The Y-shaped High and Over combines modernism with classical influences
(Picture: The Unique Property Company)High and Over is no ordinary home. This legendary concrete, Y-shaped building is the UK’s first modernist house, deemed to be “of outstanding importance” by English Heritage. And now, it is for sale.
Built on a hilltop near Amersham between 1929 and 1931, High and Over was designed by New Zealand-born architect Amyas Connell for Bernard Ashmole, an author and art historian who later became keeper of Greek and Roman antiquities at the British Museum.
Ashmole and his wife Dorothy had moved back to the UK in 1928, looking for a new home within commuting distance of London. Dorothy bought the 12-acre Shardeloes Estate in 1929, and Bernard Ashmole engaged Connell as the architect, wanting to create a modernist Roman villa.
The initial planning application, submitted in 1929, was granted permission from the local council with “the greatest reluctance”, five years before the iconic Lubetkin-designed Penguin Pool was built at London Zoo, and 10 years before Hungarian architect ErnÅ Goldfinger finished 2 Willow Road.
Given Ashmole’s classical background, Connell’s design combined the straight lines and blocky geometry of modernism with Roman influences – including, for example, the Roman Garden with its swimming pool, dug by hand by Ashmole and his gardener.
“What I loved about this house was the fact that the brutalist side was mellowed by the classicism. I think that’s why I loved it so much,” says Katherina Harlow, who has lived in the Grade II*-listed house since 2010 with her husband Paolo Guidi.
“The truth is, we fell in love with the house straight away,” says Harlow an art historian, journalist and interior designer for historic buildings. “It had so much light and space and was so beautifully designed that we just loved it. We decided we had to buy the house.”
The couple didn’t think they’d ever move from their two Victorian artist studios in Chelsea, but a restrictive leasehold and the lack of outdoor space eventually prompted them to start looking elsewhere.
Guidi, a sculptor, had kept his eye on High and Over for some time. It had been divided into two properties in 1962, but in 2010, it had finally been listed in its entirety.
“[Paolo] had watched the house over the years as it became available. But this was the first time it was available as one property. He said: ‘You’ve always said that you love this period, so I think we should go and look at this house.’”
When High and Over was completed in 1931, it divided opinion. A British Pathé news clip describes the house as a trailblazer, stating: “One leaves this house feeling that a courageous thing has been done and a purpose fulfilled, and that a home has been built that is both practical and beautiful.”
Amongst locals, however, it was dubbed “the Aeroplane House”, after its winged roof terraces. The poet John Betjeman, a passionate defender of Victorian architecture, wrote that “in 1931 all Buckinghamshire was scandalised by the appearance, high above Amersham, of a concrete house in the shape of a letter ‘Y’.”
In the 1960s, the property faced the threat of demolition, with the land to be used to build houses. The council intervened, and High and Over was instead divided into two, occupied by two separate owners who shared the garden and pool.
“It was a very crude division,” says Harlow. “There was a poky little kitchen in the library; a poky little kitchen in the drawing room. The whole ethos of the house had gone, and yet it was lived in like that until we bought it.”
When Harlow and Guidi bought the house, the ground floor, once an open plan entertaining space, had been broken up into smaller rooms. Its roof and terraces leaked. The whole building needed replumbing. And they wanted to restore it to a single home once more.
“We knew that there would be work to do here, but we were quite excited about that. We’ve always worked on houses and have done work to every property we’ve owned, so it didn’t worry us too much,” says Harlow.
After employing a heritage architect, meeting with English Heritage and gaining planning permission, it took around a year to restore the house to its original specifications.
Today, the property covers three floors, with eight bedrooms six reception rooms, a swimming pool, library and two acres of gardens. There is also a garden house, pump room and two garages, used as studios, with potential (and planning permission) for further development.
Given its architectural significance, High and Over often attracts visitors, sometimes from afar. Over the years, people would stop on the driveway to look at the house – and, in the early days, Harlow would often show them around.
The house is arranged around a hexagonal centrepiece, from which all its rooms can be accessed. Above is the occulous, bringing light in from the first floor. The library, dining room and drawing room adjoining the hallway were blocked off in the Sixties, but the couple introduced glass doors to create one large, continuous entertaining space, something that has proved useful for parties.
“There are times when I’m in the hexagonal hall looking into the rooms and looking up through the occulous, and I just think: this is so beautifully designed,” says Harlow.
Her favourite parts of the house are the winged roof terraces, forming the two branches of the Y shape. At treetop level, with a view over the Chilterns, the house’s first owners would have slept outside on them. “You’re up there with the birds – it’s quite remarkable really,” she says. “The terraces are glorious. I love them, and that is going to be very hard to leave behind – I know we won’t find that anywhere else.”
Now, after 12 years, the couple have decided to sell their landmark property to allow them to focus on other projects. According to Harlow, it would make a unique family home, or would lend itself well to creatives, potentially with business plans –an art gallery or a workshop space – for the house.
Even so, it will be difficult to leave. “It sounds cliched, but the light in this house is wonderful. At different times of day, the rooms take on a different nuance. The light is something I’ll miss, and I don’t think it’s going to be easy to replicate that. The other thing I’ll miss is the clean air. The air is beautiful here.”
“It has been a lot of hard work, but I’m pleased that we were able to do it. We’ve enjoyed our time here. But I recognise that we need to focus our energies elsewhere, and let somebody else with more energy take over,” says Harlow.
“We haven’t had the right buyer yet, but I’m sure they’re out there. And I’m sure they’ll make this into something wonderful for them – and the house will live on.”
