THE FIVE GABLES 



THE house now to be described represents a realisation of a plan illustrated 

 in the Studio for December 1897. In this realisation some slight modifi- 

 cations were introduced which may be noted in comparing the Studio plan with 

 those now illustrated. 



Unlike other plans which have been illustrated in the Studio this one 

 was originally designed to meet the special requirements of clients and 

 site. It will be noted that the wide doorways between the rooms on the 

 ground floor are used as an expedient to make these appear to combine 

 to form one large apartment, and to avoid that impression of confinement 

 in separate and isolated boxes which constitutes one of the essential defects 

 in the plan of the modern small villa. Further study of the problem 

 of the small house suggests a more complete combination of dining-room and 

 hall, with a possible separate route to the front door from the kitchen through 

 the space occupied by the bicycle-room on the plan; but the plan, as it 

 stands, represents a fairly effectual compromise between the ordinary plan 

 arranged on the separate box system and the logical conclusion arrived 

 at by the study of the actual uses to which the rooms would be put, 

 which might condemn the hall, in so far as it is not used as an exten- 

 sion of the dining-room floor-space, as an inadmissible luxury in a small 

 house. Another feature which might also be considered a luxury is the separate 

 staircase for the servants, and this is mainly justified by special conditions ot 

 plan, which make it possible ro introduce it with the minimum sacrifice of 

 space. 



One of the greatest difficulties in the planning ot the small house is the 

 proper isolation of the kitchen premises from the family apartments. A reference 

 to the plan will show how this difficulty has been met, partly by the inter- 

 position of a brick wall, and partly by the use of the serving-room or pantry 

 as a disconnecting space between the rectangular block containing the kitchen 

 premises and the rest of the house, while the odours of cooking are disposed 

 of by a ventilating shaft carried up at the side of the kitchen flue. 



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