Clock Tower, Loggias, Towers, And Associated Buildings At The Pleasaunce

A clock tower with flanking loggias and an attached series of outbuildings with smaller round towers and a feature bake oven, built 1897-9 by Sir Edwin Lutyens. The buildings are of roughcast brick with tile dressings and tiled roofs, arranged in a rectangular courtyard plan with one open side and further outbuildings extending up the drive to the right of the courtyard.

Architecture

The western range is dominated by a central square battered tower (tapering towards the top). The tower has a central semicircular headed doorway with a monumental keystone. To either side of the doorway is a small recessed rectangular light with a continuous band of tiles to their heads, then a band of tiles, then two more bands of tiles framing two more slit lights. Above this is a clock face, and the top storey is glazed with sloping horizontal sliding sashes with specially sloping glazing bars. The tower is crowned with a pyramidal roof. One flanking bay to either side of the tower is now a garage with doors.

The northern and southern ranges each comprise three bays with open semicircular arches on squat piers. The gable returns have archways with semicircular heads and a half-hipped roof, under the eaves of which a semicircular opening is scooped out, echoing the archway below.

To the right of the southern range are further ranges with two round towers with conical roofs. On the corner facing the house is a large feature bake oven, its spherical top partly revealed within the surrounding brickwork. Above is a pentice roof and a massive stack. Beyond is a building with altered fenestration and a hipped roof.

Historical Context

This group of buildings forms part of a very significant seaside home built from 1897 onwards by Lord and Lady Battersea, designed by one of the most important of all British architects, Sir Edwin Lutyens. The development followed the emergence of Cromer, only a couple of miles away, as a fashionable seaside resort in the 1880s, when well-to-do families built large houses to enjoy the bracing air. The Pleasaunce is almost certainly the largest of these houses. Its original name 'The Cottage' probably referred to the original house incorporated in the core of the new one. The name might have been a joke, given the house has some 35 bedrooms, except for what it could be compared with: Lady Battersea was the eldest daughter of Sir Anthony de Rothschild of Aston Clinton, Buckinghamshire, niece of Mayer Rothschild of Mentmore and Lionel, the first Jewish Member of Parliament, and granddaughter of Nathaniel Mayer Rothschild, founder of the London branch of the great banking house. She was thus a cousin of Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild, builder of Waddesdon. Waddesdon was being completed in 1888 at the same time as the Batterseas bought a couple of original villas, which they linked to form one home. Set alongside Waddesdon and other Rothschild properties, The Pleasaunce is perhaps a cottage in comparison.

Cyril Flower, created Lord Battersea in 1892, was the son of a wealthy businessman with multiple shops in Battersea, a Liberal Member of Parliament and Chief Whip in Gladstone's 1886 Government. Both he and his wife had artistic interests. Lady Battersea was interested in architecture early on: near her home at Aston Clinton is a former infants school, now listed, built as a present for her on her 16th birthday 'at her own request'. The quality of the Batterseas' pictures inherited by members of the Rothschild family testifies to these artistic interests, since they included 16th-century Italian pictures and a Tiepolo, now at Ascott. The rest of the contents of the house took 12 days to sell in the 1930s after Lady Battersea's death.

This important commission, which Lutyens received early in his career, had an architectural sting in the tail because the couple insisted that the recently built villas set close together and united as one were not demolished for the new house but incorporated in it. Perhaps this quirky demand was something to do with their philanthropic interests and a desire not to be labelled as a couple so rich that they could pull down a couple of houses only a few years old. Whatever the reason, it may have given Lutyens the concept of a large house evolved over several generations. In addition to disguising the pre-existing buildings, he added elements which are mid-17th century, late 17th century, and early 18th century in style, both vernacular and polite, to achieve a very large rambling house which seems endless. Lutyens also built stables, cottages, an amazing open covered walk, a chapel-like place for writing and contemplation looking out to the sea for the poetess Emily Lawless, and a gateway in Moorish style, as well as other entrance gates and garden features. There are many imaginative ideas and, as the overall atmosphere is a wonderful seat of pleasure by the sea, The Pleasaunce is well named.

Whilst it may not have been of the grandeur of Waddesdon, visitors were of the grandest: Queen Alexandra and her sister, the Empress of Russia, made an unexpected visit in 1911, just driving over from Sandringham, much to the consternation of the staff. The Royal connection may have helped in getting the 27-year-old Lutyens the commission, for it was in the year of his marriage. His mother-in-law was a Lady-in-Waiting and the Batterseas had bought the house from Lord Suffield, who was a friend of the Prince of Wales, later Edward VII. Lady Battersea and Queen Alexandra were probably friends long before 1911, and indeed in 1896 Lutyens had designed The Inn, Roseneath, Dunbartonshire for the sculptress Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll, sister of the Prince of Wales.

Although the house was virtually complete by August 1898, Lutyens returned to make additions and alterations nearly every year from 1899 to 1909. Although the Batterseas were not easy clients and Lutyens wrote in 1899 that he was 'not at all proud of the Pleasaunce', this view is from his own perception of perfection.

The Batterseas extended the garden and lived on in the house until their deaths, Lord Battersea in 1907 and Lady Battersea in 1931. In 1936 the house was sold and became a Christian charity holiday home, continuing in this use with the house filled with visitors as was always intended. The beautifully tiled kitchens and service areas still have a suitably large batterie-de-cuisine constantly in use.

Significance

This clock tower with flanking loggias and attached series of outbuildings with smaller round towers and feature bake oven is a very fine example of Lutyens' genius. The smaller scale of the lower buildings enhances the grand entrance to the house opposite and contrasts with the extremely unusual clock and look-out tower, which is the climax of the group. The whole is of very high quality, whether the outstanding tower, or the loggias with monumental keystones and the reversed arch detail, or the conical towers and bake oven. The group stands just across the drive from the main house and all form an imaginative and picturesque ensemble.