Wittersham House

Description

In the Buildings of England John Newman describes this encasement of an earlier house as ‘one of Lutyens’s most suavely Neo-Georgian designs’. It is a long and low two storeyed house, very calm and assured in its rhythm of windows and the elegantly curved concave entrance under a pediment and loggia. The treatment of the garden is in keeping with the character of this large village house, with a pilastered alcove and stone decorations on the brick walls. There is a plenitude of Lutyens’s handsome garden furniture. (Amery et al., 1981, cat no.169)

Wittersham House, opposite the church. One of Lutyens’s most suavely Neo-Georgian designs, 1906–9, for the Hon. Alfred Lyttelton.* Nothing can be seen outside of the earlier house which Lutyens encased. Seven bays by nine, two storeys, long and low under a low pantiled roof. A restrained design certainly, but not constrained, for plenty happens along the façades. On the entrance front a wide central pediment and under it a one-storey loggia with the front door characteristically set behind in a concave bow. On either side the windows are syncopated, two above to three below. On the garden front every third window is a bullseye. (Pevsner, 2012, p.657)

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.

Pevsner N (2012) Kent: West and the Weald. The Buildings of England. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Also Cited In

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

Aslet, C. (1982) The Last Country Houses. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Listing Grade

II

Listing Reference

1120832

Client

Rt Hon Alfred Lyttleton