Bridge End House

Bridge End House

House built in 1965 by architects Donald Morrison and Julia Fielding as their family home.

The house is a steel-framed, single-storey, flat-roofed rectangular box raised above the flood plain of the River Thame on eight grey-green painted steel I-beam stilts, creating four bays to the north and south elevations. The beams continue upwards to form the vertical members of the steel frame. Horizontal members forming the plinth and fascia consist of broad grey-green painted steel plates. Between the I-beams are zinc panels to dado height, with continuous fenestration above of alternating fixed glass panes and aluminium-framed one-over-one sash windows, all set within dark-stained soft-wood framing. A small part of the framing at the eastern end of the south elevation was replaced following a fire in 2019. The roof is felt-covered stramit-board with metal and timber-framed windows, supported on steel beams with intermediate timber joists and expanded polystyrene panel insulation.

The house is rectangular in plan, oriented east-west, and reached via a narrow 12-metre-long, steel-framed walkway supported on I-beams with replacement timber decking and plank balustrade on square-section steel supports; services run beneath the walkway. The entrance has a two-section glazed door in a timber frame with aluminium door furniture. The eastern elevation has full-height glazing with a pair of aluminium-framed sliding patio doors opening onto a deck with replacement timber decking and balustrade with glazed panel handrails to the front and plank handrails to the sides.

Internally, a central space opens to a living space at the eastern end, originally divided into dining and living areas by a lightweight partition now removed. Four bedrooms line the northern side, with study, kitchen and utility room on the south side. The two central bedrooms could be partitioned to create six bedrooms in total, each with its own door onto the central space. The eastern bedroom has a walk-in closet and en-suite bathroom. An entrance lobby with built-in coat cupboard at the western end is flanked to the north by a bathroom and WC.

Room partitioning consists of full-height pine matchboard panelling with flush, double-thickness matchboard panelled doors with aluminium fittings. The zinc dado panels are lined with expanded polystyrene sheets and backed by hessian fabric, with a stained softwood apron below the pine window ledge. In the bedrooms (except the westernmost) and on the south wall of the main living space, the original panels have been covered by matchboard panelling. The floor is birch planking, currently covered in carpet. Ceilings have rectangular suspended panels of pale-brown flexible plastic sheet with white-painted framing. The two central bedrooms retain pine dividers on the ceiling for the removable partitions, though their form is unclear. The main bathroom has wall tiling probably added later. Kitchen fittings are all later replacements except for a hidden serving hatch in the pine panelling to the main living space. Set into the floor beneath the larger skylight is a pebble-filled decorative feature with its original timber frame and aluminium tray. Original cupboards have chipboard or pine shelving; those in the entrance lobby have hessian-covered sliding doors. A number of electrical fittings including light switches are original. Modern radiators have been introduced in some bedrooms and the main living space, replacing the original under-floor heating which has failed. The timber planking to the underside of the house was replaced in the 2010s.