Bentley Wood
Nr. Lewes, East Sussex
Architect: Serge Chermayeff
Register for similar homes"Of all the modern country houses I have seen, this is one of the best as a machine for living in...A regular Rolls-Royce of a house" - C. H. Reilly (AJ 28.9.38)
Set in approximately 18 acres of private land, with precious views over fields towards the South Downs, the remarkable Bentley Wood was designed in 1936 by the renowned Russian-born British architect Serge Chermayeff as a country retreat for his family. This impressive five to seven-bedroom detached house is a wonderful example of early modernism in a stunning rural location near Lewes.
Remarkably, despite its pedigree, the house remains un-listed. Nevertheless, careful work by ABQ Studio over the past 18 years has refocused the changes wrought upon the house over the years. Numerous aspects of the original design have been recreated or repaired, as well as making clearer the distinction between the original house and later additions and alterations.
‘It remained fresh in the minds of architects even in the 1950s, when most other pre-war Modern houses seemed impossibly dated.’ – Alan Powers.
Chermayeff’s vision for the house was a low-lying timber box with a ground level of floor-to-ceiling glass that opened fully to spill from the impressive living room into the green waves of the garden and countryside. The views across the downs in a southerly direction are spectacular.
Chermayeff chose a timber structure, both as cladding and frame, to reflect the vernacular surroundings but also as the modern idiom recognised the suitability of the material for modern architecture. In its heyday under the stewardship of Chermayeff himself, with its sculpture and paintings (Moore, Nicholson, Piper), and its extensive grounds (on which Chermayeff collaborated with Christopher Tunnard), the original house fused architecture, art and landscape into a memorable whole. As Alan Powers wrote in his book Serge Chermayeff: Designer, Architect, Teacher; “…Bentley Wood fitted into its landscape, with the graciousness of a Georgian villa, enjoying a lively but relaxed relationship with nature.”
The house has been altered over the years, as is the course for many buildings of the modern era, including some post-war extensions. However, the current owners have sympathetically restored and reinstated much of the building’s original essence.
The house is approached along a private drive, a fair distance from the road, passing through a link section of the building that connects the main house with an annexed studio. Beyond the link is a paved forecourt, providing a large area for parking, and the entrance to the house beneath a covered porch.
The plan is rectangular, with the service areas (kitchen etc) and connecting hallway to the north, leaving the main rooms to observe the view. The centrepiece of the original design is an extraordinary lateral reception room that runs the entire width of the house on the garden side, with full-height sliding doors that open to a newly restored south-facing paved terrace. A later addition to the house, extended at the western elevation, created a further ‘snooker room’ with panelled walls and impressive high ceilings, currently used as an artist’s studio.
Upstairs there are five bedrooms, all with a southerly garden view, three of which have access to balconies. The master bedroom has a walk-through dressing room and a beautiful big bathroom.
At the eastern most tip of the house there is a self-contained apartment with a bedroom, kitchen and living room (originally a staff flat) that could easily be incorporated as an extension to the main house – bringing the total number of bedrooms to seven – rather than segregated as it is currently used.
Outside, the gardens contain wonderful areas of lawn and wild meadow, a hardcourt tennis court, an open-air pool surrounded by a sheltering wall, growing areas for a kitchen garden and various types of fruit trees, and two ponds stocked with fish and large enough to boat on. The grounds amount to around 18.75 acres, however there is an option to purchase additional woodland by separate negotiation.
The house and grounds are beautifully located between the High Weald AONB and the South Downs National Park. Although in relative isolation, because of the position of the land, Bentley Wood is around 15 minutes from Lewes, a pretty town where the architecture consists of a lovely blend of medieval, Georgian and Victorian streets, through which its famous bonfire night procession happens annually. There are a growing number of excellent coffee shops, gastro pubs and restaurants in the area, and the high street has a distinct lack of chain stores. The sea at Newhaven and Seaford is a further 15-minutes beyond Lewes by car. Uckfield is a pretty little town less than ten minutes north of the house, with some lovely places to eat, drink and shop locally. Bentley Wood is approximately 30 minutes from Brighton, Tunbridge Wells, Haywards Heath, and Eastbourne, the three largest towns in the area.
There is excellent access to London by train with direct services running from nearby Uckfield into London Bridge in around an hour and 20 minutes, or from Lewes station to Clapham Junction or London Victoria in around an hour. Gatwick Airport is easily accessiblefrom Lewes or Haywards Heath by train, or in about 40 minutes by car.
Please note that all areas, measurements and distances given in these particulars are approximate and rounded. The text, photographs and floor plans are for general guidance only. The Modern House has not tested any services, appliances or specific fittings — prospective purchasers are advised to inspect the property themselves. All fixtures, fittings and furniture not specifically itemised within these particulars are deemed removable by the vendor.
History
“…whose beautifully sited hollow rectangles suppressed every vanity of “style” and merely touched the environment into conscience of form, [Bentley Wood] was the most aristocratic English building of the decade” – John Summerson, Architectural Historian, 1959.
Chermayeff bought the land for Bentley Wood shortly after completing the De la Warr Pavilion along the Sussex coast at Bexhill-on-Sea. Bentley Wood and the Pavilion – which Chermayeff designed together with Erich Mendelsohn – share some characteristics, both being rectangular in plan with extensive play at different scales with grids, both are largely glazed to the south and solid to the north, east and west. In their original form both buildings had an extending wall along the eastern side, and both made use of sculpture as an intermediary between the inhabitants and the distant views.
As described in Alan Powers’ book Modern; The Modern Movement in Britain:
“Chermayeff’s first scheme for his own house was contested at a planning inquiry but became a widely admired example of fitting modern architecture into the English landscape. The timber frame is of jarrah wood, revealed on the garden side of the house and painted white to increase the contrast with the regular openings of the sliding windows. Christopher Tunnard, a rising star of landscape theory, was a consultant for the landscape and planting , although Chermayeff probably played a major role. The clarity of the original design was lost in post-war extensions. Most recently a gradual process of recovery has been begun by more sympathetic hands.”
Powers continues:
“Chermayeff’s friendship with such modern artists as Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth and John Piper was demonstrated by works on display in the house, while at the end of the terrace Henry Moore’s Recumbant Figure in Horton stone (now in the Tate, London) surveyed the distant line of hills. The artwork was specially conceived for this position, and was the only major modern sculpture placed in relation to a modern house in Britain in the 1930s. It remained in place for less than a year before Chermayeff sold the house prior to his move to the United States.”
The affable and well-connected Chermayeff hosted many distinguished visitors in his short time at Bentley Wood, including Frank Lloyd Wright who can be seen here taking tea on the terrace.
“Bentley Wood was carefully sited in relation to existing trees, with a two-sided entrance court to the north and a garden terrace to the south allowing for distant views of the South Downs. The timber was engineered in a sophisticated manner. “Of all the modern country houses I have seen”, wrote C. H. Reilly, “this is one of the best machines for living in”, yet informality was achieved by the close contact between indoors and outdoors”.
Chermayeff’s garden designer, Christopher Tunnard, said of the scheme:
“To me, the architect’s point of view has been of the greatest value, particularly that of an architect who believes that planting is a part of architecture. In this problem, planting was architecture, and the oak tree on the terrace has as great an importance in the whole design as any timber support within”.
