Heathcote - viewed from Grove Road - geograph

Heathcote is a Neoclassical-style

villa A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became s ...

Ilkley Ilkley is a spa town and civil parish in the City of Bradford in West Yorkshire, in Northern England. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, Ilkley civil parish includes the adjacent village of Ben Rhydding and is a ward within the ...

, West Yorkshire, England. Designed by architect

Edwin Lutyens Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens ( ; 29 March 1869 – 1 January 1944) was an English architect known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era. He designed many English country houses, war memori ...

, it was his first comprehensive use of that style, making it the precursor of his later public buildings in

Edwardian Baroque Edwardian architecture is a Neo-Baroque architectural style that was popular in the British Empire during the Edwardian era (1901–1910). Architecture up to the year 1914 may also be included in this style. Description Edwardian architecture is ...

style and those of New Delhi.Gradidge (1981), pp. 63–68 It was completed in 1908. In December 2014

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

designated it a Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

, raising it from the Grade II* designation that it received in 1979. In its new listing for Heathcote, English Heritage called it a "pivotal" building in Lutyens's career, and "an imaginative and inventive essay in Mannerism". The gardens are Grade II listed in the

National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens The Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England provides a listing and classification system for historic parks and gardens similar to that used for listed buildings. The register is managed by Historic England ...

House

In 1906, Lutyens was commissioned by John Thomas Hemingway (1857–1926), a wealthy self-made

Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...

wool merchant, and his wife Emma Jane, to replace their existing villa, which was at the lower, southern end of a sloping site,Brown (1996), pp. 133–136 in extent.Brown (1982), pp. 108–109. Lutyens was given a free rein in the design. He built the new villa at the top of the site, in a size and style intended to dominate the neighbouring villas. Lutyens had already mixed elements of classical architecture into his earlier,

vernacular A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...

and Neo-Georgian designs, and his correspondence with

Herbert Baker Sir Herbert Baker (9 June 1862 – 4 February 1946) was an English architect remembered as the dominant force in South African architecture for two decades, and a major designer of some of New Delhi's most notable government structures. He wa ...

displayed a growing enthusiasm for classical architecture. Later, he acknowledged a stylistic debt at Heathcote to the 16th-century Italian architect

Michele Sanmicheli Michele Sanmicheli (also spelled ''Sanmmicheli'', ''Sanmichele'' or ''Sammichele'') (1484–1559), was a Venetian architect and urban planner of Mannerist-style, among the greatest of his era. A tireless worker, he was in charge of designing bui ...

. Lutyens has been criticised for using a grand style more suited to a public building than to the Hemingways' dwelling. Lutyens came to call his new style "Wrennaissance", after

Christopher Wren Sir Christopher Wren PRS FRS (; – ) was one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history, as well as an anatomist, astronomer, geometer, and mathematician-physicist. He was accorded responsibility for rebuilding 52 churches ...

Heathcote SE Pool Lutyens Houses and Gardens 1913 Page230

The house is built of local

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

: yellow

Guiseley Guiseley ( ) is a town in metropolitan borough of the City of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is situated south of Otley and Menston and is now a north-western suburb of Leeds. It sits in t ...

stone decorated with grey stone from

Morley Morley may refer to: Places England * Morley, Norfolk, a civil parish * Morley, Derbyshire, a civil parish * Morley, Cheshire, a village * Morley, County Durham, a village * Morley, West Yorkshire, a suburban town of Leeds and civil parish * M ...

,Amery (1981), pp. 108–109. with rustication on the ground floor and on the tall chimneys. The main features of the house and gardens are symmetrical around a north-south axis. English Heritage have identified a compositional influence from the 17th-century French architect

François Mansart François Mansart (; 23 January 1598 – 23 September 1666) was a French architect credited with introducing classicism into Baroque architecture of France. The ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' cites him as the most accomplished of 17th-century Fr ...

. The house has a three-storey central block, set back between two flanking two-storey pavilions to east and west, each with an additional one-storey outer wing. Each of these five components has a

hip roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thus, ...

, made of red

pantile A pantile is a type of fired roof tile, normally made from clay. It is S-shaped in profile and is single lap, meaning that the end of the tile laps only the course immediately below. Flat tiles normally lap two courses. A pantile-covered roo ...

s. Entry is from King's Road, via a walled entrance court, to a door in the centre of the north

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Vert ...

. The central hall leads out to a

terrace garden In gardening, a terrace is an element where a raised flat paved or gravelled section overlooks a prospect. A raised terrace keeps a house dry and provides a transition between the hardscape and the softscape. History ;Persia Since a level si ...

giving a view southwards towards

Ilkley Moor Ilkley Moor is part of Rombalds Moor, the moorland between Ilkley and Keighley in West Yorkshire, England. The moor, which rises to 402 m (1,319 ft) above sea level, is well known as the inspiration for the Yorkshire "county anthem" ...

. The south, garden elevation is more elaborate than the north, with

wrought-iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.08%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4%). It is a semi-fused mass of iron with fibrous slag inclusions (up to 2% by weight), which give it a wood-like "grain" t ...

balconies, additional setbacks in the central bay, and

Doric Doric may refer to: * Doric, of or relating to the Dorians of ancient Greece ** Doric Greek, the dialects of the Dorians * Doric order, a style of ancient Greek architecture * Doric mode, a synonym of Dorian mode * Doric dialect (Scotland) * Doric ...

pilaster In classical architecture Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...

s on the flanking pavilions. English Heritage have called the south elevation a "witty reinterpretation" of Michele Sanmicheli's Porta Palio in Verona. Heathcote the Hall Lutyens Houses and Gardens 1913 Page233

Heathcote the Hall Lutyens Houses and Gardens 1913 Page233

For the interior design, Lutyens continued the classical theme. The

vestibule Vestibule or Vestibulum can have the following meanings, each primarily based upon a common origin, from early 17th century French, derived from Latin ''vestibulum, -i n.'' "entrance court". Anatomy In general, vestibule is a small space or cavity ...

floor was white

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite. Marble is typically not Foliation (geology), foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the ...

. The hall had green Siberian marble columns, a black marble staircase and a vivid green carpet. Blue was used for some other surfaces, and for the Lutyens-designed furniture. He also designed star-shaped light fittings. Other interior features designed by Lutyens which remain intact include the fireplaces, cabinets and cupboards. Emma Jane Hemingway died in the house in 1937. The company NG Bailey used the building as offices from 1958 to 2011. After a

planning application Planning permission or developmental approval refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. It is usually given in the form of a building perm ...

to split it into two apartments was unsuccessful, it was converted back into an eight-bedroom house in 2012.

Gardens

The gardens were laid out by Lutyens, with pools and

parterre A ''parterre'' is a part of a formal garden constructed on a level substrate, consisting of symmetrical patterns, made up by plant beds, low hedges or coloured gravels, which are separated and connected by paths. Typically it was the part of ...

s, and

retaining walls Retaining walls are relatively rigid walls used for supporting soil laterally so that it can be retained at different levels on the two sides. Retaining walls are structures designed to restrain soil to a slope that it would not naturally keep to ...

for the terracing, including that of the central lawn. The Grade I listing of 12 December 2014 combined numerous garden and courtyard features that were individually Grade II* listed, as well as some outbuildings and a pair of cottages fronting onto King's Road. The planting of the gardens was by garden designer

Gertrude Jekyll Gertrude Jekyll ( ; 29 November 1843 – 8 December 1932) was a British horticulturist, garden designer, craftswoman, photographer, writer and artist. She created over 400 gardens in the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States, and wrote ...

.Brown (1982), p. 186.

Notes

References

* * * * * {{coord, 53, 55, 28, N, 1, 50, 11, W, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Neoclassical architecture in Yorkshire Villas in the United Kingdom Grade I listed buildings in West Yorkshire Grade I listed houses Houses in West Yorkshire Houses completed in 1908 Works of Edwin Lutyens in England Grade II listed parks and gardens in West Yorkshire Gardens by Gertrude Jekyll Ilkley 1908 establishments in England

House

Gardens

See also

Notes

References