of a house, trying to deal with them in a general way. I will therefore
now take one or two definite examples, and explain how and why we
worked them out as we did, trusting that the interest which attaches
to any actual problem solved may come to my aid and redeem the details
from tediousness.
We have chosen for the first example a country house designed for a
site in North Staffordshire, partly because this site is not one to
very obviously suggest or very imperatively demand a special treatment.
The plot of land consists of a small field, long, and rather narrow; it
is much the shape of a suburban building plot, though situated right
in the country. The main road runs along the north-east end, and the
ground rises on the far side of this road, cutting off all view in that
direction. The ground falls from the road towards the south-west: the
slope being very slight at the top, suggests a level terrace on which
to place the house. The land continues to fall away to a stream; across
this there is a very pleasant view, which becomes finest to the south
of the plot.
[Sidenote: _See plate 1._]
The client required the house to have a good comfortable living-room
for the general family life; another good room for entertaining guests
and callers; a small den for his own use, with desk, safe, and sample
cupboards; four bedrooms, one to be a bed-sitting-room for an only son;
and a kitchen with the usual offices. The house was to be arranged to
give as much open-air life within as possible. As the site is exposed
to the prevailing winds, and the best prospect is in the direction
whence they blow, some form of court upon which the rooms might
open, suggests itself as a means of obtaining the needful shelter.
The stableyard not being very suitable for the purpose, the house is
grouped about a very small central court, round which a corridor is
planned fitted with sliding windows, so that it can be converted at
will into a sort of small open air cloister by sliding the sashes down
below the sill. This is roofed over at as low a level as possible, to
avoid anything of the feeling of a well, which a court, as small as
this needs must be, might soon produce. The main roof also is made
to slope away from the court in all directions, so that a good deal
of sunlight may find its way in. Upon this corridor the main rooms
open with wide double doors, and the court being protected against
wind on all sides, it is possible, except when extremely cold, to
have the living rooms much more open to the fresh air than is usual.
A ventilating stove prevents cold draughts in winter. The kitchen,
butler’s pantry, front and side entrances, and stairs all communicate
with the corridor, but so as not to destroy the privacy of the living
rooms by obliging anyone to pass the doors when going from one to the
other. Pleasing vistas are obtained from the rooms across the court,
and from the corridor into the rooms, such as it is not often possible
to contrive in so small a house. This charm of vista should always
be thought of when planning. The living-room, as the most generally
occupied, and therefore most important room, is placed at the south
corner, having the double outlook to south-east & south-west, and
getting all available sunlight and the best of the prospect. It is not
enough to give a room windows in the right direction, however; the
room must be so arranged that it shall, so to speak, turn its face
right; and the windows be so placed that one would naturally look out
of them from the most usually occupied parts of the room. For this
reason an angle window commanding the pick of the view is thrown out
on the south-east side. This brings the sun well into the room, and
at the same time provides a good well-lighted position for the piano,
from whence anyone can easily face to the whole room while singing. For
the same reason the fire is put on the north-east wall; and, that a
thorough sense of cosiness may always be obtainable, it is placed in a
deep recess or ingle.
Now an ingle affords a very good instance of how easy it is to misuse
the old examples which we study, and that in two manners. For while
some neglect altogether the suggestions which they offer, others copy
the old forms without troubling to understand them. To make use of
old features legitimately, of course, one must first understand the
reasons which called them into being, the difficulties which they were
designed to meet: and when similar reasons or difficulties present
themselves to us we may then avail ourselves of the solution which they
indicate, not copying slavishly the details, but taking the principle
and working it out to suit our own particular circumstances. The ingle
had two main uses: the first was to protect a wide open fire from the
cross draughts arising from badly fitting or open doors, shutters and
windows; the second was to afford sheltered seats near the fire, where
the aged and feeble could rest and anyone could keep warm in cold or
rough weather. Incidentally, no doubt, our forefathers appreciated the
value of contrast, the charm of the ruddy fire-lit space glowing red
in the grey ill-lighted building, and the cosiness of the sheltered
low recess in the wide and lofty hall. To obtain this charm, as is
often done, by forming an ingle so small that one cannot sit in it
comfortably, is merely to remove the fire further from the room; while
on the other hand, to arrange a large ingle, as is also sometimes done,
with a modern tiled register stove set in a chimney breast, is to lose
the feeling of sitting on the hearth, and the charm that springs from
the fire being able to cast its glow all over the recess and be seen
from every part where one can sit. The ingle adapted to modern use, and
justifying the space it occupies in rooms of moderate size, must be
large enough to be comfortable for one to sit in regularly, a place
where one can live, not merely sit to be roasted. The fire must be so
designed as to have something of the feeling of the old fire on the
hearth, and must not be cut off from the recess or in any way allowed
to grow into a fireplace within a fireplace. It is generally well to
make the whole recess into the hearth, and we often arrange for the
fire to burn in a suitably shaped fire-brick hollow, which answers all
purposes excellently. The ingle must be protected from cross draughts,
otherwise the fire cannot be sufficiently exposed. Fenders are best
avoided, and anything like a loose coal-box is a disadvantage. A
coal-box can often be contrived in the thickness of the wall. When
properly arranged, and fitted with comfortable low seats, the ingle
always proves to be a favourite part of the room; the place where
people naturally go to sit and rest.
But I am digressing from the plan, and must return to the living-room
which we are designing. There the ingle is of somewhat special
construction, having several small windows to afford peeps out towards
the court and the view, and to give light conveniently placed for
reading; and also having cupboards for the display of oriental pottery.
The seats are made long enough to recline on.
[Sidenote: _See also plates 25 and 50._]
A large sunny bay facing the fire is arranged to be used as a dining
recess, except in very cold weather. Such a recess relieves a living
room from being uncomfortably blocked up with a meal-table. The bay
also gives us a west window through which the evening light will come.
In all rooms there is a part by the door where no one willingly sits,
because of a certain lack of comfort; it is well to keep such part
of the room as small as possible. Very often a room may be actually
improved by being reduced in width just where the door opens, while the
space cut off may be put to valuable use. In this case the sheltered
south-west balcony, which is obtained by narrowing the two rooms
opposite the doors, adds greatly to the amount of open air life it is
possible to enjoy, and makes it easy to have the pleasure of frequently
taking meals in the open: the little window by the sideboard is
convenient to hand things through for this purpose. A recessed balcony
is, in our climate, much more useful than any projecting verandah. It
is possible, owing to the extra shelter, to sit in such a balcony two
or three times as often as in the verandah with open ends.
[Sidenote: _See plate 32._]
In this room, a sideboard, a large cabinet and the other important
furniture, form part of the scheme: they are thought out and designed
with the building. In the treatment of the room advantage is taken of
the beams and lintels required for the recesses, and where these are
lacking a deep picture rail carrying line with them is adopted, under
which the sideboard, cabinet, and most of the windows are arranged
to finish, leaving an unbroken frieze above, and giving a sense of
order and unity to the whole. This frieze is decorated with a painted
suggestion of landscape; but in simpler treatment, if whitewashed,
or coloured with the ceiling, it would be light & satisfactory. The
lower portion of the walls, under the decorated frieze, is finished in
plaster tinted to the required shade by mixing colouring matter with
the skimming coat; this forms a good, plain, solid-looking background
for either pictures, furniture, or the people who inhabit the room.
Where economy is any consideration we may keep rooms as low as
possible, giving additional space outwards, which is as valuable as
space upwards for use as an air reservoir, and for all other purposes
so much more valuable. This house is nine feet from floor to floor.
[Sidenote: _See plate 33._]
The hall, or entertaining room, being intended for less constant as
well as more formal use, takes a somewhat simpler shape. Placed at the
west corner with windows south-west and north-west it gets all the
sunshine during the afternoon and evening, when most occupied. It is
immediately accessible from the entrance, and opens upon the balcony
and garden through a double window. The fire is placed in an ingle
contrived under the stairs and half landing, an arch being used in this
case to carry the chimney stack and form the recess. The flue from the
fire is brought over on to the arch by means of a copper hood. A little
bay, partly in the porch, lights this ingle. The messenger’s seat in
the porch, a cupboard, and a coal box complete the utilization of
the space under the stairs, which is thus not only made to add to the
convenience, but also to contribute something to the interest of both
the room and the porch.
Adjacent to the entrance is the small sanctum. Here, again, something
is taken off the square room, which, while improving it rather than
otherwise by giving a recess for desk and pigeon holes, enables us to
have a small vestibule with cupboard for visitors’ hats and cloaks. A
comfortable corner between fire and window is left clear for easy chair
and reading stand.
Behind the living-room, with its fireplace at the back of the
living-room fireplace, is placed the kitchen. It occupies the east
corner of the house, and has its main window to the north-east, the
right aspect for a kitchen. There is a small window to the south-east,
to light the range and make a comfortable place for sewing or reading.
One corner between fire and window should always be kept free from
doors in a kitchen, so that there may be a place to sit in; and a still
more comfortable kitchen results, when it is possible to collect all
the doors on one side.
The larder has its window in the back porch, to get a north aspect;
while thorough ventilation is secured by an opening on the south-east
under the eaves where the sun cannot reach it. The cellar was added
after the preliminary plans were made, the scullery being re-arranged
to allow of it. This latter is shaped to obstruct as little as possible
the squint window in the living-room ingle, and at the same time faces
south, which, as there is no fireplace, is a good aspect for it.
The staircase rises from the corridor, and as it is accessible from
all parts without passing the doors of the reception rooms, a back
staircase is not needed. Where economy is a consideration the back
staircase is one of the first things which may be dispensed with, for
it adds so little real comfort in proportion to its cost.
[Sidenote: _See plate 2._]
The bedroom plan follows pretty closely the ground plan, the bedrooms
also leading off a corridor round the inner court. All four bedrooms
are arranged so that in addition to being convenient as bedrooms, they
have at least a corner near the fire comfortable to sit in. In small
houses to regard a bedroom as a sleeping room only is a mistake. The
accommodation is greatly increased when each member of the household
can use his or her bedroom as a private den also. The balcony is
repeated on the first floor--the bedrooms being as serviceable without
the space it occupies--and by reason of the parapet and overhanging
eaves, it is even more sheltered than that on the ground floor; and it
is thus possible in two bedrooms to sleep practically in the open air
in almost all weathers. It has special value, too, as an addition to
the west room, which is designed for the boy’s bedroom and study. Here
the bed fits in a deep recess out of the way; a washstand is contrived
in the sill of the window of the same recess, which is slightly bayed
to give the needful room; and a curtain may be drawn across, cutting
off all the special bedroom appliances; so leaving a good comfortable
study. A window is put to bring the south-east sun into bedroom No.
3, the wide sill of which in the rather narrow room may be used for
a dressing table. In bedroom No. 4 an over-hanging window recess is
carried out on the joists, to avoid the want of comfort which one
always feels on the window side of a room when the door opens right in
the corner, as here. This room has also a little window towards the
court to bring in morning sun; and thus all the bedrooms get through
ventilation and plenty of sunshine.
Of the treatment of the rooms little need be said. The recesses by the
chimney breasts are fitted with cupboards and bookshelves, which are
designed to include simple framings or mantels for the fireplaces, and
the cornices of which are arranged to match the cornice over doors and
windows and to carry line with a picture rail running round the room.
Wall papers or other decorations stop at this rail, all above being
taken in with the ceiling. This arrangement enables the ceiling to be
broken up by the slopes of the low roofs without giving the ugly odds
and ends of papered wall, which really are the only unpleasing feature
about a ceiling broken up in that way.
During the whole of the planning the elevations are of course kept
in view, and the block design carried away in the mind from the site
constantly exerts a modifying influence. The difficulty usually is
to maintain sufficient simplicity; so many features are suggested by
little conveniences of planning that one has continually to cut them
out, never to seek for them merely for the sake of effect.
This plan which we have just considered, representing, perhaps, rather
a large house to be classed as “small,” does not quite illustrate
one point to which we attach very great importance in the designing
of small houses. The second plan shown gives me an opportunity of
referring to this. Here a special effort was made to obtain one room
giving some sense of space in a house not large enough to contain
several large rooms. In all small houses much must be sacrificed, but
it seems to us to be infinitely less of a sacrifice to reduce the
number of rooms, than to reduce the size of them all. In every small
house it should be a first consideration to secure one room large
enough to allow of some interest being worked into the room itself, and
to afford some comfort and dignity of life to its occupants.
[Sidenote: _See plates 3, 64, and 65._]
In the plan now before us the hall was made into the chief living room;
it is carried up two stories to provide for an organ gallery. The
gallery leading to the balcony, the landing, and the staircase, are all
thrown into this hall; the stairs are so arranged as to afford a screen
to the fire, and form a sort of deep ingle with low ceiling under the
landing. The low ceiling continues under the organ gallery and the
balcony, the central part of the hall being open to the full height.
The sense of cosiness in this ingle is greatly enhanced by contrast
with the lofty open space outside; while the variety in lighting,
whether when the morning sun streams in at the great east window, or
when the ingle glows red in the gathering dusk, adds a perpetual charm.
In the gallery is a second fire, with a lounge seat by the organ, under
a kind of canopy formed by the half-landing of the second floor stairs.
[Sidenote: _See plate 4._]
To obtain this spacious hall the remainder of the house has been
reduced as much as possible. Only one other small room, for den or
meal-room, is provided, with kitchens, offices, and four bedrooms,
two of which are on the second floor. Lest you should be inclined
to think that only for people living a very exceptional life would
it be advantageous to throw so much space into one room, I will
next refer to a design drawn for a London literary man, who, though
not able to afford a large house, still by reason of his position
required occasionally to be able to entertain a good many people.
Here the first consideration has been to obtain a hall which would be
at once a comfortable living-room and a dignified entertaining room.
The meal-room has been kept as small as would just allow of a little
dinner-party being given in it. The fire is placed in one corner, the
sideboard in another; had it been possible to put the door also in
a corner it would have been still more convenient, for in a small
dining-room it is in the corners that there is a little space to spare.
The narrow Hampstead building plot, having a south-west aspect, and
the best prospect to the south, dictated the general arrangement of
the house and the placing of the best room at the south corner. This
room is spanned by two arches to carry the wall of the study over;
within one of them is placed the fire recess with seats and fitment,
thus using up all the space under the stairs to add to the size and
character of the room; while the stairs themselves, which are shut
off from the vestibule by a door, are also open to the room, the
quarter-landing forming a small gallery overlooking it.
The staircase is such an essentially interesting and decorative feature
in a house, and the space under and around it may be made to add so
much to a room both in size and individuality, that it always seems a
pity to shut it off in a mere passage. In old houses the charm of some
departure from the plain room is well recognised, for the favourite
view, alike for the artist and the photographer, is always that which
contains some peep of stairs from the hall, some gallery, balcony,
ingle, or deep window recess. When the most is made of such advantages
as can be claimed for the bare square room, they seem but a poor
compensation for the loss of character and charm.
Over the hall in this house are placed the client’s study and bedroom,
the two being combined that both may have the benefit of the whole air
space: book cases and curtains screen off the bedroom portion. Double
doors and double windows are fitted to this room, for perfect quiet
both by day and by night is essential; and further to secure this,
ventilation is obtained independently of the windows by means of two
fireplaces and an air shaft built in one of the stacks. The client’s
wife, son and daughter all proposed to make considerable use of their
bedrooms in the day time.
But I must pass on now to cottages, the second part of our subject. The
distinction between a small house and a cottage, never a very clear
one, has been further obscured by a common affectation of simplicity.
The word certainly suggests a simple shelter for a simple form of life,
and for our purposes I propose to regard as a cottage any house in
which separate accommodation is not provided for servants. Provision
for domestic help there may be, but it must be “as one of the family,”
not constituting a separate class to be separately provided for.
To cottages, what has been said about the advantage of securing a good
living-room, even at great sacrifice of other conveniences, applies
with additional force. For not only is the total space at our command
usually less, but the number of functions which the living-room has to
provide for is greater, many of the functions of a kitchen being added
to it. To combine the comfort of a living-room with the convenience for
work of a kitchen will tax our skill in planning, and as the space
we can give becomes less, our care in the disposal of it must become
greater.
[Sidenote: _See plates 5 & 37._]
Let us again proceed by way of example, taking a largish cottage
designed for a client who wished to live a quiet simple life, yet on a
scale that would allow of his enjoying the more necessary comforts and
refinements. The site is near a small Derbyshire town, and consists
of a mound caused by the out-crop of some shale grit. On the north
runs a stream, to which the ground falls precipitously; the road is to
the west, and there is a steep fall here also; to the east the fall
is slight, while to the south the ground rises gently. There are fine
views in all directions, most interesting to the north, least so to the
south. The client, however, desired the main windows of the living-room
to be to the west, having a special liking for the evening light. The
site seemed to demand a simple oblong house with plain span-roof kept
as low as possible, forming a sort of crest on the steep-sided mound.
The western end of the building becomes the living-room, having windows
with the desired outlook. There is a window to the north to command the
best of the view; another on the south side admits plenty of sun; and
in addition on this side there is the outer door, placed there that it
may be possible to enjoy the charm which a door opening direct from a
room upon a sunny garden always gives. Such a door must, however, be
so placed that while the peep out is obtained the comfort of the room
is not destroyed. Here we have gathered the two doors and the stair
foot together in a narrow part of the room out of the way, leaving all
the rest of the space comfortable to occupy. The fire is placed on the
north wall, in a deep recess; one side of which is devoted to rest, the
other to work. The former is occupied by a comfortable low seat; in
the latter is fixed a plate-rack, and a working dresser fitted with a
small fixed bowl for washing up glass and china. All the kitchen work
done in the living-room is thus confined to the one corner handy to the
fire for cooking, and well lighted by the north window. The fireplace
is designed to be used as a closed cooking stove or as an open fire to
sit round. The floor of the recess is tiled, which enhances a little
the feeling of sitting on the hearth, and at the same time affords the
most easily cleaned surface for the working corner. The arrangement,
though producing a little the effect of a room within a room, secures
at anyrate some of the cosiness of an ingle. We are enabled to get a
sheltered garden-seat by reducing the width of the recess to a more
comfortable dimension. The ingle is further defined by an archway, on
one side of which is fitted a writing desk, and on the other the piano
is designed to stand, occupying part of the space under the rising
stairs, the remaining portion being taken up with a store cupboard
opening into the kitchen. A second resting place is provided by a wide
low window seat in the main window. Fixed seats are arranged for two
sides of the meal table, one having a high back to screen it from any
draught coming through the outer door.