The Red House

The Red House is a house designed in 1899 by Edwin Lutyens for Reverend W H Evans, a retired housemaster from the nearby Charterhouse School. It stands on the west side of Frith Hill Road in Godalming.

The building is constructed of red brick laid in Flemish bond beneath a plain tile roof. It is square on plan, built around a central stair and positioned into the hill slope, which creates differing storey heights across its elevations: two storeys on the north-east (entrance) elevation, three on the returns, and four on the south-west (garden) elevation. The house is arranged as 4 by 3 bays.

Windows throughout are leaded-light with wood frames and mullions. Multiple-flue stacks with corniced detail rise from the roof.

The principal garden elevation to the south-west features a narrow bay with 2-light windows to the first and second floors. The wide central bay contains a round-arched board door to the right on the lowest floor (leading into a garden room), with a 4-light window to its left on the ground floor. Above this are a 6-light window with a tile dripmould on the first floor, a 2-light window with dripmould between the first and second floors on the right, and a 6-light window to the second floor. Projecting polygonal asymmetrical towers occupy bays two and four; the tower on the left has a 2-light window to the lowest floor with continuous windows above wrapping around the corners; that on the right has 2 lights returned from a window on the left return at ground level, with continuous windows above. Stacks are positioned at the ends and between bays one and two.

The rear (entrance) elevation faces north-east and contains a flight of brick steps down to a central panelled door with side-lights beneath a bracketed canopy. Two 2-light windows flank the door, with four above, all featuring tile dripmoulds. A parapet with cyma-moulded coping runs across, and the hipped roof is finished with tall end stacks.

The south-east return is the most elaborate. Its central bay contains doorways to both ground and first floors. On the ground floor, the door is fronted by a triple-chamfered segmental-arched porch with splayed reveals and a parapet, on which columns support a hipped-roof porch protecting two first-floor doors. Brick steps rise from the lower porch to the upper porch. All doors are I-glazed with small-pane glazing; the lower door has a side-light, while the upper doors have 2-light and 3-light side-lights respectively. On the second floor are windows of 4 lights to the left and 3 lights to the right, slightly stepped down. To the left of the porch is a broad external stack with an offset near the top; a similarly offset lateral stack sits at the right corner. The left bay has 2-light windows on each floor, including one to the lower ground floor, which has a moulded brick surround, mullion, and timber lintel. The ends of the wrap-around tower windows appear on the left. A panelled parapet completes this elevation.

The north-west return has a central board door and asymmetrically-placed windows, mostly of 4 lights, some with elliptical relieving arches containing tiled tympana. A 4-bay outbuilding range projects on the right, featuring two board doors and 3-light windows.

The interior is dominated by the central open-well wooden stair, which features a closed string, diagonally-set balusters, square newels with vase-type finials, and traces of original leaf-trail painting on the handrail. The stair is lit from above by a coved top light supported by columns carrying a cornice.

The principal rooms on the south-east side of the ground floor contain a wide chimney-piece with a giant tripartite keystone and side pilasters flanking the fireplace; side niches are articulated with impost and keystone bands and a cornice on floating capitals. The former butler's pantry on the lower ground floor retains wall cupboards.

The Red House is an early seminal work by Lutyens, demonstrating his innovative approach to domestic architecture and hillside site integration.