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