June, 
19 2 0 
37 
A HOUSE FOR A LONG PLOT 
This English Country Home of Moderate Size Solves Some of the 
Problems Confronting Builders 'Today 
H. D. EBERLEIN 
The Plan 
■wall and 
gate tie the 
garage to the 
service "wing, 
making a har- 
m o n i 0 u s 
grouping 
From the house door a 
long, well-lighted gallery 
traverses the north side of 
the ground floor giving ac¬ 
cess to all the living rooms 
—the drawing room, the 
library and the dining 
room—all of which have 
a southern exposure and 
look out upon the flower 
garden. From this galler}’ 
the staircase ascends in an 
ell in the eastern or service 
wing, and, on the floor 
aljove, the same long gal¬ 
lery arrangement is re¬ 
peated so that all of the 
bedrooms have a southern 
exposure with the single 
exception of a small bed¬ 
room in the western wing 
overlooking the forecourt. By having one 
range of kitchen windows looking out 
upon the forecourt the kitchen lights serve 
to illuminate the forecourt at night so that 
other lighting arrangements are unneces¬ 
sary. 
The piazza extending part way across 
the south front of the house at first sight 
appears to be merely a per¬ 
gola or arbor. 'Fhere is, 
however, a glass roof with 
I just sufficient slope to shed 
the water and this, while 
yielding protection in rainy 
weather, does not prevent 
the entrance of light to the 
rooms below. 
The texture of the walls 
is rough, a result secured 
by pulling the floats away 
from the wet stucco, thus 
sucking out portions of the 
surface. The four lower 
courses of bricks in the 
base are painted l^lack, a 
device that prevents un¬ 
sightly discoloration by 
spatterings from the eaves 
and also imparts a certain 
pleasant emjfliasis. Ifvery- 
thing is simple and direct. 
L ONGFIELD, on the 
j IMadingley Road, near 
Cambridge, is an especially 
happy example of recent 
British domestic architec¬ 
ture in its application to 
the house of moderate size. 
As a moderate sized house 
of simple character, its 
practical value to pro¬ 
spective house builders is 
obvious. The full merits 
of the treatment can best 
be appreciated if we first 
note the nature of the proli- 
lem confronting the archi¬ 
tect, Harry Redfern. 
I'he name Longfield ex¬ 
actly denotes the character 
of the plot for which the 
house was designed. The 
site is literally a long field 
whose end touches the 
Madingley Road and 
thence stretches awa}' 
soutlnvard, a field wfliose 
extreme width is scarce!}’ 
greater than the length of 
the house built within it. 
Besides the limitations of 
length and the narrowness 
of the land, it was neces- 
sar}’ to place the house so 
that it would be shielded 
from the dust of the high¬ 
way, have the maximum of sunny exposure, 
and gardens laid out to advantage. 
The approach was planned by a lane 
running along one side of the grounds 
while all the rest of the width of the land, 
extending lengthwise from the road to the 
house, is given over to the kitchen garden. 
I'his arrangement terminates in a small 
forecourt in front of the 
north or entrance side of 
the house; The house ex¬ 
tends across almost the 
full width of the land; it 
becomes a dividing line 
and a protecting barrier 
completely screening the 
flower garden on the south. 
The forecourt 
gives ample 
space for a 
turn - around. 
The entrance 
detail is un¬ 
usual 
Architectural Style 
In style the house closely 
follows the trend of local 
tradition. Its prototypes 
are to be found by the 
score throughout the neigh¬ 
borhood, some of them 
dating from the 15th Cen¬ 
tury. Longfield, therefore, 
represents a modern de¬ 
velopment of long-estab¬ 
lished native tradition and 
precedent, but a develop¬ 
ment in which have been 
incorporated such modifi¬ 
cations and additions as 
suit it to present-day needs 
and to the particular re¬ 
quirements of the occu¬ 
pants and the conditions 
of the site. In that very 
fact lies its claim to the 
possession of the safest 
architectural originality. 
The materials were 
brick, stucco, and the red 
tiles for the roof. It re¬ 
mained only to formulate 
the i)lan and to create an 
agreeable composition. 
Along one side of the 
forecourt is the kitchen 
garden. An old ■wooden 
gate breaks the hedge. 
The paths are bordered 
by lavender 
