Quadrangle And Attached Garden Walls To South And East

Quadrangle and attached garden walls to Munstead Wood, formerly potting sheds and garden outbuildings, now converted to house and outbuildings. Designed by Edwin Lutyens for Gertrude Jekyll, dated 1891 and 1901, and converted to a house in the 1950s.

The buildings are constructed in Bargate rubblestone brought to course, weatherboard, and tile-hung finishes, with plain tile roofs. They are arranged on a courtyard plan, open at the north-east corner. Attached garden walls extend approximately 25 metres along the south-west corner and approximately 20 metres alongside Heath Lane near the north-east gateway.

The quadrangle comprises ranges of varying heights. One storey, part with attic, and two storeys. Board doors feature wooden lintels; windows are wood-framed and mullioned, mostly with rectangular-leaded casements. Hipped-roofed dormers are present throughout.

The main south range is a barn-like building of weatherboard, one storey, with a double door on the right and two small-pane windows on the left. A pump with lead spout and wooden handle is set against the wall. The roof is hipped to the left.

The east range, projecting on the right, is one storey with attic. It is tile-hung on the left where it was formerly open-fronted with a double door, now replaced by one window. The remainder is rubblestone. At the right end is a wide entrance with curved timber lintel leading to a canted internal porch, which has a door on the left and a datestone inscribed "GJ 1909". To the left of the porch is a tall cross-window rising as a dormer with a small window to its left, an inserted stone-lintelled three-light window further left, and another dormer beyond.

The west range, projecting on the left, is a barn-like building of weatherboard, two storeys, with central and end doorways. The left doorway leads to an internal porch. Between this and the central door is a window. On the first floor, a former doorway on the left is now a window rising as a dormer, with a long window below the eaves to the right, another dormer further right, and an eight-pane two-light casement window beyond. A rainwater head on the right is dated "GJ 1891". The roof is half-hipped with end stacks.

The north side of the courtyard is closed by a small weatherboarded outbuilding with a gabled roof.

Rear elevations: the east range along Heath Road has five stone-lintelled windows with a door between the right-hand windows and another door to the gable end of the south range. At the left end is a gateway and a tall rubblestone wall with domed top. The west range features a flight of stone steps up to a first-floor door with an arch under the landing, long first-floor windows, and a garden wall projecting from the south-west end that ramps up over an archway at its end nearest the building. The north range has a round-arched doorway to a "mushroom shed" with a water tank over it.

This group of buildings is significant as part of the larger collection of structures at Munstead Wood designed by Lutyens, and particularly important as Gertrude Jekyll's potting shed, reflecting her reputation as a gardener. The surrounding garden is listed Grade I in the Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest.