Grade II-listed modernism
Price drop: 1960s Robert Harvey midcentury modern property in Kenilworth, Warwickshire
Half a million off the original asking price of this 1960s Robert Harvey midcentury modern property in Kenilworth, Warwickshire right now.
Update: The first three images on this article and on the listing seem to be artist’s impressions of the house with a proposed extension. See the end of the article for more details. All other images are of the house as it is now.
Yes, THAT Robert Harvey design. I featured this one back in 2016 and it has since been one of the most popular house finds on the site. In fact, I still get people emailing me about it pretty much every month without fail. But things have moved on with it.
It was on with The Modern House for quite some time, but in the last few days it has moved to a new agent, with a new set if images online and that new asking price. There’s also an open day coming up too if you are pondering buying and want to get a closer look. But before you consider that, let’s talk about the house itself.
This is a grade II-listed property inspired, as you might have guessed, by the work of Frank Lloyd Wright. The property, which has been barely touched in the last 50+ years, is described as ‘an exceptional example of 20th century design’ by Historic England.
It added that the architect was given ‘a generous budget’ and ’no interference on design’ to create ‘a house that would be noticed’ and ‘that would still look Modern in twenty years’. Well, a few decades past that and this is still a house that stops you in your tracks.
But this is very much a house of the 1960s and the midcentury modern era. It doesn’t just need an owner, it needs a curator. Every little detail of this one is special, from the rosewood furnishings to the circular swimming pool, complete with the architect’s original tiling. There even look to be a vintage intercom system in place too. Or is it a sound system? I don’t know. If you pop into the open day, do let me know.
What I do know is that the house is designed to take advantage of the views over its 1.2 acres of land, with all rooms accessing terraces overlooking the gardens, as you can see from the image at the top of the page.
The majority of the house is set over the first floor, with five bedrooms in total, two of which have en-suite bathrooms while the master suite also has a dressing area.
The eastern end of the house is mainly taken up by the substantial living / dining room. Off the dining area is the kitchen which leads out to a small balcony with steps directly down to the parking area in front of the house.
A ‘winter garden room’ on the south facing side (marrying both the inside and outside space), while a spiral staircase leads down to the ground floor with entrance hall complete with exposed Horton Cotswold stone.
Oh and of course, there is that circular indoor swimming pool on the ground floor, complete with Harvey’s original designs. The extensive landscaped gardens were also conceived in part by Harvey and are made up of open lawn with some ‘distinctive planting’ and, at the bottom, a tennis court which is not currently used.
That’s the broad outline, but as I said, it’s the detail that really sets this one apart. It really is something of a time capsule and the perfect set for a stylish movie set in the 1960s. The fireplace and heating, the built-in units, the rosewood finishes, the kitchen (and tiling), theres just so much to see. In fact you see different details each time you look.
The downside is likely to be keeping this place as it is and updating what needs work without doing damage to the character. And let’s be honest, every house of an age needs some kind of attention.
But that’s for the future. After all, you will need to own it before you consider any kind of work or renovation. To do that, you will need around £1,000,000. That isn’t cheap at all, but this was originally up for £1,495,000, so it is a substantial drop.
If you want to attend the open day, that takes place on 6th October 2018 from 10am until midday. But you will need to contact the agent beforehand if you plan to be there.
Images and details courtesy of Loveitts. For more details and to make an enquiry, please visit the website.
There are more images via the original listing too.
Update: There was some confusion about the actual size and layout of this house. Some of the photos on the agent’s site show a house with large terraces at the rear. However, I believe this is the proposed design if an extension is added – planning permission is in place to do this. For more details of that, see the listing.
With that in mind, consider the first three photos on the listing as images with that extension in place, not in its current state. Apologies for any confusion.
