The Homestead

Part of a series of technically informative monographs embracing a broad spectrum of internationally renowned buildings, this work deals with the Homestead in Essex, and includes a comprehensive set of technical drawings and working details. By 1905 when The Homestead was completed, Yoysey had a leading reputation in Britain and Europe as by far the most active and best-known architect of the Arts and Crafts movement. His most ambitious houses, New Place, Norney Grange and Bradleys, all designed in the late 1890s, were widely admired and articles devoted to his work were published in Germany and the USA. The Homestead, built for the General Manager of the Essex and Suffolk Equitable Insurance Society, whose offices Voysey also designed, is among his best preserved domestic masterpieces. Voysey's country houses were designed not only for family use but also for entertaining. The Homestead is no exception. It was designed to meet the requirements of its bachelor owner, with facilities to accommodate three or four weekend guests. The house wraps around its rear garden, half-enclosing it so that it is sheltered from easterly winds and from exposure to the street but is left open to views of the sea to the south. Whilst the street elevations are composed formally, the private faces of the house, looking over the garden, relax into an assembly of sweeping roofs and pronounced horizontal lines, stark white roungh cast render providing a sharp contrast to the flat pattern effects of smooth stone-dressed windows.