St Ann'S Court

Villa, 1936-7, the former residence of Gerald Schlesinger and Christopher Tunnard, designed by Raymond McGrath in consultation with Tunnard.

The house is constructed of reinforced concrete (L Mouchel and Partners) with internal cork insulation. The external finish is vertical board-marked, originally painted pinkish grey, with smooth soffits and beams originally painted jade green. The building has a flat roof and three storeys including roof terraces.

The plan is circular, inspired by the surrounding landscape. McGrath described it as resembling 'a big cheese, with a slice cut for the sunlight to enter the whole house.' Supporting columns are set in the circumference of the outer walls, with a solid supporting inner circle defining a central circular living room and master bedroom. Within this sit semi-circular copper-clad freestanding columns. The constructional circles are most clearly revealed on the 'peeled away' south façade. A projecting winter garden and screen to the west are integral to McGrath's design. Metal casement windows with single transom light the principal rooms, living room, master bedroom and winter garden with full-height glazing. A segmental balcony serves the first-floor master bedroom, and a 'bow'-shaped terrace serves the second floor, accessed by an external spiral stair with metal gate. The post and beam construction is exposed and articulates the symmetrical form of the upper storeys. A rounded end to the ground-floor study provides counterpoint to the spiral stair on the opposite (east) side. A timber door sits under a porch in the angle created by a protective wall of the adjoining former tradesmen's entrance.

The entrance leads into a wedge-shaped hall with terrazzo flooring. Terrazzo-clad stairs on the outer face have a delicate metal balustrade and timber handrail. On the inner face survives a mirror mosaic or 'Vitroflex' panel etched with Tunnard's garden layout. The principal rooms are the living room, flanked to east and west by study and dining room respectively, forming a 'bow'-shaped plan within the circle, with service accommodation tucked discretely to the north behind projecting walls. The living room retains original walnut panelling around a marble-finished fireplace, timber floors, and columns sheathed with polished copper. A central coved ceiling emphasises the wholly circular inner area of the room. Directly above, the master bedroom is also circular, with original fitted cupboards and bed alcoves to either side, one with dressing room. The 'bow'-shaped plan becomes more completely symmetrical here and continues to the second floor, which originally contained the billiard room and a studio for Tunnard, in addition to the roof terrace.

The house was designed as Schlesinger and Tunnard's primary home. The circular plan was a response to the need for privacy during a period when homosexuality remained illegal. The bow-shaped interior design allowed the master bedroom to be separated into two rooms when visitors were present, maintaining the appearance that Schlesinger and Tunnard slept in different bedrooms. Subsequent occupants have included Phil Manzanera, guitarist with the 1970s art and glam rock band Roxy Music.

McGrath described St Ann's Hill as 'my most ambitious piece of domestic design in England' (Architectural Review, July 1977). The circular plan was inspired by the surviving eighteenth-century landscape designed by Charles Hamilton, which Tunnard remodelled. Tunnard was just beginning to practise as a full-time landscape architect at this time, and his ideas about integrating house and landscape would only begin to have real impact with the rediscovery of the Picturesque in the 1940s. The building demonstrates a genuine modern respect for genius loci as early as 1937, without compromising the modernity of the design or resorting to gimmicks. It is significant also for its structural honesty and richness of surviving materials. The principal rooms, with their mirror design, walnut panelling and exploitation of the unusual plan form, represent among the most interesting and complete surviving 1930s private house interiors in England.