In the English village of Thorpeness, a 70-foot structure built to store water was designed to resemble a house perched above the trees. Completed in 1923, the building concealed a tank with an original capacity of 50,000 gallons, while the structure below provided living accommodation. Known as the House in the Clouds, it was part of the development of Thorpeness, a planned holiday village on the Suffolk coast. Glencairn Stuart Ogilvie, the owner and developer of the Thorpeness Estate, conceived the village and commissioned architects to help realise its distinctive design. Historic England credits Frederick Forbes Glennie with the building’s 1923 design, commissioned as part of Glencairn Stuart Ogilvie’s development of Thorpeness. Its timber weatherboarding, gabled roof and domestic-style windows helped it fit the village’s unusual architectural character. More than a century later, the building remains a landmark, despite no longer serving its original purpose as a water tower.
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