Get inside the real Arts & Crafts story
WHEN solicitor James Beale decided to build a holiday home in Sussex, southern England, in 1891, he thought big, buying a plot of 12 acres with views over Ashdown Forest.
He and his wife Margaret commissioned Philip Webb, preeminent architect of the Arts & Crafts movement, to build a pad large enough for their seven children.
Webb, who worked closely with artist and designer William Morris, catered for every aspect of his clients’ needs, and dividing the garden into ‘outdoor rooms’.
Enthused, Margaret became an ardent experimental gardener, importing exotic species such as Japanese maples, which have now grown to be the tallest of their kind in Britain.
A five-year restoration of the garden in East Grinstead has just finished and has been celebrated with an exhibition, Mrs Beale’s Global Garden.
The property, called Standen, is cared for by the National Trust and is delightfully quirky, including a separate playhouse with its own flight of stairs. This is a real home, full of comfort, integrated furniture and Morris furnishings.
The house, Webb’s last project, has echoes of his first commission, Red House, another Arts & Crafts masterpiece in Bexleyheath, south-east London. In both, Webb was meticulous about detail. And in both, Webb, a socialist, paid attention to servants’ quarters and to the kitchens, which were large and light.
Standen remained in the Beale family until 1972 and retains its feeling of a down-toearth home, a fundamental aim of Arts & Crafts.