The Dormy House

Description

The Dormy House was a residential club house for a golf-club: consequently it had a big common room and two floors of bedrooms. Its plan is a simple oblong and its elevations symmetrical and reticent with white-washed walls defined by red brick quoins and string courses. However, the symmetry is just that little relieved by the odd window on one side of the door, and the roof just that much lifted so that the lines of both tell. Also metal-framed casements are used instead of the Queen Anne sashes that one would expect. (Amery et al., 1981, cat no.168)

SE of the church is an area of expensive villas of c. 1910 beside the famous WALTON HEATH GOLF CLUB (opened 1903). Earliest is DORMY HOUSE, adjacent to the clubhouse and close to the first tee, of 1906 by Lutyens for Lord Riddell, managing director of the News of the World, originally as an upmarket lodge with common room and card rooms etc. for his golfing guests. Brick quoins and plinth, whitewashed walls, louvred shutters. Two storeys of bedrooms originally, one in the steep pantiled roof that gives its French flavour. Entrance on the short end. Converted to flats in 1974 and sadly deprived of character. (O’Brien, 2022, pp.696-7)

Bibliography

Amery, C., Richardson, M. and Stamp, G. (1981) Lutyens, the Work of the English Architect Sir Edwin Lutyens (1869-1944): Hayward Gallery London, 18 November 1981-31 January 1982. London: Arts Council of Great Britain.

O’Brien, C., Nairn, I. and Cherry, B. (2022) Surrey. Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Also Cited In

Weaver, L. (1913) Houses and Gardens by E L Lutyens. London: Country Life.

Nairn, I., Pevsner, N. (1971) Surrey (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England). 2nd edn. Yale University Press.

W, 1912. COUNTRY BUILDINGS OF TO-DAY: THE DORMY HOUSE, WALTON HEATH, DESIGNED BY MR. E. L. LUTYENS. Country Life (Archive : 1901 – 2005), 32(827), pp. 7-8, 11.

Listing Grade

N/A

Listing Reference

Client

G A Riddell