Building record 1420100000 - Grenville Paddock, Aston Road

History: Grenville Paddock stands in a large garden which, according to the 1921 OS map, was formerly an orchard.
The house is on the market, with completion of the sale imminent and is the subject of a pre-application enquiry from the prospective purchaser to demolish and redevelop the site.
The house was designed and built in 1957 by Katerina Cholerton as a weekend retreat for Sir William and Lady Williams. Gertrude Williams, who was Professor of Economics at Bedford College, London, was a keen feminist and employed Katerina Cholerton, a young female architect who had qualified with a diploma from the Architectural Association, and at that time was working for John Prizeman Associates. It is thought that this is the only house and possibly the only building that she designed. After an early marriage, she continued her career as a sculptor. The house was extended and modified in 1960 by the same architect to provide a study and, at a slightly later date, a room for use as a picture gallery.
The design was influenced by the house at Seer Green, Buckinghamshire, built in 1952 for Lady Williams' close family. The affordable price of land in Buckinghamshire in the post-war years prompted a number of architect-designed private houses. In Haddenham these included the notable group at Turn End by Peter Aldington, which he designed and built for himself in 1963-8 (listed Grade II+) and the slightly later Diggs Field (listed Grade II) which Aldington designed in 1967-9 for Diana Alderson and Dr and Mrs Leslie.
In its first phase, Grenville Paddock consisted of the core of two bedrooms, a small bathroom, a small kitchen with a dining area that is essentially the corridor between the bedrooms and a large living room. The entrance was at the rear, adjoining the bathroom. There was also to be an independent garage to the west.
When Lady Williams retired in the mid-1960s she spent more time at Grenville Paddock. In 1960 she had added a study and a second cloakroom and built the garage which was outlined in the original proposal.
Finally, in the late 1960s or early 1970s, Lady Williams added another room as a picture gallery to form a continuous range of buildings from the house to the garage. After she died in 1979, the house was bought by the current owners, the members of the family who had built the Seer Green house.
Details: Grenville Paddock is a single-storey building, constructed of masonry cavity walls on a concrete slab. External walls are rendered and painted whereas the original drawings specified western red cedar cladding on the rear elevations and the rear section. The roof over the main building is mono-pitched, the main block having a small brick chimney stack protruding through it. Most windows are cedar units, those on the south elevation of large fixed panels; the cedar front and rear doors have narrow vertical glazed panels.
The original section of the house comprised two, staggered, parallel rectangular blocks, where the rear block is slightly smaller in scale. Visually, the main, south-facing elevation is in three sections. The western end is treated as a glazed wall, wrapping round the living room and having, unusually, a narrow opening wall panel between fixed windows. The central glazed unit includes a door which gives onto the terrace, while the eastern, bedroom section is a solid wall. The outer window unit in the west return has been replaced. Internally, these windows are set above a shallow timber window cill. The protruding east elevation has a shallow pitched roof with a pair of similar sized timber window units, whereas the drawings suggested an offset arrangement under mono-pitched roofs.
In plan, a large living room fills the western half of the building overlooking the garden to the front and lit by clerestory windows at rear. When first built it also overlooked a terrace to the west. A prominent internal stack and open fireplace backs onto a small kitchen. The stack is built of exposed grey brick, picked out with a darker grey polished masonry band, and has a glazed brick hearth. To the side of the fireplace is an integral coal hole, with external access to the rear of the house. Steps descend to the dining area, which occupies the narrow passage-like area between the sitting room and bedrooms, and is divided from the kitchen by a built-in pine dresser. Two bedrooms and a small bathroom occupy the eastern end of the front block range and the parallel rear block. The main bedroom has been extended eastwards, flush with the rear block. The original rear entrance has been incorporated into the bathroom. The current south-facing entrance, under a flat-roofed canopy, leads to a small lobby in the added, 1960 wing which is set back from the main range. To the west, a single-storey study, again with a similarly detailed exposed brick chimney stack on the rear wall, leads to the slightly later gallery which is connected to it by sliding doors. Ceilings in this section have
exposed vertically-set joists. Some internal doors, particularly in the bedrooms, are flush panelled and have nickel-plated door furniture. The bedrooms and kitchen and kitchen dining area were fitted with built-in cupboards, in the guest room complete with a concealed sink. More recently, wardrobes have been added in the main bedroom. Above the doors, the walls are clad in vertical cedar boarding. Floors in the main block are of narrow pine boards.
Attached to the south-east corner of the house is a paved area beneath a timber loggia.
Part of the old boundary wall is built of wichert, a mixture of clay and chalk mixed with chopped straw, in the local vernacular tradition, and the flank wall of the garage, which forms a screen wall approaching house, was designed with this in mind.
Selected Sources: House for Lady Williams, unpublished plans and elevations, dated 5.7.1957 and Oct 1960.
Building put forward for listing in early 2011 but DCMS decided not to list: 'Grenville Paddock's design by a woman architect in the early stages of her career in the 1950s is certainly a claim to note. The benchmark for listing private houses of post-war date is high, however, and this building lacks the assurance and panache that has singled out some of its contemporaries for designation. The house has clear local interest but does not possess the special qualities that would justify listing.' (B1).