Bungalophobia
[We shall publish next week a reply to this article by Mr. Clough Williams-Ellis.—Ea. Spectator.] I CANNOT understand this prejudice against bungalows. In half the British Empire English- men live in bungalows, and yet the moment that an Englishman in England attempts to live in one he is assailed with vituperation. His humble home is called by Dean Inge a " bufigaloid growth," by Father Ronald Knox Ile is accused of having lost the use of his legs through excessive motoring, and so of being compelled to live on the ground level ; by the fraternity of re- formed architects under the leadership of Mr. Clough Williams-Ellis he is branded as the destroyer of our lovely countryside. Yet despite all this, I myself, who love the beauty of the countryside, appreciate the glories of the present revival of architecture, enjoy the fortnightly articles of Dean Inge in the evening press, and have (on occasions) laughed at the humour of Father Knox, own a bungalow, live in it long and often, spend whole days admiring it and feel quite sure that it is an adornment to the landscape of Cornwall, where it is situate.
Nor is my bungalow very different from other bungs.; lows. It is, I may say, quite definitely a growth, but has nothing " bungaloid " about it at all. For the termin- ation "—oid," as I was taught in my childhood, means " resembling," or " with the appearance of " and my bungalow neither resembles a bungalow, nor has the appearance of a bungalow. It goes straight to the point and is a bungalow. It is no feeble reflection of the Platonic idea of a bungalow ; it is the genuine thing itself. So why call it " bungaloid " ? It is almost entirely of wood ; its foundations only are of stone. Its roof is of large flat red tiles and the walls of its rooms arc lined with stuff like cardboard which I optimistically believe to be asbestos. These sheets of cardboard are held in place by " slats " (I think that is the word) of wood, which were whacked in by nails. Two red brick chimneys protrude from the red roof and the rest of the building is painted dark green. It is extremely comfort- able and warm in cold weather and extraordinarily cool in summer. It has lots of windows and plenty of space and can hold five people in comfort. It faces south-west on the north Cornish coast and has been standing for ten years without any single part of it either blowing away or falling down. Nor are there any draughts in the strongest gale, and the water does not come in. It originally cost the price of a moderately good car to build, and it stands in a perfect paradise of scenery, wit II everything from a waterfall of forty feet to it moor a thousand feet high and a sandy seashore all within twenty minutes.
Now what would Mr. Clough Williams-Ellis suggest to me and it ? It has no trace whatever of the liner elements of modern architecture. It is built for being lived in and nothing else. I have softened down its asperities ; its nasty wooden slats and asbestos have all been oil-painted in one colour, its fireplaces oil-painted to match, and the whole been simplified to a single unity of mural decorat ion. And it looks exactly what it is, a one-storied house of wood. But Mr. Williams-Ellis would want it uprooted and in its place he would ask me to build a subtle creation in Bath stone or Stonesfield slate, for which an undoubtedly expensive architect would do me the plans. To which I can only reply that I am not prepared to pay more than the price of a moderately good ear for any bungalow that he may design and that the cost of the design must be included in the total of, say, £500 or £000. Now can Mr. Williams-Ellis and his colleagues do anything of the kind a t the price, because if they cannot then I am driven to get it done by one of those firms who make them in sections autd send them down ready for erection. Thus was my country home originally built and thus must the modern architects do to compete with the wholesale firm.
And wily should they not do it ? Where can Mr. Williams- Ellis show me a beautiful and modern bungalow suited to the countryside and capable of being repeated innumerable times ? Instead of damning all bungalows and their owners for building " growths," instead of being funny about it, let the architects come forward and give us the ideal bungalow at the ideal price, which is such that neither Dean Inge nor Father Ronald Knox can laugh at it. And it must, of necessity, be the bungalow of the poor man, or else no one will want it. To-day there arc hundreds of poor people like myself who yearn for a country home and are either driven into buying a bad bungalow or driven off buying any for fear of buying a " growth " and in-. curring the wrath of the highbrows: Fortunately my bungalow with careful treatment looks simple and prac- tical—as the architects say, " it expresses its structure," very much so in fact !-and it has a lovely garden, no other bungalows anywhere near, and a trout stream at the foot of the sloping hillside on whose wooded steep it stands. And anybody else Can have a similar bungalow for the price of a moderately good car, with the certainty that. unlike the car, it won't halve its value in six months. It is in every way a good investment and the only invest- ment which poor men like myself can afford.
The architects and divines must stop nagging and get to business. If they don't like my " growth " and others similar to it they must design better and even cheaper ones. And, what is very important, they must design different types for different regions. Yet none of them seems to have thought of that. Cornish bungalows will not do for the EaSt Coast or for the Cotswolds. Even if they are made wholly of wood they can still assume types that suit regions. The Cornish type must be long and to*, so as not to catch the wind. Its chimneys can be made of stone in the Cornish manner so as not to clash with the lovely Cornish chimneys of the neighbouring stone cottages. But the Cotswold type must be stumpy and trim, with the angles of its roof calculated to be the same as the angles of Cotswold roofs ; for almost every district has house-types with different roof angles.
Then, again, in the types of fireplace, steps and gates, the bungalow, without extra expense, can copy the type of its district. And it can use local stone. In the granite areas it can build its foundations of granite and so automatically achieve the local style. In slate areas it will use the thick slabs of slate from local quarries for steps, fireplaces and gardens. In forest areas and on gravel soil it can make a wider use of wood, and so har- monize with the more woody houses of forest folk. And so on. The scheme for " regional bungalows " in which local materials arc drawn upon is not one which I have as yet seen popularized by the architects. Yet they can do it. Any such scheme should be accompanied by a series of negatives for builders. Thus no " rough- casting " of any kind, no " Olde Oake Tearooms " effect, no painted cross-beams, no blue slate roofs, and no fancy decoration should be allowed in any circumstances. Simplicity must be driven into the disciples of this new creed. Builders must be disciplined. And none of it will be very difficult, for most of these hard negatives tend to lessen expense and hasten -the work on. I am tired of all this abuse of bungalows. If the altern- ative is to live in a boarding house among the palms and aspidistras in the summer then I will build any kind of bungalow. After all what is good enough for Kashmir or for Kenya is good enough for me ; but it is far too good for Dean Inge or Father Ronald Knox. They will never be invited to cross my portal into my asbestos study.
STANLEY CASSON.
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