Summerhouse

TQ 07 SE FAIRHOLME

787/43/10043 Summerhouse

GV II

Summerhouse in centre of gardens: 1935 by T Cecil Howitt, as part of his Fairholme Estate of charitable housing. Timber-framed on York stone plinths, with brick infil nogging to gable ends and bellcast tiled roofs. The building forms an arch over the central path leading to the community centre. The gable ends have bargeboards carved with fruit and vines, and downcast finials. The sides open, the thick wall and sill plates linked by turned balusters as well as thick posts. INTERIOR: a timber ceiling, and fixed seats the length of either side. The summerhouse is the most overtly picturesque of the elements of the Fairholme. In its mixture of vernacular and neo-Georgian elements, and in giving to Raymond Unwin's ideas of angled corners and open layouts a greater formality and a symmetrical nature, Fairholme is an excellent and well detailed example of the development of ideas on low-cost housing and town planning in the 1930s.

Listing NGR: TQ0902173676