Open House: Post-war architect Walter Greaves' daughter on his modernist masterstroke in Chichester
Our ‘Open House’ series sees us meet owners of some of our most extraordinary houses ahead of their sale. Here, Hannah Greaves invites us in for a personal insight into the riverside post-war home her late father Walter Greaves designed in Chichester, West Sussex.
“We lived in Blackheath in the 1960s, during which time my father individually designed ten private houses in the area, mostly for friends. Of course, it’s every architect’s dream to design their own home, and he was lucky enough to be able to do that when we moved to Chichester.
“When we moved, the planning laws were so strict because of the architectural heritage of the area. It frustrated my father because all he could do locally was barn conversions or renovations. It took five or six years to get planning permission for the house!
“My brother and I spent a very happy, long summer helping with things like staining the ceiling boards and putting in the insulation. It took just over a year to build and was finished in 1981.
“Even though my siblings and I were adults by the time we moved in, my father designed the house as a family home. His philosophy was that everything must work. Every aspect of the design had to have a purpose and function.
“For example, my mother likes direct sunlight, but my father wasn’t so keen. His office was north-facing but the house itself has lots of high-level windows to let the sun in; a compromise. And that worked. He made a house that was cool for him and light for my mother. Because that’s what he believed a house should do; it should function.
“Because he used a graph system when designing, everything lines up. Even the tiles in the bathroom were meticulously designed so there wouldn’t be any half tiles. It was frustrating for the builders! In the hallway, the painted ply is very effective, but my father ordered each piece cut and numbered to a specific pattern. I remember the builders being so cross because it was like a giant jigsaw puzzle!
“So that was his thing, making sure everything lined up, that it was all the right height. But the other thing he really liked was continuity. The cedar goes all the way around the outside then comes in and covers the interior, creating a sense of coherence.
“The setting of the house is so beautiful that you never quite get used to it. I am always surprised by it when I come back, even after just half an hour.
“Because the garden is quite natural, we really get to see the seasons. There isn’t one great big window from which you see the garden all the time so that it becomes commonplace. He once designed a house on the seafront and the clients said, ‘you haven’t put enough windows in, we want to be able to see the sea all of the time’. My father’s response was ‘if you don’t see the sea for a couple of minutes, you come back to it and see it all over again, time and time again.’
“It’s nice to sit on the stairs with a book or crossword because the light pours in through the bay windows, particularly in the winter when you’re not in the garden – that spot is warm and sunny.
“We’ll miss the garden but I’ll miss the space the most. You never realise how big it is. Last year we had 14 people staying and there was enough room for all of them. It never feels overcrowded, nor does it feel too big, because everything has a purpose.
“What’s also nice is the way that the house can be adapted; you can live in as much of it as you want. You can draw curtains between rooms and shut off certain parts to make it more intimate.
“I didn’t have a favourite part of the house, but my father did: his office and the sitting room, which was built to house his library of 20th-century English novels. He loved sitting in his chair reading by the fire. It’s how we remember him most.”
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