Home Place

Edward Schroeder Prior, Norfolk, 1906

 

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View from south west across the sunken garden 

Timothy Soar (website)     Download Original

  • View from south west across the sunken garden    
  • View from the south, shortly after the house was completed    
  • View from the south    
  • The north-west elevation, with door leading to the octagonal entrance hall    
  • Organic relationships: The staircase leading from the dining room into the walled garden    
  • View along the gallery corridor, Prior    
  • Detail of colonnade on south front    
  • Example of decorative use of local materials on the chimney stacks    
  • Service buildings     
  • View up towards the landing from the entrance vestibule, which is vaulted with board-marked concrete    
  • Looking across the landing towards the hall    
  • The board-marked concrete barrel vault of the staircase    
  • The dining room    
  • The hall today, an oak-columned gallery runs along its south side    
  • The inglenook fireplace is a dominant feature of the hall    
  • The hall photographed soon after completion    
  • Site plan of Home Place, as published in The Architectural Review, 1909    
  • Plan of Home Place, as published in The Architectural Review, 1909    
  • Plan of the cottage at Home Place built to Prior    
  • Elevations of the cottage at Home Place built to Prior    

Traditional vernacular house built with a combination of stone, concrete, flint and tile

The foundations, external and some internal walls, floors, and even some parts of the roof structure were formed with concrete, local lime and materials found on site. Most internal surfaces are clad with machine-made brick and plastered. The house is regarded as one of the finest of the Arts and Crafts movement.

The geometry of the wings penetrates to the heart of the house to create a hall which is diamond-shaped at ground level with an oblong central portion rising to form a dramatic double-height space. Along the south side of the hall is a timber gallery containing a corridor.

The main door leads to the concrete-vaulted octagonal entrance. Steps climb to a square-plan landing giving access to one of the main staircases and to the library and billiard room. The route then leads into the great hall, passing along the corridor below the gallery to a further landing with a secondary staircase.

This landing provides access to the service rooms, including the kitchen and servants’ sitting room, and to the dining room, lit by a shallow canted bay along its south-east wall and has two exits to the exterior.

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