A striking three-bedroom home designed by the celebrated modernist architect Amyas Connell in 1934 has gone on sale in Amersham for £1.25 million.
One of a set of four “Sun Houses” designed by Connell originally on the same grounds, the Third Sun House is the only surviving example that has not been altered or extended.
Painstakingly preserved by the current owners as well as the two previous owners, it has been restored and future-proofed with precision, down to the original lampshades and rotating pantry door.
“We had seen the Sun Houses before, and we would often come and drive here just to have a look at them,” one of current owners, a couple looking to downsize, told Homes & Property what led him to buying the home in 2018. “And we didn't realise that this one was here. It was surrounded by trees.” But having by chance been scrolling on Rightmove, the couple realised there was another Sun House tucked away — and it had come on the market.
The previous owner, he says, “wanted to sell it to somebody who would keep it in its original form. That was his ideal, and that's what we were looking to do. So we've basically spent time getting it fit for the 21st century.”
The Grade-II listed house has tall steel Crittall windows stretching around it. As its name suggests, it is designed to let in light at all different times of the day while, while also protecting rooms from overheating with sunshades or concrete ‘Brise Soleils’.
“So the intention of the buildings is they're meant to have the sun going around them. And the way that the building deals with temperature is it's designed for that. So when it had trees all the way around, it basically wasn't serving the house particularly well,” the owner says.
“So we were advised to take them down and it's opened up the house completely now. So you get sun from the morning all the way round to the evening and you can see the sunsets from the roof and that is really nice.”
The preservation of the house is in the details; from keeping the original metal frames of the windows that were set into the concrete as it was poured, to the thickness of the paint chosen for the exterior to ensure “you can still see all of the lines in the in the concrete where the wooden frames were”.
“So in some ways, if you look at it and sort of blur your eyes, it's just a big white box. But then if you look at it, you can see all the history in it,” the owner tells us.
The Sun Houses were originally built on the grounds of the main house, the famous Y-shaped High & Over, which was the UK’s first modernist house, and deemed to be “of outstanding importance” by English Heritage.
Connell came from New Zealand but settled in London, and was inspired by seeing the works of Le Corbusier at the 1925 Paris Exhibition.
The house has a bright living space on the ground floor along with kitchen and dining room, and three bedrooms and a bathroom on the first floor, accessed by a dramatic concrete spiral staircase.
There is also a more recently constructed stand-alone office/studio in the garden, which was designed in keeping with the style of the house. It has underfloor heating, bifold doors, a kitchenette and its own WC.
Although it does have a terraced garden, the roof terrace, which spreads across the whole footprint of the house, is even more striking with its panoramic views over the Chilterns.
Amersham in Buckinghamshire is a popular commuter hotspot, being at the north-west end of the Metropolitan Line and with train services into London taking 40-50 minutes. The Sun House is a 15-minute walk from the station or a three-minute drive.
