THE £1,000 HOUSE
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR]
SIR, I learned with interest from Mr. Edward Banks' letter, in your issue of November 18th, that the house to his design, which won the £i,000 All-British House Competition more than six years ago, has now found material form.
As your readers will no doubt have forgotten the details of my criticism after so long a lapse of time, may I be allowed to quote a small part of them ?
" To many of these critics (none of them unsuccessful competitors) it appeared that the house, as designed, could not be built at all. They complain that one of the graceful and symmetrical chimneys rises from the dining-room ceiling and has no wall to support it ; that the other stands well inside one of the bedrooms. There is some doubt whether and how certain parts of the roof can be sup- ported, and the stairs are found to be comically entangled with the garden-door, so that not only must they be dangerously steep, but the head-room through the doorway cannot be greater than 5' 8" or so. The three dormer windows are prevented from opening to any appreciable extent by the rain-water gutter which runs across them . . . there is no larder . .
If Mr. Banks can assure us that the house has now been built exactly as designed for the competition and these and my other points of criticism proved invalid, and that the cost did not, in fact, exceed £ r,000, I shall be only too glad to make him
the sincerest apology—and so, I feel sure, will his other critics in the technical papers.—Yours faithfully,
GEOFFREY BOUMPHREY.
Conigree, Bredon, near Tewkesbury.
Previous page
