2019-10-01 Discover Britain

SIR EDWIN LUTYENS

Lutyens,likemanysuccessfulpeople,was

alsoa self-promoterandoperator.In 1897

a newlifestylemagazine,CountryLife,was

createdbyEdwardHudson.Notonlydid

Hudsonfeaturemanyof Lutyens’designs,

hecommissioneda numberof buildings

fromhim,includinga refurbishmentof

LindisfarneCastleandthenewCountry

Lifeheadquartersat 8 TavistockStreet,

London.BeforeLutyens,Lindisfarnehad

beena tiny,coldhistoricfortressonthetop

of a Northumbriancoastalrock.In 1903 he

transformedit intoa romanticEdwardian

getawayforHudson.

Bythebeginningof the20thcentury,

Lutyens,stillin histhirties,wasrecognised

asoneof thedefiningvoicesin British

Memorialto theMissingof theSommeand
theimposingMeninGate,aswellassmaller
monumentsacrosstheBritishEmpire.
Hewasalsoresponsibleforthesimplewhite
headstones.Priorto 1914thebodiesof
soldierswererepatriatedif theirfamilies
couldaffordtheexpenseordisposedof in
massgraves.WiththeFirstWorldWar
cametheundertakingthateachserviceman
shouldhavea personalheadstoneevenif
theinscriptionsimplystated,“Knownto
God”– a phraseselectedbyTheJungle
BookauthorRudyardKipling.
Intheyearsbetweenthetwoworld
warsLutyenscompletedmanycountry
homes,whilealsodesigningofficesin a
© JOHN MILLER/LANDMARK TRUST/HERITAGE IMAGE PARTNERSHIP LTD/ALAMY verydifferentstyle,fullof arches,domes

This image:

Goddards in Surrey

is available to rent

Below: Gertrude

Jekyll at Deanery

Garden, c.1901

Lutyens created great

war memorials across the

British Empire, but his

abiding memorial

remains the English

country house

architecture. At a time when a gentleman

might expect to have houses both in London

and in the country, Lutyens brilliantly

provided the latter. He would have been the

architect of Windy Corner, the Surrey home

of Lucy Honeychurch in EM Forster’s

A Room with a View. Important works of

this period include houses seemingly

without number in Surrey, Deanery Garden

and Folly Farm in Berkshire, Overstrand

Hall in Norfolk, and Julius Drewe’s Castle

Drogo in Devon. Drogo is perhaps the most

original English building that Lutyens ever

designed [see issue 210]. It is the reduction

of a medieval castle to its core elements

• battlements, drawbridge, grand staircase


• yet simultaneously modern. The National
  Trust are still struggling to reinforce and
  maintain Drogo because it was built with
  corners cut by the impatient owner, but it
  is without doubt the last great castle built in
  Britain without being in any way pastiche.
  Given his winning combination of tact
  and imagination, it’s not surprising that
  even before the end of the First World War
  Lutyens was chosen to build our national
  memorials. He created not only the
  Cenotaph in Whitehall but also the ³