Summary

A detached house built in 1894 to designs by Charles FA Voysey for Emslie J Horniman; extended and altered by Voysey in 1898, 1904, 1907, 1911 and 1916, with other later C20 alterations.

Description

A detached house built in 1894 to designs by Charles FA Voysey for Emslie J Horniman; extended and altered by Voysey in 1898, 1904, 1907, 1911 and 1916, with other later C20 alterations.

MATERIALS: the building has whitewashed roughcast walls, Westmorland graduated slate roofs, a half-timbered north-west dormer and timber window frames and casements. Architectural elements such as eaves and canopy brackets, window and door furniture are of wrought iron. Built-in joinery is of timber.

PLAN: the building is L- shaped in plan with the living area orientated south-east and a service wing to the north-west.

EXTERIOR: Woodlake (formerly Lowicks House) is a building of two storeys and attic with battered, coupled corner buttresses and large chimneys, one battered, the other rectangular. The tall, hipped roof has deeply projecting, sprocketed eaves carried away from the walls on thin iron brackets with scrolled ends. The eaves and the white wall surfaces are pierced by horizontal bands of multi-paned casement windows. A number of the casements have graduated panes of glass, miniature hinged opening lights within metal frames, heart-shaped fixings and long, iron internal stays.

The north-west elevation (original entrance front) is articulated by a large, central half-timbered dormer, with a 5-light casement window surmounted by a half-hipped roof. The timber corner posts extend below to form the mullions of the first floor through-eaves dormer, which has been enlarged by two lights to the south-west. The half-glazed front door below is flanked by small casement windows and protected by a flat canopy secured by a decorative scrolled ironwork stay. The door has a ‘Lowicks’ name plate in copper repoussé. There is a projecting, single-storey square bay at the western end. The ground floor features are unified by a continuous drip course. An iron boot scraper is located next to the front door. There is a projecting single and two storey service wing at the north end.

The south-east (garden) elevation has a full-width, flat-roofed ground floor projection composed of a late C20 enclosed veranda with multi-pane windows and doors to the west, a central late C19 projecting bay with casement windows and an early C20 loggia supported on 3 columns to the east. There is a late C20 glazed door behind the loggia. The roof slope above is punctuated by three flat-roofed horizontal-style dormers, aligned with the eaves line. There is a massive battered, ridge stack to the north-east.

The south-west elevation is articulated by a single storey, polygonal bay window at the south end, with a late C20 casement window adjacent to it. On the first floor there are two, late C20 4-light dormers set below the eaves, with a central flat-roofed, 5-light dormer above, surmounted by a tall, rectangular chimneystack.

On the north-east elevation, the hipped end of the main house of 1894 has two ground floor casement windows under a continuous drip moulding. There is a 6-light horizontal-style dormer on the first floor aligned with the eaves line and a small 3-light dormer above. The extended early C20 service range to the north-west has a half-glazed entrance door in an arched porch recess beneath a small triangular dormer and a late C20 box-style dormer. The range terminates in a two-storied gable end with a tall chimney. There is a single storey conservatory with connecting link at the east end of the elevation.

INTERIOR: the north-west entrance leads into a small functional hall. The stair rises from the entrance hall around narrow, screen-like balustrades with scallop-profiled handrails and tall newel posts. The entrance hall is now open to the formerly separate living hall. Amongst features of note in the latter are the corner brick fireplace (now painted), exposed ceiling joists and the projecting bay orientated south-east, which was designed as a window seat. Both halls have quarry tile flooring and late C20 wooden-style panelling. The sitting room is entered from the lounge hall and extends into a polygonal bow window, facing south-west. Features of interest here are the columned fireplace flanked by integral bookshelves and cupboards, with a built-in writing desk with unusually profiled legs to the left. The cupboards have pendant-shaped knobs and the casements have long, scrolled iron stays. The walls have simple timber panelling. The playroom behind has a large square window bay to the north-west and exposed ceiling joists. Notable features include the fireplace with fitted glass-fronted cupboards either side, again with pendant knobs. The corbel below the mantel shelf is a face in profile, purportedly Voysey’s.

Throughout the house, features of note include several panelled, built-in cupboards with ventilation in the form of cut-out heart motifs and ironmongery including pendant-shaped knobs. A good number of boarded and half-glazed doors survive with iron door furniture comprising latches and large strap-hinges terminating in hearts. There is a speaking tube on the first-floor landing and a number of bell buttons are also extant. The attic space is lined with scarf-jointed close-boarding.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: the building line of the south-east elevation extends as a tall, white roughcast wall with tile coping and square piers. The wall contains a semi-circular headed opening with a wooden gate and a series of late C20 glazed pairs of doors. A lower long, roughcast garden wall returns to the south-east. This has battered buttresses and three semi-circular openings with hood moulds over, containing gates with strap hinges terminating in heart motifs. The wall is 6 feet high to the northern end and 10 feet high to the southern end as the ground drops away.

Within the grounds to the south there is a summer house with a swept, pyramidal roof and ornamental weathervane in the shape of a sailing boat. South-east of the garden front, a copper sundial stands on the lawn with a gnomon fashioned into a grotesque caricature. Beyond this there are three steps leading to a brick-piered pergola and a wooden bridge, which crosses onto an island on the lake.

Please note that the listing map is indicative.

History

Charles FA Voysey (1857-1941) was one of England’s most idiosyncratic architects and designers and is widely credited as a pioneer of the C20 Modern architectural movement. The son of Charles Voysey, a clergyman who established the Theistic Church, Voysey was initially apprenticed to architect John P Seddon in 1874, a specialist in church design. He subsequently entered the practice of George Devey, a successful country-house architect, in 1880 and set up his own architectural practice in London a year later. In 1888 his ‘Design for a Cottage’ was published in The British Architect, which led to the first of many architectural commissions. The frequent submission of his designs to influential journals led to national and international exposure, so that by 1904 he was described by Hermann Muthesius as the most active and well-known architect in the development of the modern English house. Although Voysey was a versatile architect and designer, he became synonymous with cottage-style country houses which were characteristically low and wide, with pronounced horizontal lines, white roughcast walls, sweeping slate roofs and enormous chimneys.

Woodlake (formerly Lowicks House) was built as a country retreat for Emslie J Horniman in 1894, artist, anthropologist and son of the eponymous Frederick, founder of the Horniman Museum. Reported by The British Architect as another of Voysey’s ‘charming country houses’, it was conceived as a single mass, with low eaves sheltering beneath a steeply pitched hipped roof, nestling within a wooded landscape setting. Its asymmetrical elevations were unified by Voysey’s horizontal alignments: plain white walls pierced by horizontal bands of casement windows, string courses and unbroken eaves lines punctuated by dormers set at eaves level. To reinforce the horizontality on the garden fronts, eaves brackets and guttering were continuous and suspended in front of the dormer windows. Decoration was minimal and restricted to functional ironwork such as eaves and canopy brackets, window and door furniture.

The ground floor plan comprised a modest entrance hall at the north-west, leading into three reception rooms with a southern aspect onto the garden: a lounge hall with a window-seat bay, a playroom and a bay-windowed sitting room opening into a trellised veranda. Voysey favoured a southern orientation to allow ‘soul and body to capture the early morning sun’. The kitchen, pantry and wine cupboard were positioned at the south-east corner of the plan, and a manservant’s room was located within a small single-storey wing at right angles to the house. There were five bedrooms on the first floor with servant’s accommodation in the attic above. Voysey was additionally responsible for the interior design, including fitted and freestanding furniture. Notable integral features to survive include fireplaces, fitted cupboards and a writing desk.

Emslie Horniman also commissioned Voysey to design the gardens. A plan dated 1895 in Voysey’s hand shows a geometric design for a formal garden, delineated by box borders, topiary and gravel walks, with a sundial providing a focus to the central axis. A boundary wall separated the formal (or south) garden from the kitchen and vegetable gardens and stable yard. The entrance to the house was from the north-west via an entrance court with a dovecote. Auction particulars of 1913 indicate that the grounds totalled 29 acres and included lawns for tennis and croquet and a fives court and were surrounded by pine and fir woods, heathland and a water meadow. The south garden was entered via two arched entrances within a roughcast wall, with stone steps. The principal vista from the house was along a paved sundial walk, the south garden’s central axis, framed by avian-topped topiary. The walk led to a brick-built pergola and a wooden bridge beyond, which crossed a stream onto a small island. The sundial and two footbridges are denoted on the 1915 Ordnance Survey map. There was also a seat encircling an acacia tree, which bore a verse from ‘In God’s Garden’ by the poet Dorothy Gurney.

Voysey carried out various alterations and additions to the house and outbuildings for Horniman between 1898 and 1911. This included the introduction of a new columned loggia on the south-east garden elevation with an entrance door behind. The service rooms to the rear – pantry and wine cupboard – were converted into a new entrance lobby and cloakroom. The north-west elevation was furnished with a projecting glazed bay on the ground floor to the west of the entrance. This extended and further illuminated the playroom which was in use as a dining room. The single-storey service wing was also extended to the north-west and terminated in a two-storied gable end and a tall chimney. The domestic offices now included a servants’ hall and additional accommodation, which brought the total number of bedrooms to 10. A carriage drive was introduced from the south-east, which ran parallel to the garden’s south-east boundary wall. Voysey also designed a summer house with a pyramidal swept roof surmounted by a weathervane shaped like a sailing ship; this was erected in 1911. After the building changed hands in 1914, Voysey carried out further minor alterations for the new owner C Kerr in 1916, including the enlargement of the garage.

During the second half of the C20 there were various discrete alterations to the exterior of the building. On the south-east elevation, the veranda was fully enclosed with large plate glass windows and the original trellis sides removed. The windows were subsequently replaced with doors and windows with multi-pane glazing. Alterations to the service wing included the insertion of two slate-hung box dormers to each roof slope of the single-storey link. On the south-west elevation, an additional dormer was inserted above the projecting bay. This was taller than Voysey’s original dormers and set noticeably below the eaves line. In 1960 a glazed single-storey extension with a roof terrace was constructed next to the bay, and the dormer window above was altered to form a door. This extension was removed in 1991 and the ground floor window and dormer were reinstated. The latter deviated from Voysey’s horizontal-style dormers and was set below the eaves line to match its neighbour.

The erection of a new conservatory to the north-east was also approved in 1991 under the same consent. It was located behind the south-east facing garden wall, which was pierced with three door openings and provided with rustication above. The wall was also extended to the north-east by a single bay.

Internally, there have been minimal modifications to the layout. The main changes are to the use of the rooms. The original kitchen is now a dining room and the scullery has been enlarged for a modern kitchen. Upstairs, one of the principal bedrooms and the dressing room have been converted into bathrooms. On the first floor, some fireplaces have been removed but several fitted cupboards survive with Voysey motifs and door furniture. On the ground floor, the three original reception rooms are mostly as designed by Voysey, with fireplaces and fitted furniture. The sitting room has lost its garden door and windows following the enclosure of the veranda, and the partition wall separating the staircase hall from the lounge hall has been removed. The latter may have been an alteration carried out by Voysey in conjunction with the reconfiguration of the bottom of the staircase, which has been straightened.

Although Voysey’s garden layout is mostly lost, some original features have survived. These include the boundary wall between the south garden and the kitchen garden, the sundial (dated 1897), the summer house and the brick-piered pergola leading to a wooden bridge across the (now enlarged) lake. The garden wall is articulated by arched apertures and gates with distinctive Voysey ironmongery. There is also evidence that other original metalwork remains, including a boot scraper by the front door, bell-pulls, and a water pump mechanism. Voysey’s ironmongery was supplied by Thomas Elsley & Co. of the Portland Metalworks.

Reasons for Listing

Woodlake (formerly Lowicks House) including garden features is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as a fine example of a small country house by celebrated architect and designer Charles FA Voysey, featuring high-quality materials, detailing and craftsmanship;

* for its simple geometric form and compositional design where elevational asymmetry is unified by horizontal alignments, illustrating one of Voysey’s key tenets that horizontality equates to calm repose;

* for the high degree of survival of idiosyncratic Voysey-designed fixtures and fittings including windows, doors, fireplaces, fitted furniture and decorative copper and ironwork, with comic touches and signature heart motifs;

* for the degree of survival of the internal plan form;

* for the high quality of the surviving complementary garden features including walling and gates, summer house, sundial, pergola and footbridge.

Historic interest:

* for the association with Voysey’s client Emslie J Horniman, anthropologist, politician and philanthropist, instrumental in founding the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England.

External Links

• Wikidata Q26483837

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

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  Warwickshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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