SPADE HOUSE.
Radnor Cliff Crescent, Sandgate,
Folkestone, Kent.
1899
For H. G. Wells.
1903 additional bay by Voysey.
Later extensive alterations,
now a private nursing home and the rooms have been divided up.
Anatole France described Wells as "the greatest intellectual force in the English-speaking world". (http://archive.sandgatesociety.com)
His main preoccupation during the entire latter part of his life had been to improve the lot of mankind: to abolish poverty, preventable pain and toil, and the causes of war, and to educate the masses to ever higher levels of physical, mental and spiritual well-being. (http://archive.sandgatesociety.com)
Peter Davey notes in Arts and Crafts Architecture, H. G. Wells chose Voysey as the "pioneer in the escape from the small snobbish villa residence to the bright and comfortable pseudo cottage." (H. G. Wells, Experiment in Autobiography, Victor Gollancz, republished 1966, p. 638.)
Second scheme (unexecuted).
Published in: Duncan Simpson, C.F.A. Voysey, p. 80, fig. 33a:
and in: David Cole, The Art and architecture of CFA Voysey :
English pioneer modernist architect & designer.
Link >
RIBA Drawings
Collection
Second scheme (unexecuted).
Published in: Duncan Simpson, C.F.A. Voysey, p. 80, fig. 33a:
and in: David Cole, The Art and architecture of CFA Voysey :
English pioneer modernist architect & designer.
Link >
RIBA Drawings
Collection
Second scheme (unexecuted).
Published in: Duncan Simpson, C.F.A. Voysey, p. 80, fig. 33a:
and in: David Cole, The Art and architecture of CFA Voysey :
English pioneer modernist architect & designer.
Link >
RIBA Drawings
Collection
____________________________
Third scheme showing the house almost
as executed.
Published in: Duncan Simpson, C.F.A.
Voysey, p. 82, fig. 33b.
Link >
RIBA Drawings
Collection
Third scheme showing the house almost
as executed.
Published in: Duncan Simpson, C.F.A.
Voysey, p. 82, fig. 33b.
Link >
RIBA Drawings
Collection
Drawing published in The British Architect, 27th October 1899.
Third scheme showing the house almost
as executed.
Published in Duncan Simpson, C.F.A.
Voysey, p. 82, fig. 33b.
Link >
RIBA Drawings Collection
Photo on http://archive.sandgatesociety.com
1901
Photo on
http://archive.sandgatesociety.com
Photo on folkestonehistory.org
Photo by Ellis Woodman on twitter
Spade House, Sandgate, photo courtesy of John Trotter
Spade House, Sandgate, photo courtesy of John Trotter
Spade House, Sandgate, photo courtesy of John Trotter
Photo on
http://archive.sandgatesociety.com
Photos on bbhilda.topcities.com/Folkestone
Spade House, Sandgate, photo courtesy of John Trotter
Spade House, Sandgate, photo courtesy of John Trotter
Photo on kenthistoryforum.co.uk
Voysey, Spade House, photo by Phil Beard on flickr
Spade House, Sandgate, photo courtesy of John Trotter
Lounch
Photo on
http://archive.sandgatesociety.com
Dining room
Photo on
http://archive.sandgatesociety.com
Photographs
and Drawings Courtesy of The Royal Institute of British Architects.
Photographs, drawings, perspectives and other design patterns
at the
Royal Institut of British Architects Drawings and Photographs Collection.
Images can
be purchased.
The RIBA
can supply you with conventional photographic or digital copies
of any of the images featured in RIBApix.
Link >
RIBApix: Spade House
Link >
RIBApix: all Voysey
Images
Pevsner's Kent: North & East (with John Newman, 2013) says:
SANDGATE. SPADE HOUSE, Radnor Cliff Crescent, now Wells House Nursing Home. H G Wells's seaside hideout, cleverly concealed from the road and designed for him in 1899 by Voysey. Extended by Voysey in 1903. The extension not really perceptible and the original design not so finely balanced that it suffered from being added to. Characteristic harled walls with buttresses. Long deep roofs and mullioned windows, as well as the way the house is tucked into the hillside, all emphasize the horizontals as usual. In its day the design was as fresh as the sea breezes. The spade-shaped letter box, substituted at Wells's insistence for Voysey's favourite heart, has sadly disappeared.
Source: Pevsner Architectural Guides at Yale University Press.
Link: www.voyseysociety.org
Description on Historic England
1. 5281 RADNOR CLIFF CRESENT (West Side) SANDGATE Spade House TR 2035 SE 7/37 II* GV 2. Mid C19 with additions of 1903 designed by C F A Voysey, architect, for H G Wells. 2 storeys. White roughcast walls, stone dressings. Mullioned Windows with leaded lights. Tiled roof. Entrance front has doorway with Tudor arch. 2 storeyed canted bay of stone to left. To left mullioned windows to 1st floor. Sloping buttressed corners. 2 storeyed block at right angles added in l920's. Canted front of 2 storeys. To the right the ground rises to lst floor garden porch flanked by hipped bay windows. To left mullioned windows on both floors. Canted bay window to left with balcony above. Sloping buttress. End gable tile hung. Tall roughcast chimneystacks. The interior contains arched doorcases and a staircase which incorporates 2 round-headed arches divided by a twisted column. It was at Spade House that Wells wrote 'Mankind in the making', 'A Modern Utopia', 'In the Days of the Comet', 'The New Machiavelli', 'The War in the Air', 'Tono Bungay', 3ungay', 'Anticipations', 'The Food of the Gods', 'Ann Veronica', 'Kipps', 'The History of Mr Polly', 'New Worlds for Old', and 'First and Last Things'.
Link > booklet by E.M. May (PDF; content starts on p.7)
Link >
https://unbound.com
Link > https://edwardianculture.com
Reference:
The British Architect, LII, 1899, p. 292.
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