Marilyn Greatorex has been volunteering at Standen for 16 years and her talk was quite simply brilliant! Looking at the house from the point of view of the family and the architect opened up an entirely new perspective on our local National Trust property and the family who had it built and lived in it for so many years.
Mr Beale was a highly respected solicitor and Parliamentary lobbyist on behalf of the railway companies and he was instrumental in getting members of Parliament to agree to the building of St Pancras Station. So what with that and all the subsequent conveyancing work he made a lot of money so when he had his 50th birthday in 1890 he decided it was time to have a house built in the country for weekends and holidays and to which eventually he and Mrs. (Margaret) Beale would retire. He had various criteria including having to be within a 1 hour journey from London so that he could get to the office should an emergency arrive. Looking for an architect, the name of Philip Webb came up time and time again. A very private man and a perfectionist but everyone said that if they could persuade him to take on the commission he would be delighted with the result.
In March 1891 Mr Beale met with Philip Webb and in July of that year they went down to East Grinstead where they found on the site just two buildings, Holly Bush Farmhouse in a terrible state and the barn. It did however take 9 sets of plans to provide what Mr & Mrs Beale wanted which was not a grand country house but a house in the country and in a stroke of genius he retained the farmhouse and allowed the new building to flow from the old.
Building worked finally started in October 1892. By February 1894 Mrs Beale wrote to Philip Webb saying she was going to move in come what may & he wrote back asking her to wait just a little longer and she would be delighted. Eventually in Aug 1894 they were finally able to come for their first weekend with Esme, 23, Maggie, 22, John, 20, Sidney, 19, Dorothy 15, Daniel 13, Helen, 9 and in due course they made friends and went to parties all over the area. They also became very popular by hosting week long drama and country-dance festivals.
The house is very large having 21 bedrooms but also very modern with both electricity and central heating. The front of the house faces north out of the prevailing winds so that the main living rooms all face south with wonderful views.
Mr Beale finally retired in 1905 by which time just two of the children, Maggie & Helen were still at home and the 4 of them moved permanently to Standen and lived there for the rest of their lives which is why the house is something of a time capsule as they saw no need to make any changes.
Marilyn described the details that the architect had so carefully worked into the house and the way in which both he and the family considered the life of the servants with considerable care. One brilliant example was when they finally decided to replace horses with the motor car they sent the coachman and the groom to the Rolls Royce school of motoring to be trained as chauffeur and mechanic – thus keeping their jobs!
After Mr Beale died in 1912 Mrs Beale became head of the household. Not only was she a great embroiderer and co-founder of the London School of Embroidery, a great knitter and a great plantswoman, she also kept meticulous records which are in particular use today to assist with putting the house and gardens back to the state they were in at the time the family lived there.
Apart from the retinue of servants Mrs Beale also had 28 outdoor workers who lived in the cottages with their families. When WW1 came along she told the workers that she would give their families half pay if they would sign up and guarantee their jobs back. As the war went on she reluctantly had to cut their pay to 14 but she still guaranteed their jobs back.
Marilyn described each of the children and many of the grandchildren who visited the house in later years often in relation to the various rooms. We even learnt that although the house is often known as a William Morris house he never actually visited. His connection was entirely through Philip Webb and whilst the wallpapers were William Morris the first time he attempted to include a bird in the design he could not get it right and so Philip Webb actually drew the birds that appear on the ‘trellis’ wallpaper in the corridor leading to the conservatory! William Morris did, however, continue to practice drawing birds, so all the other papers that include birds are by him – just the one paper was a joint design!
There were so many anecdotes that it is impossible to cover the whole family story but we were encouraged to visit Standen – which she told us the family always knew as StanDen with the emphasis on the second half like Cowden and see for ourselves this magnificent Arts and Crafts house and I thoroughly recommend this to you especially at this time of year when the house has been decorated for Christmas. Zandra Rhodes the flamboyant fashion designer has just completed the decoration of a Christmas tree in the front drive that will doubtless divide opinion! See for yourself!
