A Modern Ruin: Cadbury-Brown and Ideas of Disorder
In 2012 Jonathan P. Watts and Emily Richardson visited the abandoned home of architects H.T ‘Jim’ and Betty Cadbury-Brown in Aldeburgh. Consumed by a wild garden, glimpses of deserted modern furniture were caught through dirty windows. Once an articulation of the couple’s modernist principles, after Jim Cadbury-Brown’s death in 2009 the house fell into disrepair.
The visit inspired a collaboration between writer, Jonathan, and artist-filmmaker, Emily, as the house became the focus and framework for a film. ‘3 Church Walk’ premiered at the London Film Festival in 2015 and earlier this year they produced an accompanying book with the original script, film stills and archival material. Here Jonathan and Emily tell us more.
Jonathan P. Watts: “Emily and I started working on the project when we met at the Aldeburgh Festival, I’d written a piece for the catalogue and she was taking part in the visual arts programme, SNAP. Emily lives in Suffolk and had previously made films about Cold War infrastructure and aspects of modernist architecture in the area, so we were both interested in the house.
“Our research brought up all of these really interesting connections to people like the composer Benjamin Britten, and other key music, literary and artistic figures in that part of Suffolk. Cadbury-Brown co-designed the Kensington Royal College of Art building and worked on pavilions for the Festival of Britain in 1951, but this house was his favourite.
Emily: “When we discovered the house it was as though it had been suspended in time. There was the sense of a presence and a person’s life, with pictures hanging on the walls, stacks of vinyl records and a Breuer-style chair; but the house appeared abandoned, the garden gone wild…it was a modern ruin.
“The site was originally earmarked by Benjamin Britten for an opera stage for the Aldeburgh Festival, but when the plans fell through Cadbury-Brown used it for a house. The film highlights the musical connection and the soundtrack was inspired by Britten and the objects and materials that we found in the house.
Jonathan: “The book was published earlier this year by Occasional Papers. It was an opportunity to compile various bits of research and incorporate a longer script. There’s an article by Alan Powers, Cadbury-Brown’s 1959 address to the Architectural Association, ‘Ideas of Disorder’, notes on the design for the opera house and so on. There isn’t a single monograph on Cadbury-Brown so it felt like it would be valuable to bring various things together in a book.
“Jim and Betty considered the house to be their version of 2 Willow Road, it was the greatest expression of their modernist ideals in a house. It’s also really important to realise that it was both of their work. In the history of architectural partnerships women’s roles tend to be diminished. Jim and Betty met when they worked together at Ernö Goldfinger’s office and this house is a testament to their partnership.
“Since filming the house has been bought by an architect who has meticulously restored it over the past two years. The owner sees part of her role as that of a guardian and she wants to share it and help people to understand it. She’s aesthetically and ideologically committed to the house and it now has a new life.”
Jonathan P. Watts is a contemporary art critic and editor based in London and Norfolk.
Emily Richardson is an artist-filmmaker who is currently completing a PhD with The Royal College of Art.
‘3 Church Walk’ will be screened as part of the London Festival of Architecture’s ArchFilmFest on 8 June.
Find out more here or order a copy of the book.
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