Prestwood
Great Missenden, Bucks

SOLD

Architect: Aldington & Craig

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This six-bedroom house, set on a tranquil 3/4 acre plot in the Buckinghamshire village of Prestwood, is the largest private house to have been designed by Peter Aldington, one of Britain’s finest Modern architects. Created by Aldington in collaboration with John Craig, it was completed in 1966 and has since been Grade II listed. Described by English Heritage as architecture of “exceptional harmony”, the design has been little altered today, other than the addition of an elegant glass pavilion containing a swimming pool.

The detached house can be found down a private driveway off a quiet road in Prestwood, near Great Missenden. It is in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and the plot borders onto fields, making for an idyllic setting. A car port and ample parking space can be found at the front, and there is a large garden at the rear.

Internally, perhaps the house’s finest feature is a wonderful, very large reception room with floor-to-ceiling glass doors that open out onto a long balcony with distant views of the Chilterns. The house was designed to accommodate children along one ground-floor wing (which has five bedrooms, a playroom and a bathroom), with a suite upstairs (with bedroom, dressing room and bathroom) for the parents.

As one would expect from a house designed by Aldington, the detailing and use of materials is exquisite throughout. The design is largely influenced by the work of Frank Lloyd Wright and Mies van der Rohe, and one of Aldington’s key concerns was the relationship between the house and the natural surroundings. In an essay entitled Architecture and the Landscape Obligation, Aldington describes the water garden at the rear as a “transition between inside and outside”. For more about the architecture of the house, see the History section below.

The house has been beautifully maintained by the current owners but also sympathetically updated in keys areas such as the kitchen.

Prestwood is a sought-after village in the Chiltern Hills, Buckinghamshire. Although rural in character, thanks to its abundance of fields and rolling hills, it is only a mile from Great Missenden, which runs train services to London Marleybone in approximately 3/4 of an hour. It is approximately ten miles northwest of the M25, and within easy reach of Heathrow Airport. Buckinghamshire has a number of good schools, particularly grammar schools.

For a map, click here.

Please note that all areas, measurements and distances given in these particulars are approximate and rounded. The text, photographs and floor plans are for general guidance only. The Modern House has not tested any services, appliances or specific fittings — prospective purchasers are advised to inspect the property themselves. All fixtures, fittings and furniture not specifically itemised within these particulars are deemed removable by the vendor.


History

The house at Prestwood was built for Mr. Quilter, a local businessman who wanted a house for his large family. Designed in 1964, it was Peter Aldington’s first major commission, and allowed him to set up an independent practice with John Craig.

Aldington was much inspired by the Frank Lloyd Wright book The Natural House, and in an essay (Architecture and the Landscape Obligation) he writes:

“Experiments with breaking down the inside-outside barriers were made at the house in Prestwood. Here we defined two categories of space – those which required privacy… and those which could be more ‘open’ and less well-defined. The private spaces are enclosed… The more open spaces weave between and are loosely defined [by the enclosed spaces]… Sliding glass walls open on to a water garden, partly covered by the overhanging first floor, which acts as a transition between inside and outside, leading the eye from one to the other and inviting a journey…”

The house is a wonderful synthesis of the ideas of Lloyd Wright, the formalism of Scandinavian architects such as Alvar Aalto and the impeccable attention to detail and inventiveness of Aldington. Nikolaus Pevsner’s celebrated Buildings of England describes the house as: “an exciting combination of classic International Modern forms (flat roof, horizontal balconies, circular stair-tower, free plan) and tactile natural materials (timber, rough brick, slate)”.

The house was Grade II listed in 1999, with English Heritage saying that “the harmony of the timber frame, partitions and flooring is exceptional”. They also added that the glass pool extension, designed by Paul Collinge (a former colleague of Aldington) and added in 1992, “is so discreetly placed and sympathetically detailed that it does not detract from the listability of the house”. No other post-war architect has had as many houses listed as Peter Aldington, which is a mark of the quality and durability of his architecture.

 


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