1960 Farmhouse for Beth and Andrew Chatto, Elmstead Market, Essex

The site was a gravel headland in one of Andrew’s apple orchards with a fair drop on the south side to a muddy ditch. The design took advantage of the natural slopes.

Beth’s passions were cookery and gardening. The hub of the house is the Kitchen / Dining / Living space, all open and tied together with a long shallow pitched roof (boarded inside to give warmth and colour). The large dormer was Andrew’s Study/Library (cantilevered outside stairs) where he was to write a book about English Garden Plants

Natural materials – wood, quarry tiles and painted brick predominate and the large south west facing windows and doors bind the house and the garden into a continuous symbiosis.

Andrew died a few years ago but Beth and her famous gardens are still very much there, as is the original minimalist Kitchen.

Original photos courtesy of Conde Nast; colour photos (2006) by Crispin Thomas