Holiday haven

摘要

The Anderton House, designed by Aldington & Craig, is no stranger to fame. This fine little building, a three-bedroom bungalow built in 1973 in a small Devon village, has been celebrated in no fewer than 29 books and journals, ranging from AJ 28.2.73 to The Daily Mail Book of Bungalow Plans (1975). After a couple of decades of relative obscurity, the Anderton House is once again thrust into the limelight- the occasion being its transformation from family home to a piece of 'architectural heritage' through the agency of the Landmark Trust, which has recently acquired the house and is opening it to the public this autumn as a holiday let. The Landmark Trust is a charity, the primary aim of which is to rescue buildings of architectural quality that are in danger of irreparable decay or destruction. Unlike the National Trust, which is much grander in scale, it does not require a large endowment to go with a property when it takes it on; instead, it lets its properties as holiday rentals and the income thus generated forms a significant part of its budget. Apparently it receives about 30 or 40 offers a week of buildings from despairing owners. The trust's conservation officer says that it looks specifically for buildings of architectural interest, not merely quaint or picturesquely sited oddities, though 'odd' and 'picturesque' could certainly be applied to a fair few of their properties - the Pineapple summer house in Dunmore, the Classical pigsty at Robin Hood's Bay, and numerous follies. It won't acquire buildings that could happily survive unaided, and is particularly interested in properties that have a 'time capsule' aspect. So why the Anderton House?