White Fox Lodge

White Fox Lodge is a private house built in 1964 by John Schwerdt and Partners, with Philip Pain acting as job architect for Sidney and Joan Horniblow. The house is constructed of painted white brick, with a flat roof and deep timber-lined eaves. It is a single-story building with a cross-shaped plan, with walls extending into the garden and incorporating pergolas to the living room. Chimneys are present on the living room and boiler room. The entrance front is blind, with the main entrance door located in an angle of the building. A kitchen entrance and garage are positioned at the southern end of the long facade. The garden front features living and dining rooms with full-height windows, while bedrooms have patio doors, and smaller windows serve the kitchen and a service flat, all with aluminium frames.

The interior is centred around a full-height entrance hall containing a sculpture fountain framed by walls, which is visible only from within. All rooms have varnished timber ceilings that extend to form eaves, blurring the boundary between interior and exterior spaces. Radiating from the hall are four wings; one is semi-open plan, connecting a study and living room separated by central half walls. The study has fitted bookcases, and the living room includes a fireplace. The north wing comprises the master bedroom, featuring fully-fitted, detailed full-height cupboards, found also in the dressing room and the guest wing. Bathrooms in these wings are tiled in white mosaic and retain original fittings. The south wing offers a more formal, enclosed dining room, beyond which is a fully-fitted kitchen and utility area. Behind the kitchen entrance and garage is a service flat with simpler interiors and a boiler room.

Sidney Horniblow, a noted advertising manager and avid art collector, commissioned the house specifically to showcase his collection. The design intentionally adopts a low-key modern style and integrates seamlessly with the surrounding garden, designed by Sylvia Crowe, through the use of spur walls and pergolas. John Schwerdt, having trained in Brighton and established a successful career in Lewes, considered this his most ambitious and successful work. He encouraged Horniblow to study the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, and the house displays similarities to Wright’s 1930s designs, as well as influences from the Dutch de Stijl movement and Mies van der Rohe’s 1924 design for a brick country house. The result is an unusual and exceptionally detailed design that remained unpublished during the Horniblows’ lifetime.