Stoke Canon, Devon

SOLD

Architect: Blundell Jones & Smith

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The Round House is a remarkable four-bedroom house set amongst attractive gardens that was designed by the architects Peter Blundell Jones and Gillian Smith. Completed in 1976, it was built for the parents of Blundell Jones and is now being sold, having never before been on the open market. The house can be found on the edge of the popular Devon village of Stoke Canon, just four miles from the centre of the cathedral city of Exeter.

Blundell Jones, now a noted architectural writer and Professor of Architecture at the University of Sheffield, described the design in an Architectural Review article on the house as having “a room in the middle where the family can sit around the fire on a winter’s evening”. He went on to add that “this is the dominant element to which all else relates, wound round this heart of the matter is the circulation… Beyond lie all the other rooms, each of which overlooks the garden”. The house is singled out for a special mention in the celebrated ‘The Buildings of England’ architectural guides by Nikolaus Pevsner.

Accommodation includes the living room (with built-in sofas) described above, a kitchen, dining room, three bedrooms (one with en suite bathroom), a family bathroom and a further room currently used as a study that could be used as a fourth bedroom. The house is surrounded by gardens and the living room features full-height glass doors that open out onto the green space. There is a double garage and private drive leading up to the property which provides ample space for parking.

Stoke Canon is a historic village just to the north of Exeter which is perhaps best known Stoke Canon Bridge, a long stone bridge (still in use today) that dates back to at least the 13th century. There is a Post Office, pub and village shop in the centre of the village. Nearby Exeter is a vibrant and city with a beautiful centre based around the Cathedral. It has numerous shops, schools and restaurants (including the restaurant of the Michelin-starred Michael Caines). It is also has an oustanding transport network with the M5 and Exeter St. Davids railway station (only ten minutes drive from Stoke Canon) which runs services to London Paddington in just over 2 hours.

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 Round House is described in Pevsner’s THE BUILDINGS OF ENGLAND as:

“a striking house… with the type of modern organic plan more common across the Atlantic than in England. Circular, the curved living room with a hearth, the other rooms spiralling around it… Brick, with shallow-pitched roofs.”

After designing this house as young architects, Peter Blundell Jones went on to become a noted architectural writer (and is now Professor of Architecture at the University of Sheffield) whilst Gillian Smith played a leading role in the celebrated practice of Fielden Clegg and Bradley.

Blundell-Jones himself has recently written an extensive description of the property:

“The Round House was as the retirement home of Geoffrey and Avis Blundell Jones who spent the rest of their lives there. It was built by employing bricklayers, carpenters, plumbers and others directly, with the architects constantly on site and taking part. On completion it was published as an innovative project in Building Design, House and Garden and The Architectural Review.

The site was a cider orchard and was virgin ground, not built on previously. Beneath the topsoil was a hard shale, which provided a stable foundation and even yielded some walling stone. The house was placed towards the top end of the site to exploit the views across the Exe Valley and to get away from the main road, the ground being remodelled to produce a flat turning circle to north and flat areas of lawn to south, contained by retaining walls in massive stepped brickwork. The earth bank at the front greatly reduces road noise and leaves only tall vehicles visible. The drive was cut through from the hill road, and the drains run beneath it.

The main idea of the radial plan was to create an intimate room at the centre concentrating on the hearth, where there is a ten-seater built-in sofa, wonderfully cosy on winter nights. It is not a fully enclosed space but opens to a spreading room taking up two and a half of the ten segments and turning from west to south. The two parts of the living room are therefore like an ingle-nook coupled to a great bay window. The circle has three other advantages: the circulation is short and economical, the garden views and changing orientations of the beautiful secluded site are best exploited, and the circular perimeter allows the shortest length of exposed outside wall. Steps of level within the house follow the site, while also articulating the bedroom passage on the east side with a rise of four steps, and a drop to the lower living room of three steps including a built-in sofa facing the valley view. The retaining walls running outwards divide the garden into a series of outdoor rooms of contrasting character.

With clerestory lights in the central room and rooflights in the hall, passage and garage, there is excellent provision of daylight and sunlight throughout, and since the house is west facing there are wonderful sunsets. Opening windows are PH deluxe with cedar frames and single sliding glass sheets in PVC tracks, a high performace Canadian design; all other windows except the small bullseye’s have sealed double glazed units, as do the rooflights. The external walls were built with a class B engineering brick outer leaf and thermalite inner, but have also been cavity filled. The ten degree pitched roof has a timber structure and three layers of insulation: 50mm woodwool structure, 100mm glass fibre in the cavity and a 25 mm polyeurethane layer beneath the skin.

The garden was beautifully developed by Avis Blundell Jones and includes a number of fine trees as well as a wide range of shrubs.”


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