in the buildings and structures, and internally through the use of beautiful, coloured marbles particularly for floors and fireplaces, and other finishes such as the walnut panelling in the billiard room;
* Planning: the house displays a mastery typical of Lutyens with clearly separated functions, circuitous routes, and an impressive staircase hall containing a grand, black marble staircase;
* Interior: Heathcote remains largely intact with many features of interest, notably the fireplaces, which are individually designed for each room, and a significant amount of fixed furniture designed for the house by Lutyens including a number of china and display cabinets and built-in cupboards and drawers with an integral writing slope in the sitting room.

External Links

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