Sunken garden at White Lodge, Rottingdean Coastal, The City of Brighton and Hove

Summary

A sunken garden, set within the landscape to the south of White Lodge, designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and probably built in 1924-1925.

Description

A sunken garden, built around 1923-1924 to the designs of Sir Edwin Lutyens for his patron, Lady Victoria Sackville in the grounds of her house, White Lodge, Roedean, Brighton.

MATERIALS and PLAN: the surrounding retaining walls and terrace walls of the sunken garden are of rubble stone brought to course with planting gaps between individual blocks. The pavements and steps are of Portland stone with slates used on edge as infill. The site is roughly 26m to the south of White Lodge and set into the slope which runs downwards, away from the house, towards the chalk cliff edge and facing the sea. The garden is on line with the facade of the house and measures approximately 23.5m from east to west and 7m from north to south and is roughly rectangular in outline.

DESCRIPTION: the rectangular garden consists of a surrounding retaining wall to each side, made up of rubble stones brought to course with gaps for planting. These retaining walls include terraces to the longer sides and there are two sets of stairs to the northern side with Portland stone treads included in the rockwork. Photographs taken in 1927 show that there were originally gravel paths along the east, west and south sides of the sunken garden. These have now been turfed over, but a square inlayed stone pavement to the centre of the southern side remains in place, from which a flight of shallow steps of Portland stone with risers formed of layered slates gradually increase in size as they descend to the largest, central pavement of the sunken area. This is rectangular and further flights of similar shallow steps lead to lower, square pavements at east and west. Each of the four pavements has a frame of Portland stone blocks to its outer edge. Similar blocks form the borders of decorative panels at the centre of each pavement. These are circular at either end with flat, circular centres of Portland stone. The central pavement has three overlapping squares placed diagonally. Infill of the panels is with slates placed on end at varying angles to create a variety of patterns and colouration. To the far east and west ends are extensions to the square pavements forming stands for benches. These have central diamond-shaped stones with slates on edge surrounding them and at either side are panels of cobbles set in concrete.

History

The sunken garden sits within the landscape to the south of White Lodge, a house which was built for Fanny Martineau in 1904 by Sir John Simpson. Martineau was the aunt of the founder of Roedean School, for which Simpson had also been the architect. Ownership passed to Lady Victoria Sackville and in 1923 she invited her friend Sir Edwin Lutyens to make designs for extensions to the house, including a colonnade with pavilions at either end facing south towards the sea. Drawings for this design are in the RIBA Drawings Collection. Economies meant that the colonnade scheme was abandoned and a book room and loggia, designed by Lutyens, were placed at either side of the pre-existing façade by Simpson with a paved terrace before the garden front and raised above the garden. Both the house and garden were photographed by Country Life in June 1927 and these photographs, together with map evidence, show that there was originally a more complex scheme of hard landscaping and formal planting to the east and west of the central lawn which has now been lost. It seems probable that the sunken garden was built between 1924 and 1926.

Edwin Lutyens was one of the foremost architects of the early C20. His work included the Cenotaph in Whitehall and the Thiepval arch, as well as the Viceroy's House in New Delhi and the design for the Roman Catholic cathedral in Liverpool. His numerous country houses included designs in a variety of styles and include Deanery Garden, Drogo Castle and Gledstone Hall. He was knighted in 1918 and in 1942 was the first architect to be appointed to the Order of Merit. His friendship with Lady Victoria Sackville was close and of long standing and the subject of conjecture after the breakdown of both their marriages. She called him McNed and he called her McSack. He altered the three adjacent houses which she bought in Sussex Square, Brighton and she bought him a Rolls Royce, complete with driver called James. Whatever their relationship, their mutual interest in architecture and aesthetics was obvious and they enjoyed visiting and discussing country houses around Kent and Sussex together. Her diaries dating from May 1923 and April 1924 refer to Lutyens designs for the garden at White Lodge: 'McNed came to White Lodge. He was full of wonderful ideas for the garden and the two little Loggias' and, 'McNed has designed exquisite terraces and garden. The whole thing is quite lovely'. Sketch designs made by Lutyens for a much more elaborate design for the house include a forecourt which also has the motif of intersecting squares and diamond patterns.

Lady Sackville died in 1936 and White Lodge passed to her grandson, Nigel Nicholson, who was still a teenager at the time and sold the property. In the 1970s the house was divided into seven flats of various sizes and the sunken garden now belongs to the owner of a ground-floor flat.

Reasons for Listing

The Lutyens sunken garden at White Lodge, Brighton is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* the garden is a good representative example of the style of Lutyens' landscaping with materials used to great effect in creating the hard landscaping which combines formality in the patterned pavements with the informality of plant growth encouraged by the surrounding terraces and rock walling with crevices for planting;
* the garden survives with a high degree of its original built structure intact.

Historic interest:

* as a manifestation of the close friendship between the noted architect Edwin Lutyens and his patron, Lady Victoria Sackville;
* as a garden which inspired the style and layout of elements of the gardens at Long Barn, Sevenoaks (Grade II*) and Sissinghurst (Grade I) by Vita, Lady Victoria Sackville's daughter.

External Links

Historic England Listing

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