48 Storey's Way
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48 Storey's Way is an Arts and Crafts house in west Cambridge, England, designed by M. H. Baillie Scott for Herbert Ainslie Roberts, a university administrator, and built in 1912–13.[1][2] The architectural historian Alan Powers considers it an archetype of the English Arts and Crafts movement,[3] although it is a late example of that movement.[4] It is listed at grade II*.[1]
Storey's Way is one of the few 19th/early-20th-century developments in west Cambridge not associated with one of the colleges, the other being Selwyn Gardens, off Grange Road, developed from the late 1880s.[5] Storey's Charity dates from 1692, with the will of Edward Storey.[6] As a result of the Enclosure Award of 1805, the charity was allocated an L-shaped piece of farmland in the north west of Cambridge and, early in the 20th century, the charity's trustees decided to develop 35 acres for housing. A total of 74 individual plots of 0.25–1.0 acres were advertised; eighteen had sold by 1914 but the First World War interrupted proceedings and sales dragged on until 1932.[1][6] The bulk of the plots were small, catering for a shift in demand towards smaller homes with fewer live-in servants.[5] The terms of sale required houses to cost £800 or £1000 (later £1000 or £1200), depending on the size of the plot – relatively expensive for the time – and also to stand at least 30 feet from the street.[6] Building started in 1910 and eleven houses had been built before the First World War;[5] the majority were completed by 1930.[6] The Z-shaped Storey's Way was built in 1910 or 1911 to serve the development; it connects Huntingdon Road with Madingley Road, with the southern part cutting through land belonging to St John's College.[1][5][6]
The development was in a rural area, beyond the extent of building along the Huntingdon and Madingley Roads,[5] with only a handful of nearby buildings pre-dating it. To the west of the road was the chapel of rest of the parish of St Giles and St Peter's burial ground, dating from around 1875, possibly by Richard Reynolds Rowe.[6] To the north (south of Huntingdon Road) stood a group of houses associated with the Darwin family, including The Grove (1813), once home of Darwin's widow, Emma (now part of Fitzwilliam College); The Orchard (1882), built for Horace Darwin (now demolished but forms the site of Murray Edwards College); and Wychfield House (1884), built for Francis Darwin (now part of Trinity Hall).[6][7][8][9] The northern part of Storey's Way is now a conservation area, encompassing the entire original development.[6]
The architect, M. H. Baillie Scott, though not among the founders of the Arts and Crafts movement in England, became one of its major later exponents.[10] He designed a total of thirteen houses in Cambridge, nine of which are in west Cambridge,[1][5] with a cluster of five on Storey's Way, the others being numbers 29 (1922), 30 (1914), 54 (1922) and 56 (1923).[2][6] Other non-local architects contributing to the original development include T. D. Atkinson and Arthur Hamilton Moberly, with two neo-Georgian houses, numbers 63 (1912) and 76 (1913), respectively,[11][12] while the local architect H. C. Hughes produced a cottage orné design for number 25 (1924). The Letchworth firm Bennett & Bidwell designed no. 52 and the London firm Dunnage & Hartman no. 44, both dating from 1913.[6][13]
The client, Herbert Ainslie Roberts (1864–1932), was a former mathematics teacher at Bath College, who was secretary of the university's appointments board in 1902–32, and was elected a fellow of Gonville and Caius College in 1927. His family included his wife (Mary Violet née Maxwell) and son. Roberts' eldest brother, Ernest Stewart Roberts, was the Master of Gonville and Caius (1903–12) and Vice-Chancellor of the university (1906–8).[1][14][15]
History
Number 48 was built in 1912–13,[2] near Storey's Lane's western bend, at TL4357259503.[1] By the end of the 1930s it was the home of Ashley Tabrum, who was Cambridgeshire County Council's clerk for more than thirty years.[16][17] It was on the market in 1957, when it was advertised as having four principal and two or three other bedrooms, two bathrooms and a garage.[18] The site between Storey's Lane and Madingley Road (immediately south and west of number 48) was developed as Churchill College between 1959 and 1968.[1][19] 48 Storey's Lane was first listed in 1967, then at grade II.[1][20]
The house came on the market in 1990, with an advertised price of £350,000. By that time, the original kitchen and scullery had been amalgamated into a kitchen–breakfast room; there were five first-floor bedrooms and two bathrooms, with two bedrooms and a bathroom in the attic storey.[20] The house was dilapidated, and required a new roof and heating system, as well as electrical rewiring. It was purchased by Churchill College,[21] who intended to divide it for student accommodation, but were persuaded of its architectural merit by the architect Diane Haigh, whom they commissioned to restore it in 1990–91, together with William Fawcett of Allies & Morrison.[1][2][22] The pair also restored four other Baillie Scott houses in Cambridge during the 1990s.[23] After the restoration, number 48 housed Churchill's bursar, Michael Allen, and his family.[21] The college sold the house in 2000;[24] the advertised price of around £1 million was then one of the highest prices for a house in Cambridge.[22][25]