Heathcote, Ilkley

Image: © Stephen Richards Taken: 12 Aug 2002

The orange stone and red pantiled roof lend it somewhat of the air of an oversized Mediterranean villa. It "marks the change in Lutyens's style from Arts and Crafts vernacular to Edwardian imperialist classical", and given Lutyens's then stature and influence, arguably helped to lead the country down the long road of historical pastiche rather than down modern street. Built c1906-07 for J.T. Hemingway, a Bradford wool merchant. Grade II* listed.' Pevsner records that its monumentality was down to Lutyens's "desire to lord it over an environment he despised ... 'an ultra suburban locality over which villas of a dreadful kind and many colours wantonly distribute themselves'". York stone was chosen as it was a "stone without a soul to call its own ... I wanted something persisting and dominating ... to stratify the diarrhoetic conditions produced by the promiscuous villadom." What would he make of modern suburbia? Having housed offices for some years, it was on the market in 2012 for a trifle under £2 million, conversion back to residential use being envisaged. Coming from London's silly housing market, that sounds like the bargain of the century. Update: the listing was changed to Grade I in 2014.

Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0