Clouds Hill (Lawrence of Arabia's Cottage)

Clouds Hill is a cottage originally built in 1808 as a forester's or labourer's cottage, which was substantially reconstructed by T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia, 1888-1935) for his own use between 1922 and 1934. A garage was added to the property in 1930 to house his Brough motorcycle.

The cottage is constructed from red brick painted white, with a clay tile roof, brick stack, and cast-iron rainwater goods. It has a single storey and attic arranged over four unequal bays, with a single-depth, two-room plan divided by an off-centre stair. The roof has one hipped and one half-hipped end, with a central rectangular ridge stack built in brick and a drip course.

The main south elevation is largely blank except for the entrance doorway, positioned to the right of centre. The plank door is set in a timber frame and topped by a stone lintel with a pedimented stone lintel carved by Lawrence bearing a Greek motto, roughly translated as "Why Worry" or "I don't care". A three-pane roof light is set into the roof slope of the left-hand bay. The eastern end is half-hipped and features a small ship's porthole, salvaged from the broken-up HMS Tiger, set under the eaves. The rear elevation has three gabled half-dormers spaced irregularly along the roof. The left-hand bay has a tall window under a lintel similar to that above the door, with all windows in this elevation being multi-paned timber casements in pegged frames. The western end has a gabled half-dormer with a wide timber casement window above a three-light stone mullioned window with straight chamfers; the metal-framed lights are fixed to right and left with the central one pivoting.

Inside, the entrance door opens into a lobby with light wood panelling, with the stair directly ahead and doorways to rooms on either side. To the left, accessed via a framed leather hanging as a door, is the Reading Room, the larger ground-floor room. It features an exposed chamfered beam with run-outs and wide floorboards. A high brick fireplace with a segmental-arched opening and steel hood made by Lawrence is set into the inner wall, topped with a timber mantel shelf. The fireplace wall is panelled, continuing the lobby panelling, while the other walls are lined with simple oak bookshelves, each with a small cupboard at floor level. A day-bed of timber with dovetailed corners, covered in leather, is fixed beneath the window. The other ground-floor room is the bathroom, lined in cork tiles, with a large enamelled tub with white panels. A concealed door provides access to an understairs cupboard housing the boiler.

The stairs lead to a tiny first-floor landing with a rear window. The rooms either side are accessed up two steps. To the right, through a plank door, is the bunk room. Its external walls are lined in aluminium foil. Built into the alcove under the front roof slope is Lawrence's bunk, a cabin bed in varnished timber designed to fit his proportions, with a sleeping cot above clothes drawers. Another salvaged porthole from HMS Tiger is set in the gable end. The inner wall is matchboarded with a two-panelled door to a food-storage cupboard. The larger first-floor room is the music room, where Lawrence entertained friends. Largely contained within the attic space with walls rising only a short distance, it features square panelling continuing from the landing. Above, the sloping roof on all sides has its structure exposed. The main truss is a simple A-frame of paired principal rafters and collar with a yoke and single purlins, dating from the original 1808 cottage. Most of the remaining roof structure was replaced in deal during the 1922 to 1933 repairs. The chimney rises through the room with a small segmental-arched fireplace opening topped by a timber mantel shelf set at the height for Lawrence to lean on. An Arts and Crafts style candle sconce designed by Lawrence sits over the collar of the truss. Set into the panelling in the gable over the window in the hipped end is a landscape painting of the view from Clouds Hill, painted in 1925 by Gilbert Spencer RA (1892-1979) for Lawrence on board or panel.

The cottage is approached via a path of red tile loosely set on an earthen base.

The garage to the south of the cottage was built in 1930 to house Lawrence's Brough motorcycle following an accident on which Lawrence died in 1935. It is constructed from rendered and painted blockwork with a thatched roof and rendered interior with a recently-boarded ceiling.