The Folly At Gatley Park

The Folly at Gatley Park is a house dating from 1961 to 1964, designed by Raymond Erith for Mrs Victor Willis, with extensions added between 1973 and 1976, also by Erith. It is constructed from rubble stone with mixed ashlar and rendered dressings, and has a stone tile, domed roof. The building is on an elliptical plan, with three storeys, small single-storey wings, and a single-storey extension.

The entrance front features a curved, copper-roofed verandah below a string course, with an entrance door and window beneath. The wings have ramped parapets with ball finials inspired by the work of William Kent. The first floor has round-headed windows, and the floor above has square-headed windows. Small square windows are set into the staircase and the curve of the dome. The roof terminates in an iron gallery enclosing a lead-covered viewing point, along with a stone chimney stack. The garden front has three ground-floor, arch-headed openings framed in ashlar with keystones and imposts, extended as a string course to the wings; the central opening is a French door. First and second floor windows are similar to those on the entrance front.

The interior is arranged around a stone-paved entrance hall, which leads into the main room. This room has simple architraves to the windows, a plain cornice, a stone chimneypiece with a round-cornered opening and a shouldered architrave rising to support the cornice. The walls are of tongue and groove boarding, covered with original fabric. The roof is supported on roughly chamfered beams. An opening without a door leads to a writing room and a former kitchen, now part of a passageway to the extension, through a lobby with a cranked plan. The extension includes a ground-floor kitchen (with original timber fixtures), a utility room, a bedroom, and a bathroom. A spiral stair with solid timber treads and a scarf-jointed, solid centre post rises to two bedrooms, each with a bathroom, tongue and groove panelling, and shutters to windows. The stair rises further to the roof space, where the roof timbers are visible, terminating with a turned post.

The property is considered a jeu d'esprit (a playful creation) by Erith, showcasing his architectural qualities of historical imagination and economy of means. Although the overall effect is Georgian, the inspiration is eclectic, and the geometric construction of the building as an object in space is related to the lunar cycle. Despite its small size, it is regarded as one of Erith’s most characteristic and successful works.