NINETY years after it was built, one of Britain’s most controversial and iconic country houses, Grade II*-listed High and Over at Amersham, Buckinghamshire, has come back to the market through Savills (07824 592170) at a guide price of £2.5 million.
Its Historic England listing describes the striking Y-shaped property—built in 1929–31 and known locally as the ‘Aeroplane House’ for its three wings leading off a hexagonal reception hall—as being ‘of outstanding importance as the first truly convincing essay in the international style in England, one of only two buildings included in The International Style Exhibition held at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1932’.
Back home, the reaction was less enthusiastic. Sir John Betjeman commented: ‘In 1931 all Buckinghamshire was scandalised by the appearance, high above Amersham, of a concrete house in the shape of a letter “Y”. It was built for a young professor, by a young architect… It started a style called moderne.’
The professor was Bernard Ashmole, of Classical Archaeology at London University, and the architect was Amyas Connell, who won the prestigious Rome Scholarship; he later became part of the pioneering architectural practice of Connell, Ward & Lucas. Although England wasn’t quite ready for ‘moderne’ and plans for the house were passed by the local authority only ‘with extreme reluctance’, COUNTRY LIFE (September 19, 1931) took the opposing stance, hailing High and Over as ‘sound and stimulating architecture, a brilliant synthesis of contemporary thought with contemporary materials’.
Bu hikaye Country Life UK dergisinin June 16, 2021 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye Country Life UK dergisinin June 16, 2021 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
Happiness in small things
Putting life into perspective and forces of nature in farming
Colour vision
In an eye-baffling arrangement of geometric shapes, a sinister-looking clown and a little girl, Test Card F is one of television’s most enduring images, says Rob Crossan
'Without fever there is no creation'
Three of the top 10 operas performed worldwide are by the emotionally volatile Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, who died a century ago. Henrietta Bredin explains how his colourful life influenced his melodramatic plot lines
The colour revolution
Toxic, dull or fast-fading pigments had long made it tricky for artists to paint verdant scenes, but the 19th century ushered in a viridescent explosion of waterlili
Bullace for you
The distinction between plums, damsons and bullaces is sweetly subtle, boiling down to flavour and aesthetics, but don’t eat the stones, warns John Wright
Lights, camera, action!
Three remarkable country houses, two of which have links to the film industry, the other the setting for a top-class croquet tournament, are anything but ordinary
I was on fire for you, where did you go?
In Iceland, a land with no monks or monkeys, our correspondent attempts to master the art of fishing light’ for Salmo salar, by stroking the creases and dimples of the Midfjardara river like the features of a loved one
Bravery bevond belief
A teenager on his gap year who saved a boy and his father from being savaged by a crocodile is one of a host of heroic acts celebrated in a book to mark the 250th anniversary of the Royal Humane Society, says its author Rupert Uloth
Let's get to the bottom of this
Discovering a well on your property can be viewed as a blessing or a curse, but all's well that ends well, says Deborah Nicholls-Lee, as she examines the benefits of a personal water supply
Sing on, sweet bird
An essential component of our emotional relationship with the landscape, the mellifluous song of a thrush shapes the very foundation of human happiness, notes Mark Cocker, as he takes a closer look at this diverse family of birds