'Witty and wonderful': The Sugden House - the first postmodern home designed by renowned architectural duo the Smithsons - is for sale for the first time

The much-loved property is famous in the architecture world and on the market for £1.2million.
Jess Denham19 March 2020

A five-bedroom family home dubbed “the first postmodern house in the UK” is for sale for the first time.

The Sugden House, designed by internationally-renowned architects Alison and Peter Smithson in 1955, has been listed for £1.2million. It is found on the edge of a sought-after residential estate in the well-connected town of Watford in Hertfordshire, north-west of central London.

The Smithson partnership was one of the most globally influential of the post-war period. The husband and wife duo, then aged just 26 and 21, blasted onto the architectural scene in 1950, after winning a competition to build a secondary school for 450 pupils on the edge of Hunstanton in Norfolk.

Other projects include the Economist Building in St James’s Street, Robin Hood Gardens in Tower Hamlets and numerous university buildings in Bath.

'Witty and wonderful, simple yet radical': see inside The Sugden House

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The Sugden House was one of the Smithsons’ few domestic commissions to come to fruition. It was built for Derek and Jean Sugden, who asked them to design “a simple house, an ordinary house”, without this brief excluding it from also being “a radical house”.

The property is being marketed by The Modern House, which considers it “a clear forerunner to later postmodern developments” in architecture. Founding director Albert Hill said: “The embracing of the vernacular, playful arrangement of windows and decidedly non-Miesian/Corbusian forum of the house, alongside the fact this was a house as much as intellectual exercise, puts it firmly in the lineage of post modernism.”

Bursting with original features: the open staircase divides the living and dining areas

The Sugden House was given a Grade II listing five years ago, principally for its architectural interest and rarity. Historic England praised the “subtle nuances of design” – particularly the cheeky L-shaped windows in asymmetrical locations dictated by function rather than aesthetics - found within the “superficial simplicity of the exterior”, which on first sight resembles an unremarkable suburban home.

The “simple ingenuity” of the layout, which remains open plan but denotes the different use of spaces through levels, cupboards and curtains, was also revered, as was the “imaginative” use of materials both inside and out, from second-hand London stock bricks and dark red tiles to exposed concrete beams and Columbian pine joists.

Notable interior fixtures include the open timber staircase and built-in storage designed by Alison Smithson, and a free-standing brick fireplace with a concrete lintel.

Extensive glazing throughout the house floods it with light, while underfloor heating keeps it warm in the colder months.

The ground floor is floored with teak strips, with polyvinyl tiling in the kitchen, dining room and hallway. Upstairs, the bedrooms have French-polished Columbian matchboard ceilings and tongue-and-groove boarding on the floors.

There is a garage and garden room to the rear of the property, overlooking a paved terrace and a level lawn bordered by mature shrubs and trees.

Peter St John is among the many architects who have admired The Sugden House, calling it “a loving interpretation of the arts and craft house with Fifties builders’ details, so witty and wonderful it makes me laugh”.