Former home of pioneering Victorian explorer Gertrude Bell at risk after developer’s plans for housing stall
Photo Credit: The Victorian Society.
Grade II*-listed, 1868, Phillip Webb
Red Barns is an architecturally significant building, designed by the leading Arts and Crafts architect, Philip Webb, who also designed William Morris’s Red House near Bexleyheath in south-east London. It is also notable as the former home of Gertrude Bell CBE, a pioneering Victorian explorer of the Middle East variously described as a political officer, administrator, archaeologist, and spy. But unfortunately these claims to significance have not been enough to save the building from neglect, and the building currently lies in a terrible state with considerable water damage to the interior. The building was later used as a boarding house and, finally, a pub, and when the pub closed, it was bought by a developer, who dug the foundations for new housing, but never followed through with his plans for new houses and apartments on the site. Urgent action is needed now to ensure Red Barns survives: perhaps the developer could support the local campaign for a new museum to honour Bell’s memory?
The Victorian Society Director, Christopher Costelloe, said: ‘For the first time we have no entries on the Top Ten for London or the South East. We simply got far more nominations from areas like Yorkshire. This perhaps reflects the vastly different financial climate for development. But whatever the reason, I hope inclusion in the Top Ten will spur local authorities and owners to urgently find a way to bring these buildings back into use. At a time when there has been much discussion of the gap between the South East and elsewhere this is more important than ever. Retaining historic buildings like those in the Top Ten is vital to maintaining local identity and creating places in which people want to invest, live and work.’
Status Update / March 2o26
One of the happier stories on our list, Red Barns has been lovingly restored by husband-and-wife team Jackie and Jon Dale and turned to use as a five-bedroom guesthouse. The property had further deteriorated by the time the couple bought it in 2018, but thanks to the Dales’ efforts it has been removed from Historic England’s heritage at risk register and is considered to be in a good condition.