Words Kate Jacobs
Photography Elliot Sheppard

Back in 2015, the couple had welcomed a fourth child and were rapidly outgrowing their 16th-century house in the peaceful village of Bletchingley. Having uprooted from Esher a few years previously, Clementine was acutely aware of everything they had lost in the move – friendships and a framework of familiarity. She knew she wanted to stay in the village this time, just in a bigger place. So it’s all the more remarkable that the pair didn’t bother to view this house, which was just a short walk away on the edge of the village. “This place was on the market for a long time, but we hadn’t really considered it. The photos looked awful, and we were looking for an older house, something more country-ish,” recalls Clementine.

Thankfully, they eventually decided to check it out. “It was unsightly, confusing and all a bit tired. But the moment we got here and saw the views, we thought, ‘Why wouldn’t we?’ We could see that it was possible to create something lovely here, although we didn’t realise the effort it would take. Sometimes a bit of naivety is helpful,” admits Clementine.

Hearth House was built in the 1950s for Commander Wilfred ‘Biffy’ Dunderdale CMG MBE, a noted intelligence officer and close friend of author Ian Fleming. Wilfred was widely believed to be the inspiration for Fleming’s James Bond character. “Our sons love that they’re living in James Bond’s house!” laughs Clementine.

While the house was celebrated in its heyday in Country Life magazine, it had fallen on hard times, with numerous unsympathetic additions to the building, including an unnecessary surplus of porches and conservatories. Moving in 2016, the family lived here for several years before bringing in architect Benjamin Wells, who heads up the design studio, Medium.

He helped them with their previous home, and they were keen to get his take on the new house. “We spoke to a few local architects, but Ben's early sketches were by far the most exciting,” says Clementine. “He was able to imagine how our family could use the house in new ways, while working within the many constraints of the project.” By removing some of the clunky additions and introducing some innovative interventions, Benjamin was able to reimagine the space, bringing a sense of cohesion to what was a muddled and disjointed house.

Benjamin: “We’ve taken the two-storey building back to its original 1950s form, and created a new timber-framed dining hall at the ‘knuckle’, the corner of the L-shaped floor plan. A central hearth has been reinstated, but it is now mirrored to face the new dining hall, around which the new house is built. The more private rooms are pushed to the edge of the plan, while the common spaces – the kitchen and dining room – serve as the stage for daily family life. The house steps down to meet the garden at various levels, allowing each room to have an intimate connection to the surrounding landscape, even in smaller rooms like the bathrooms.”

Clementine: “The huge opening in the dining room connects the interior with the garden, and other windows frame different slices of the view; the window above the kitchen sink, the huge window by our bath, the glass door facing the entrance hall that reveals the view as you come in. There are also sightlines right through the house, with the rooms opening onto each other while still feeling distinct. You can look from the living room through to the landscape on the other side of the house. My favourite view is from the furthest of the children’s bedrooms through the dining room to the sky beyond. We love the level of physical connection we have between the house and the garden.”

Benjamin: “It was really important that the house felt embedded in the garden, so we asked landscape designer Lulu Roper-Caldbeck to create an overarching scheme to make sense of the garden in a way that Clementine and David could get more involved with over time. Lulu proposed planting islands in gravel by the front entrance, creating a wildflower meadow through which a couple of paths meander and, on the far side of the house, carving out a potager garden with raised beds and pear trees within the walled courtyard garden.”

Clementine: “There are gaps in the garden walls that frame views of the more pastoral landscape to the side of the house with its lovely old oak trees. We love gardening, and Lulu has helped us to create something sustainable and low maintenance but dramatic and beautiful.”

Benjamin: “Sustainability was a top priority, and we wanted to keep as much of the existing house as possible – only reconfiguring and enhancing it. The exterior is highly insulated and protected by a render that’s smooth on the original house, with a playful rough-cast finish on the newer additions, to create a subtle visual differentiation.

Benjamin: “We used Douglas fir from Wales for all the new structural elements, which have been constructed with traditional methods that could be disassembled when they come to the end of their use. The new structure consists of two grids that pinwheel around a turned circular column in the dining hall. We carefully planned so that the timber offcuts could be used in the bespoke joinery throughout the house – for benches, wardrobes and shelving. The walk-through wardrobe was made by Cooling.Works, and the stair handrail by Meal Deal Workshop.”

Clementine: “We wanted the materials to be as natural as possible. To create a sense of coherence throughout the house, we’ve used the same spherical knobs on all the joinery, which are echoed by the Ifo globe lights we’ve used on walls and ceilings.

“We’ve used a palette of greens; darker shades in the pantry and utility, a sorrel colour in the kitchen and a lighter green in the kids’ shared space. And they each have an in-built wardrobe painted in their favourite colour – Odille’s is yellow, Seb’s is red, and Bertie’s is blue – we need to do Elphie’s next!

“Having enjoyed working with Ben so closely over the past years, we knew we could trust him to help us make the house work for our family. We have people around a lot, and the house is often full, but I never feel like I’m rattling around when it’s just me. It’s very much our forever home – whenever we go away, I can’t wait to get back.”