Jeremy Lander, a director of Cambridge architects Freeland Rees Roberts, has designed the new building that will soon occupy the site. He grew up in Royston but, like many Roystonians, had never noticed the strange structure. During development of the project he wondered about the older house, so inappropriate to such a sensitive location, and specifically why it had been constructed in concrete, complete with a flat roof, at a time well before concrete was used in domestic building in this country.
Through asking around, the history of the house has at last become clear thanks to Cllr FJ Smith, an extremely knowledgeable local historian. He told Jeremy that the house was built in 1925 by a Mr Hargreaves, the then owner of the adjacent Priory, for his chauffeur and decided to use concrete because he had seen this ‘wonder material of the future’ during a visit to the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley in London in 1924. Concrete was starting to be used on the Continent at that time but was still rare in this country, especially in its exposed state.
Jeremy is pleased to have his own curiosity satisfied. ‘It was such an unlikely house’, he comments, ‘to appear in that location and built entirely of concrete. What will replace it we see as being much more in keeping with the surroundings and much more appealing to live in. Flat-roofed concrete houses can be very exciting but not this one. It was of terrible proportions, looking like a water tank, and being solid concrete it must have been like living in a refrigerator, or an oven. I would love to know who the last residents of the house were and what they thought of it. Perhaps they still live in Royston.’
Building work on the imaginatively-designed apartments, granted consent after much negotiation over the years with North Herts Planners, will begin in the Spring and Freeland Rees Roberts expect them to be ready for occupation by early 2013.
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