Building record 1544000000 - Idlecombe Farmhouse

History:
Idlecombe Farmhouse was built as a farm manager's house in 1953-4 by architect and designer Erno
Goldfinger (1902 -1987) for Paul and Marjorie Abbatt. The Abbatts had a long association with Goldfinger, who had designed both an apartment for them in Tavistock Square, London (1936, demolished) and their important Wimpole Street toy shop, Paul and Marjorie Abbatt Ltd (1936, demolished), as well as furniture, toys and children's games. Arising from this, Goldfinger was invited to design the children's sections of the British Pavilion for the Paris International Fair in 1937 and for the MARS Group exhibition in 1938.
The Abbatts had connections with the neighbouring village, and although they moved to Sussex in the
mid-1950s, they retained the farm until c1970 when it was acquired by the farm manager and his family, who were established local farmers. It has remained in their family.
Initially the design was refused by the local authority who objected to the butterfly roof on the grounds that it would clash with the surrounding Chiltern countryside, citing the 'high scenic value of the area and of the Turville valley in particular' and the traditional architecture of the area. The Abbatts countered that they had employed one of the best architects in practice, precisely because of the value they placed on aesthetic considerations.
The approved design, published in Architectural Design in April 1954, shows a projecting canopy at the
eastern end of the building, designed to provide cover for the external store and entrance to the kitchen. This was not built as intended and the porch has been subsequently enclosed in brick. Because of a dispute between Goldfinger and the Abbatts the house was completed without him in a stripped down form compared to the published designs.
The associated farm buildings which were built at the same time are now primarily used as livery stables and have been altered and extended. Correspondence confirms that Goldfinger was involved in planning the layout of the farm buildings although the construction and detail was handed to agricultural building specialists. Goldfinger also gave a lecture around that time on 'planning for modern agriculture'. However, since the layout of the farm differs from the linear design published in Architectural Design (1954), it appears that Goldfinger's design was not adopted or is much altered. The farm buildings are not included in the assessment.
Erno Goldfinger is considered one of the foremost architects of his generation. A Hungarian émigré, he
moved to Paris in 1920 where he trained under Auguste Perret at the École des Beaux-Arts and was closely involved in the early years of the Modern Movement on the Continent. He moved to Britain in 1934, where, unlike many of his contemporaries, he continued to be a major exponent of these ideas in the post-war period. He is perhaps best known for his larger projects such as Alexander Fleming House, London,1959-63 (now Metro Central Heights) and currently under assessment for listing, and for his public housing schemes of the late 1960s for the LCC (Balfron Tower, listed Grade II, Trellick Tower, Grade II* and the adjacent Cheltenham estate currently under assessment for listing).
Brandlehow School (Grade II) and Greenside School (Grade II*) were built in 1950-1 under the LCC
temporary buildings scheme. At both Goldfinger used the butterfly roof for the caretaker's houses. Of his private houses, the best known is the terrace that included his own house, at Willow Road, Hampstead Heath (1938, Grade II*). A number are known only from drawings having never been built. Of the surviving or relatively unaltered houses, the Perry House, Windlesham, Surrey,1967-69, is listed Grade II*.
Details:
MATERIALS: cavity walls, faced in red brick. Painted (but originally intended as oiled) timber panel above the entrance. Butterfly roof clad in bituminised felt; timber bargeboards. Some steel-framed windows, most, including the front door unit, now uPVC. Where visible, concrete quarry-tiled and asbestos-tiled floors.
PLAN: single-storey bungalow, rectangular on plan, comprising a living room, kitchen, three bedrooms and bathroom, beneath a symmetrical butterfly roof and aligned roughly east-west, parallel to the valley. Entrance to the north set back under deep continuous eaves. Originally designed with a large canopy to the east, supported on slender columns, it has a single-storey brick extension to the east, beneath a slightly lower, asymmetrical butterfly roof that encloses the kitchen entrance and storage cupboards. Small, added, single-storey extension to the west.
EXTERIOR: the butterfly roof projects north and south with a plain soffit which continues as plain, boxed, slightly tapering bargeboards on the east and west elevations. The bottom of the roof valley is set low, a little above door height. The north elevation has an off-centre entrance, set back under continuous projecting eaves, and an uPVC door unit flanked by a shallow steel-framed window unit, all beneath a flush, timber fascia. The threshold is quarry-tiled. As elsewhere on the external walls, flanking three and four-light uPVC casements appear to be in original openings. Windows have exposed concrete lintels and tiled external and internal cills. The eastern extension is shallower than the main house, and set back slightly from the north elevation, whereas the original design depicts a flush front wall. On the southern elevation the living room breaks forward slightly from the main façade and has a large window, which on the original specification was intended as a full-height sliding door, giving access to the garden. The western kitchen door is flush-panelled and flanked by a steel-framed casement. Small brick stacks project above the roof, at the rear serving the living room and to the north of the valley serving the kitchen boiler.
INTERIOR: the slanting pitch of the soffit of the butterfly roof is exposed throughout. Flush-panelled doors in shallow architraves have replaced door furniture. The bathroom and adjacent laundry room window unit has a deep, flat, internal cill. Fitted cupboards have been removed.
Selected Sources:
Architectural Design, April 1954; The Architect and Building News , Feb 1954; J Dunnett and G Stamp eds, Erno Goldfinger, Works 1; N Warburton , Erno Goldfinger - The life of an architect , 2004.

Idlecombe Farmhouse is not recommended for designation for the following principal reasons:
- Intactness: as a result of a dispute between the owners and architect the house was built to a reduced
version of Goldfinger’s design, and lacks some of the distinctive, carefully considered detail that was
fundamental to the original design; it also has later extensions and alterations;
- Plan and fittings: lack of the external covered porch which was a strong feature of the original design;
replacement windows; conventional interior plan with loss of internal built-in fittings;
- Materials: constructed more economically than with the carefully chosen materials of the original
specification;
- Innovation: butterfly roof, a device used by Goldfinger earlier in the decade, designed to minimise the impact of the house on the landscape (B1).