Where to find your own Howards End

Although Edwardian domestic architecture is often associated with London’s garden suburbs, here are four country houses of the era, two of which are Thameside

Arabella Youens

WHEN the Edwardian professional classes went house-hunting beyond the suburbs, they sought what Mark Rimell of Strutt & Parker’s country-house department describes as ‘their very own Howards End’, referencing the 1910 novel by E. M. Forster. That is ‘[country homes] close to a railway station with trains into the city’. As a result, the countryside surrounding London and other large cities is peppered with Edwardian country houses that typically feature landscaped gardens and high boundary hedges, providing a secluded retreat. Rignalls, a mile outside the Buckinghamshire village of Great Missenden, is one such example. Designed by the architect Charles Holden in the early days of his career, the house is influenced by the Arts-and-Crafts Movement, although Holden later performed something of a design U-turn by going on to champion a…

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Country Life (Digital) - 1 Issue, March 19, 2025

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