A 1970s London studio house has become the first building by post-war British female architect Georgie Wolton to be listed.
No.34 Belsize Lane in Camden, London, by Georgie Wolton (1934-2021) has been Grade II-listed by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, on the advice of Historic England. It is the first building by the relatively little-known post-war, British female architect to be on the National Heritage List for England. Described by critic and author Jonathan Meades as the “outstanding woman architect of the generation before Zaha [Hadid]”, Wolton’s house captures many of the ideas which influenced her practice as well as her skill as a designer.
Designed as a home and studio for herself and her family in 1975-1976, the house remains a private dwelling and is one of a small number of buildings by Wolton, who increasingly specialised in landscape design as her career progressed. She had a pivotal, though short-lived role in the formation of Team 4 in the early 1960s, before going on to work in independent practice – one of few women architects in the post-war period to do so.
“In Georgie Wolton’s generation, architecture was largely a man’s world,” commented Catherine Croft, Director of the Twentieth Century Society. “Building her own home exactly as she wanted it, could be seen as a subversive and powerfully feminist act. 34 Belsize Lane is a really subtle and understated project, a very personal work, which has survived remarkably intact. Behind an unassuming boundary lies a small masterpiece – a house she called the ‘last of the English follies’, one totally in touch with the exciting architectural zeitgeist of its day, but also unique and uncompromising.”
Bomb-damaged sites and the subdivision of large houses and their gardens provided challenging but affordable plots for young architects after the Second World War. Wolton chose to create a single-storey house almost completely hidden from view, shielded behind the brick boundary wall that extends along Belsize Lane. The brick and glass building is nestled amongst greenery, with three distinct courtyard gardens enabling each room to feel connected to the outside.
The house is structurally simple, but the architect’s creative handling of daylight and spatial proportion elevates the interior to something special. Critic and author Rowan Moore described it as “a three-dimensional sundial”. Wolton was interested in creating a strong relationship between inside and outside and needed lots of wall space to display her personal collection of Turkish kilim rugs. Roofoflights, bespoke sliding timber shutters and conservatory-like antechambers provide what the architect called ‘pause’ spaces, separating the living and working parts of the house.
The house’s current owner is planning to restore the building and will be sharing the process on Instagram via @georgiewoltonhouse.
