Flint Barn

Flint Barn is a house dating from 1923, designed by John Sydney Brocklesby, incorporating earlier timbers. It was built for J.E.H. Baker, an ostrich feather merchant and antique dealer, to showcase his furniture collection. The construction is reinforced concrete faced with flint and incorporating reused timber internally, with a tiled roof, a red brick chimney, and wooden window surrounds with square leaded panes. The building has a rectangular plan, dominated by a large, double-height 'great hall' on the right side.

The main north-facing front features a small porch to the left, a ten-light window at the centre, and a long, low ten-light dormer window set into the roof above two smaller ground floor windows. The east side has a ten-light mullioned window placed off-centre, whilst the south (garden) elevation has a modern brick extension of no special interest, followed by French windows and another ground floor window, with three windows set beneath the eaves at first floor level. The west end features a large mullioned window in three registers.

The interior is characterised by the double-height 'great hall' with a southern gallery (now infilled, but retaining its turned balusters). Originally, the ground floor comprised a hall, kitchen, pantry, den, dining and drawing room, while the first floor included three bedrooms, two dressing rooms, a bathroom, and a box room; these spaces largely survive although their functions have changed.

The design drew inspiration from Merton church, though Brocklesby described the overall effect as “Elizabethan.” The construction technique, employing reinforced concrete with reinforcements derived from redundant aeroplane elements, was innovative for Brocklesby and resulted in difficulties with local building regulations. The building represents an unusual vernacular revival style within the context of 1920s suburban housing, and exemplifies a characteristic work by Brocklesby, who previously undertook significant design work on the John Innes Estate in Merton from 1904. Timber was reused from a demolished barn on Baker's End Farm, necessitated by Brocklesby's development of the Whatley Avenue Estate.