Turn End

““Peter Aldington is one of the world’s greatest architects, he’s an absolute genius”.”

““It’s good to be reminded that it is still just about the best post war house I know.””

““To my mind they are some of the most beautiful houses built in England since the war… Not only are the gardens a masterpiece in their own right, but they relate to the buildings in an unforgettable way.”
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““I would include it in a list of 20 of the most remarkable and unusual places to visit in England”
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““Carefully scaled response to locality and site, simplicity and directness of building, and ingenuity of planning… A series of secret spaces, each carefully composed to take advantage of topography, shading and orientation with plant species chosen to respond to their locations…”
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““...where the architect’s eye and the plantsman’s instinct meet and work their magic” 
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““The permeability of the buildings, the indistinct division between the interior and exterior spaces with rooms flowing into gardens and the asymmetry and informal composition, is in the tradition of the English picturesque. Yet the witty way in which Turn End is conceived as a series of walled enclosures, some open to the sky, others roofed…There is nothing else like Aldington’s houses and garden at Haddenham in post-war British architecture. They show how the most modest of materials can create characterful architecture, how English traditions of picturesque and vernacular design and construction can fuse with key tenets of modernism to make an architecture very much of its place. And they demonstrate a magical union between interior and exterior, between house and garden. These buildings remain an object lesson for all architects, and their protection and right to gradual and appropriate change should be guaranteed”
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““It is an intricate layout, constantly surprising the visitor… it is in fact, very peaceful and a delight to visit””