Anatomy of a House No.15: Weston Point

Anatomy of a House No.15

Weston Point, Belmont, Sutton
1970
Peter Turnbull of Michael Manser Associates

The street front to Weston Point, Belmont (1970) by Peter Turnbull

The name (or at least surname) of Michael Manser has become synonymous with beautifully-designed high end houses built for discerning clients. This comes from both his career from the early 1960s, and from the award named after him. For this edition of our Anatomy of a House blog, we will be examining a home designed by his practice that bears all the hallmarks of his design tenets. Weston Point sits on a private road in Belmont, a suburb south of Sutton town centre. It is starkly different to its neighbouring houses, mostly a bric-a-brac of pre-20th century references, instead taking its cues from the cooly modern Californian Case Study houses of the 1950s. ​

Golden Grove, Leatherhead (1961) by Michael Manser. Image from Manser

Manser was born in Bristol on 23rd March 1929, later studying architecture at Regent Street Polytechnic and being tutored by engineering giant Ove Arup, who nurtured Manser's interest in steel construction. After his studies, Manser completed his national service and went to work for Norman and Dawbarn, who designed the BBC Television centre. He founded his own practice in 1960, and began designing the type of houses that would define his career; single storey flat-roofed homes, often built around a courtyard. He designed Golden Grove in Leatherhead (1961, now demolished) for himself and his family in that form and got even closer to the Californian ideal with Cliffhanger (1963), a steel framed house that is cantilevered over a cliff in Godalming. The practice was joined by Peter Turnbull in 1964, and he brought some design work for Baptist churches with him (in Battersea and Waterlooville), through his connections as a worshipper, as well as designing some houses himself. One of those would be Weston Point.

The view across the courtyard of Weston Point

The commission for Weston Point also came through Turnbull’s connections. The clients, Dr Gilbert Armstrong and his wife Wynn, were friends of Turnbull, and when they managed to purchase a piece of scrubland close to their home in Belmont, they asked him to design them a new home. Wyn apparently did most of the liaising with Turnbull about the design of the house, with the proviso from her husband that it should be “austere”. The plot the Armstrongs bought was a derelict vegetable garden at one end of Sandy Lane, a thin east-west strip. Turnbull turned this unprepossessing area into a small slice of California. (Incidentally, the local railway station was originally named California, after a local pub, changing its name to Belmont in 1875).

The plan of Weston Point. 1-1a is the Living area, 2 is the bedrooms, 7 the Courtyard.

The house is single storey, and arranged in a U-Plan, roughly in the middle of the rectangular plot, with a courtyard garden facing south. The house is constructed with an exposed steel frame, with a windowless, brickwork front to the street and glazed walls on the garden and courtyard sides. Internally the house is laid out with a large open plan living area which adjoins the kitchen. On the other side of the courtyard are two double-bedrooms, a study and an integrated double garage. The Armstrongs brought some period furniture from their previous, neo-Tudor home, as well as buying some more contemporary pieces to match the architecture. ​

A detail of the brick exterior wall and the roof

The view across the courtyard in colour

Sadly Peter Turnbull died suddenly on 7th June 1971, aged just 40. There is not a great deal of documentation on his career, but as well as Weston Point, he designed a house in West Heath Road, Hampstead in 1971, and an earlier house for himself in Banstead (1961). Manser’s career went from strength to strength, with the practice designing a string of houses that were well received, such as the Capel Manor House in Horsmonden, Kent, for the former MP John Howard, built on and around the remains of a 19th century mansion by Thomas Henry Wyatt. The house has an exposed steel frame and sits on a concrete podium which itself is on top of a basement from the original villa. 

The company also moved into more commercial work, producing projects like the Heathrow Hilton Hotel, writer J.G. Ballard’s favourite building. Michael Manser served as president of the Royal Institute of Architects between 1983-85, and was incumbent for Prince Charles infamous remarks on modern architecture at a dinner to celebrate the organisations 150th birthday. The Manser Medal was inaugurated in 2001 to honour the best completed private house in the U.K, and subsequently won by the likes of Mole Architects, Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners and Alison Brooks Architects.

Capel Manor House by Michael Manser Associates

Weston Point is still intact and proudly modernist among its historically-minded neighbours, and will be featured in our new guidebook, Modernism Beyond Metro-Land, which will explore the modernist buildings of London’s eastern and southern suburbs. Click HERE to sign up for your copy.

References

Manser Houses- Peter Murray
The Modern Steel House- Neil Jackson
The Manser Practice website