New Country House at Lowther
Shaun Castle 12 October 2006
The recent granting of planning permission on appeal for a new country house at Lowther has to be applauded as a resounding triumph of provenance over ignominy of the Lake District Planning Board.
The decision was right on two accounts. Firstly, it is wholly appropriate that a new country house of such architectural merit under PPS7 should be built at Lowther, given its regional significance. And secondly, the inspector rightly accepted the appellants' argument that the design showed a subtle and original handling of the Classical language, within the context of the “uninterrupted evolution of the Lowther estate for nearly a thousand years.”
The decision is a vindication of the English planning system correctly interpreted, over a short-sighted provincial board obsessed with perpetuation of misguided stasis in the Lakes. The decision will not only rejuvinate one of the county's finest country estates, but on a wider level, act as a precedent for others.
Designed by architect Craig Hamilton, one of a new generation of architects working progressively in the Classical manner, the new house will have something of the character of a towered Palladian lodge and will be sited in the old deer park at the historic heart of the estate. Parkland will run up to the new house, with deer grazing right up to the steps of a loggia. New gardens, both immediately adjacent to the house and in a new walled garden, have been designed by Rupert Golby.
Many believe the built environment within the Lakes to be at a watershed. With such a landmark decision so confidently looking to the future, just maybe the tide is turning.
Lowther Estate www.lowther.co.uk
Craig Hamilton www.intbau.org
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