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31 Madingley Road

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31 Madingley Road: front façade

31 Madingley Road is a Modernist red-brick house in Madingley Road, Cambridge, England, designed by Marshall Sisson for the classical archaeologist A. W. Lawrence in 1931–32.[1][2][3] It is one of the first Modernist-style houses in Cambridge,[3] and is listed at grade II.[1]

History

31 Madingley Road was among the first Modernist houses to be completed in Cambridge.[3][4] Brick, as opposed to concrete rendered to appear white, was an unusual choice for a Modernist building of this date.[2] The earliest Modernist house in the town – White House in nearby Conduit Head Road, designed by George Checkley – dates from 1930–31 and is an example of a concrete construction.[3]

The architect, Marshall Sisson (1897–1978), had set up his practice in 1928. In his early career he designed several Modernist buildings; these include two in Cambridge, the second of which – 26 Millington Road, built in 1934–35 for another classical archaeologist, A. J. B. Wace – uses concrete. Sisson turned wholly to traditional styles after 1935, including the Neo-Georgian Orchard Building at Pembroke College (1954–57).[5][6] Sisson characterised 31 Madingley Road as "essentially 'Traditional'".[7]

31 Madingley Road was commissioned by the classical archaeologist A. W. Lawrence (1900–91),[2] who had been appointed to a readership in classical archaeology at the University of Cambridge in 1930.[8] His household then comprised his wife, their young daughter and a female servant. The Madingley Road site belonged to St John's College, and the approval of the college's building committee was required for the design. The house cost more than £4,000, which is relatively expensive for a house on Madingley Road at the time.[2] Lawrence considered that the traditional building material and the expense would be factors promoting St John's approval of the design.[2]

The building was listed at grade II in 1996.[1]

Location

The house is at TL 43676 59080 on the south side of Madingley Road, at the junction with Wilberforce Road, in the western outskirts of Cambridge.[1][3] No 31 is set back from the road on a medium-sized plot with a line of large trees obscuring it from Wilberforce Road.[9] Its near neighbour 35 Madingley Road, a large red-brick building of around 1800, is also listed at grade II. No 31 stands opposite some of the original accommodation blocks of Churchill College, which are listed at grade II.[1][3] Behind no 31 is 1 Wilberforce Road, a single-storey house built in 1965.[9][10] The West Cambridge university site now lies a little to the west.[1][3]

Description

31 Madingley Road is in red brick with dressings in cast stone, a form of concrete. There are two or three storeys under a flat roof.[1][3] The style is described as "Early Modern Movement" in the listing.[1] The historian Matthew Sturgis describes the building as a "stylish essay in brick", with a "long, low" profile that he considers relates to Sisson's view that "modern architecture [draws] its energy from the horizontal".[2]

The front (north) façade has an asymmetrically placed inset entrance reached by two shallow brick steps, which is surmounted by a plain horizontal canopy, significantly wider than the doorway.[1][11] Vertically above the entrance, a series of horizontal cast stone bands of the same width as the doorway run up to the base of the second storey.[11] The ground floor has five relatively small two-light wooden windows to the left and one to the right of the entrance. The windows are surmounted by a prominent decorative lintel made of cast stone, with three bands, which is continuous over the series of windows and interrupted on the ground floor at the entrance.[1][2] Sturgis describes these banded lintels as "touches of restrained detail" that draw attention to the building's profile.[2] The first floor has eight similar windows, also surmounted by a three-banded lintel, with a series of seven to the left (offset compared with the ground-floor windows) and one to the right.[1][12] The long series of repeated windows with uniform spacing is typical of Sisson's style in both Modernist and traditional buildings.[5] There is a three-storey section at the west end, above and to the right of the entrance; the second floor has four similar windows, which are topped by a lintel with just two bands.[1][12]

The garden (south) front has an uninterrupted series of ten similar windows at the first-floor level, again surmounted by a long continuous three-banded lintel. At the ground level the seven windows are interspersed with French doors and a doorway; they are surmounted by a three-banded lintel and offset from the first-floor windows.[1][12] The pattern of windows and doors appears to have been altered from the original design.[a]

The original design was for a roof garden with a pergola at the west end (visible in a 1932 photograph[13]) and a partly enclosed area that covered the access stairway; both the pergola and the stairway area were later fully enclosed to form the three-storey section.[2][3] The current flat roof is covered with roofing felt, and has an undecorated parapet; a chimney stack rises at the east end.[1]

On the interior, the ground-floor accommodation includes sitting and dining rooms, a separate sitting room for the maid, and a large kitchen.[2][15] The original built-in cupboards in the kitchen were present at the time of listing. The large hall is internal and receives its illumination from the upper storey; it has an open staircase with chromium banisters.[1][2]

References

  1. ^ Comparison of the 1932[13] and 2003[14] photographs archived at RIBA.
  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 31 Madingley Road, National Heritage List for England, Historic England (accessed 20 September 2022)
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Matthew Sturgis (12 July 2003). 1932: the century makers: 100 years of houses: 31 Madingley Road, Cambridge. The Daily Telegraph, p. 4
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Bradley & Pevsner, pp. 34–35, 342
  4. ^ Architectural History Practice, p. 11
  5. ^ a b William Fawcett (2013). Post-War Traditionalists in Oxford and Cambridge. Twentieth Century Architecture 11: 82–97 JSTOR 24644441
  6. ^ Bradley & Pevsner, pp. 39, 168, 334–35
  7. ^ William Whyte (2005). Review: Modern: The Modern Movement in Britain by Alan Powers. The British Art Journal 6 (2): 89–90 JSTOR 41614637
  8. ^ Anon. (6 April 1991). Professor A. W. Lawrence. The Times (63986), p. 10
  9. ^ a b Architectural History Practice, Appendix 1
  10. ^ Bradley & Pevsner, p. 341
  11. ^ a b Morley von Sternberg (2003). 31 Madingley Road, Cambridge: the entrance, RIBA (accessed 5 October 2022)
  12. ^ a b c 31 Madingley Road, RIBA (accessed 30 September 2022)
  13. ^ a b Dell & Wainwright (1932). 31 Madingley Road, Cambridge: the garden front, RIBA (accessed 4 October 2022)
  14. ^ Morley von Sternberg (2003). 31 Madingley Road, Cambridge: the garden front, RIBA (accessed 4 October 2022)
  15. ^ Dell & Wainwright (1932). 31 Madingley Road, Cambridge: the sitting room, RIBA (accessed 5 October 2022)

Sources

  • Simon Bradley, Nikolaus Pevsner. Cambridgeshire (The Buildings of England series) (Yale University Press; 2014) ISBN 978-0-300-20596-1
  • The Architectural History Practice Ltd for Cambridge City Council (March 2009). Cambridge Suburbs and Approaches: Madingley Road (accessed 6 October 2022)
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