Discover The Ultimate Arts and Crafts House: Goddards by Lutyens

Nestled deep within the Surrey landscape sits Goddard's, arguably one of the great expressions of the arts and crafts movement. Built at the turn of the 20th century, this is a building where art, nature and craftsmanship sit creatively together. Designed by the renowned architect Edwin Lutyens, this is a masterpiece in British arts and crafts. Join me to discover the transformation of this building from a humble holiday home into a magnificent country house. To discover Goddard, you enter from the road in this small, somewhat secret garden. This is the rear elevation he's facing, not very dramatic you might think, but this is time's architecture. It looks like it's always been here. Elemental in its simple forms and it's built from materials that surround it. This arts and crafts masterpiece, when completed, was the work of a young man that was well on his way to becoming one of Britain's leading architects. Edwin Lutyens was aged 30 when he designed the house in 1900. His client was Frederick Mirrlees. He had money but also a feeling for the arts and architecture. He commissioned Lutyens' design, a home of rest to which ladies of small means might prepare for holiday. This was an act of charity in the tradition of the almshouse. In the 1890s, Surrey was seen as a very special region because it had a powerful historic vernacular architecture that offered many lessons. In particular, it vindicated William Morris's conviction that new buildings should reflect the skills of humble buildings of the past. At Goddard's, Lutyens made this ideology tangible. He rejected the heartless excess of industrially mass-produced ornaments and instead gave us the beauty of natural materials left to speak for themselves and celebrated the dignity of handmade architecture. The house was designed as a pair of symmetrical cottages linked by a central ground floor hall with a long gallery above. The plan of Goddard's is intriguing. The wings formed by the cottages are not parallel but open out towards the west, as if offering an open, armed and welcoming embrace. Lutyens rarely missed a trick. The arrangement of the angled wings starts to form a butterfly plan that Lutyens was later to fully develop. Lutyens emulated the rich palette of colour and textures offered by the region's vernacular architecture. When completed in 1900, Goddard's could accommodate six guests at a time. There were mainly nurses from hospitals in the east end of London who, exhausted by the care of others, would be invited to spend a couple of weeks in a fairy tale house secreted within the Surrey countryside. And here is the entrance they would use. Ah, this is the original entrance hall like a porch to a medieval church. Massive timbers, braces, studding, lovely big joists up there. Originally it was open, an open space like a portrait church was here. This is the original front door. Wonderful oak planks. And here is the epitome of the arts and crafts movement in a way. A wonderfully handmade and wrought iron knocker. Look at this. Wow. Hinges, latch. This is where the lady guests would have entered Goddard's. The arts and crafts age saw was arguably the birth of the modern home in Britain, though it was not nostalgic. It drew on late gothic forms but used them to create houses that were modern in plan, function and spirit. The past was not copied, it was made useful again. So the medieval theme continues. This was the common room where the lady guests would gather to chat, to dine. And of course it's like a medieval great hall, particularly because Lutyens has used these posts and massive braces. They create character and they seem a bit excessive, a bit theatrical. But this is a wall of windows, perhaps the structure doesn't need beefing up here. Though I think the game he's playing is to create a false history to give greater interest to the room. Just look at this wall. It's a wonderful example of gothic inspired arts and crafts architecture. And of course, Lutyens was a great master of the arts and crafts and he, like his fellow masters, was inspired by the writing of A. W. F. Tuchin, who in the 1840s had declared that all ornament should be an enrichment of essential construction. And that's what's happening here. Look at this. These great braces and posts are held together by pegs, peg joints. Simple functional necessity is made into a tremendous ornament. Here, structure becomes a great ornament of this wall. And up here is a tartan. That's the end of a beam in the entrance hall through here, held together in really splendid manner. It really is a piece of architectural showmanship. Great halls tend to have great fireplaces and Lutyens created this one with a smoke hood resting on the wonderful tough stone corbels and above a beautifully wrought brick vault. You can imagine the ladies gathered here in the evening around a roaring log fire. Wonderful. Indeed, Lutyens gave a great deal of thought to their entertainment. In this most austere room, the guests could sit, read and chat, look out to the wonderful Surrey countryside, walk in the gardens. A skittle or bowling alley was added to one of the cottages for the use of lady guests with sporting inclinations and competitive instincts. For this room, Lutyens pulled out all the stops. It's surprisingly architecturally ambitious. Brick everywhere. Beautiful brick, I should say. Brick arches with keystones. Brick niches behind me. Herringbone brick floor. Oak as well exposed. Braces, beams, joists. It's an amazing place and also wonderful, clever design. Typical Lutyens, I suppose. There's a rack here that delivers the bowling balls by gravity. Delight to witness that in operation. You can imagine this room would have given them, the ladies, the visitors, long lasting pleasant memories of Godard's evenings spent here. Laughter, joy, communal, wonderful memory of this day in the country. In 1901, Lutyens went to Godard's to play skittles with the ladies and was happy to record that they loved the place and invariably weep when they leave. When you walk through the corridors and shared spaces at Godard's, you see the very special and inventive spirit of the arts and crafts and a reminder of the owners of the building. Blue and white inglazed tiles, perhaps from Delft, very popular in 1900, showing a sailing ship. It's dated 1780 and is no doubt a witty reference to Merrilee's occupation in the shipping industry. This was a retreat, a refuge for these women of modest means. They had the romance of the Great Hall, the fun of the Skittle Alley and, from the house, wonderful views of the delightful Courtyard Garden. But in 1910, Frederick Merrilee's decided to close Godard's to visitors and instead invited Lutyens back to transform it into a magnificent country house. After serving for a decade as holiday homes for working women, the building's use changed and in 1910 Merrilee's got Lutyens back on site. He wanted Godard's transformed into a country house for his son and new American wife Mary. Lutyens quickly got to work. The cottages, when greatly extended in 1910, were each given two-story bays on both their south and north elevations, symmetrical mirror plans of each other. This is in the style of the original building. Godard's was the first time Lutyens had given a major building a symmetrical plan. At ground level, these created additional rooms. Lutyens was a poet, not a pedant. He knew the architectural rules but broke them for artistic reasons when he saw fit. Here the walls are tricked out with 18th-century-style fielded prunneling and 18th-century-style cornice. These collide in rather dramatic fashion with a Tudor-style arch here which leads into the fireplace. So the idea is, of course, to beguile the visitor, to make them think it's an ancient house, an authentic ancient house, with different periods coming together, overlaying one form of architecture evolving into another. Inside this Ingle Nook is amazing. Ingle Nooks like this were very fashionable in the late 19th century, inspired of course by medieval and Tudor models. Little rooms within rooms, you gather around the open fire, little seats, little windows keeping warm in a kind of darkly old house. It's a wonderful piece of work this, with brickwork, tiles and stone, lovely brick floor, very substantial. And you look out, it's quite amazing, into this dark and deep recess which is the flume, disappears into darkness. And then off that are these great chimneys that soar into the sky above. By 1910 Hall ornate Elizabethan-style chimney stacks had become a favourite of Lutyens' form for his country houses. Such chimneys were seen by Lutyens and his clients as a status symbol suggesting ancient social pedigree. Lutyens made them a dominant part of his Surrey-inspired vocabulary of domestic design. Each stack rises from a most sculptural base that echoes the large internal fireplaces, separated by a dramatic sliver of daylight that accentuates their giddy height. They strike the most strident tone. The original house had been architecturally modest, but these soaring and demonstrative stacks make a bold architectural statement. Perhaps this is no more than expression of the architectural difference between a charity building for poor ladies and the country house for the son of a shipping magnate. Since the function had changed, Lutyens wanted the architectural impression made by the building to also change. Inside, enlarged and remodelled cottages were given generous first floor bedrooms and bathrooms. This is one of the first floor bedrooms added in 1910 in the new extension to the house, and here we see in this extension the fireplace plays a very important role, very dominant, very large scale. Here it is filling almost the whole wall. It's very abstract, isn't it? No historical references, no historical details. Beautiful local stone, of course, that's kind of vernacular, rising from these piers of tiles that frame the jams to the fireplace opening. So, simple, powerful statement. However, Lutyens is up to something as usual. The keystone here in the middle of the lintel above the opening has tapering sides as usual, but the tapering sides, they continue inwards up here and across. The keystone is in fact a very large hexagon. Now the hexagon is a very interesting geometrical form. It's part of, of course, the six-pointed star, the Seal of Solomon, one of the most important forms in sacred geometry. So, Lutyens is having a good time here. Also, it has a very specific symbol. The hexagon, the hectogram, represents the creative fusion of opposites of men and women. So, a very appropriate symbol, I would suggest, for a marriage bedroom, which this was. The West Garden Court is the main outdoor space, designed to offer residents pleasant looks and corners in which to sit. The key is the fusion of primary geometry with the informality of nature. All designed by Lutyens with Gertrude Jekyll, who was nearly 30 years his senior, and a great inspiration. The dipping well was filled with rainwater gathered from the ruins via these elongated barrels. This use of the benefits of nature is, in a way, the epitome of the arts and craft movement. Around the well is a concentric walk that incorporates behind me the dwarf column supporting a sundial. Very charming. And from this walk, paths lead to terraces and the doors of the house itself, so that all is united into a single composition. Arthur Butler, an early biographer of Lutyens, observed that the garden pleases us because of its primitive stoniness. Wonderful phrase. I think he's absolutely right, of course, because Lutyens and Jekyll had the ability to bring out the central character of the materials they used. And the materials here, well, they're rich mixed. Look behind me, there's elevation. Clay for the bricks down below with some stone, probably rygate stone for the transoms. Then above, ocean stone for the ease of the roof and more clay tiles above. Then there's a rough cast of the render itself. Too much? No, I do not think so. Because the materials combined with the planting offer the therapeutic and restorative delights of visual beauty. The rich texture and colour of stone and brick is complemented by Jekyll's simple, almost elemental and primitive planting. Few hedges, grey and silver-coloured plants, echo the colour of the stone. And then there is the lavender. One of the impressive things about Goddard's today is how its story continues. Owned by the Lutyens Trust and now operated by the Landmark Trust, Goddard's has returned to its original function and once again welcomes guests looking for sanctuary. Goddard's is one of the nation's best examples of arts and crafts architecture. And it demonstrates that it's best if great houses are lived in and not enshrined at museums, so they can continue to work their spell and help heal the soul.