A certain image probably comes to mind when mention is made of the home counties. Pony clubs and deals done on golf courses by people who spend the week in London doing whatever it is that earns enough for pony clubs and golf fees.
The truth of Buckinghamshire is far more fascinating.
From the capital you either hurtle, or crawl depending of the time of day, over the JG Ballard civil engineering ribbon of the Westway and onto, eventually the M40.
More graceful, maybe, to get the train from Marylebone straight out. The station is, arguably, the prettiest of all of the stations in and out of London. Nestled in a leafy backwater with baskets of well tended flowers. It is possible, with a little imagination, to see commuters in bowler hats and raincoats sheltering from a shower smoking a Craven A and holding a bunch of flowers waiting for the 5.45 to Princes Risborough.
Or the Beatles, very young, running from the crowds in A Hard Days Night.
Then. And now.
Amersham is the first of the coveted Bucks towns on the line. Possibly still the prettiest. A gorgeous old town and an extended, more contemporary, area that still retains a gentle bucolic charm.
Architectural students and design obsessives already know Amersham because of High and Over. Completed in 1931, a modernist vision offered up by architect Amyas D Connell without compromise. Grade 2 listed and still devastating. Still shocking. Still looking like a dramatic possibility of the future.
There is another very beautiful telling of contemporary living in Amersham.
Chelwood defines confident now architecture. Unapologetically modern yet still harmonizing with the gentle emerging of The Chilterns and the Arts & Crafts heritage of Amersham.
Space, light and tranquil grace could be the mission statement for this beautiful family home.
The creative ideal. A client, Sally McNair, with a strong vision and an open and flexible way of thinking.
An intelligent and confident architectural studio. Napier Clarke define those qualities.
Ali Hearn brings a refined, erudite and subtle design sophistication to the formidable union.
A powerful creative resource effectively and proficiently project managed by Frank Elliot to the point of precise completion.
A modern house. A modern family. A family that puts a kitchen to work.
A kitchen that defines the Inglis Hall belief system. The refined utility. Form exquisitely following function. Quality of material and sublime craft.
The perfect space to store, to prepare, to cook and to appreciate.
Imposing black Oak. Meticulously engineered brass. African Black Granite and Red Earth.
A kitchen, as we envisage, should always draw from, align with, and add to the visual eloquence and spatial quality of an outstanding house.
A kitchen becomes integrated into the architecture just as the architecture becomes a seemingly natural element of the landscape.
A conceal / reveal piece where the critical elements of life: books, wine, glasses are elegantly stored. An object of kitchen furniture which acts as proof that Sally, the owner, has a sure understanding of the quality of life.
A kitchen that is easier to understand by looking at than it is by reading about.
We love to keep in contact with our clients. We like to know how our kitchens are doing.
A frequent comment in our client conversations is that, however large and beautiful the home in question is, the most populated area is the kitchen.
This, of course, is why we love doing what we do.
Think of an Inglis Hall kitchen as an investment that keeps the rest of the home tidy.
Anyway. More Buckinghamshire domestic architectural stream of conscious as we doze on the train.
Fleeing Marylebone, London and Beatlemania, George, the quiet Beatle, retreated into a mythic world within a world at Friars, his Neo Gothic otherworld in Henley.
Chequers, the country residence of every Prime Minister, provides an extravagant and magnificent retreat from Question time, allegations and impending catastrophes!
Will Self, one time enfant terrible of literature, was, in his most strung out and out there phase, obsessed with Buckinghamshire and the M40. In “Scale” he gave a semi autobiographical account of an opiated scholar living next to Bekonscot, the strange Lilliputian model village situated behind a pub in nearby Beaconsfield.
Will Self, in earlier times, would have made an ideal member of the Hellfire Club.
A debauched, decadent collective committed to the Pagan worship of Bachus and Venus in the chalk caves carved deep into the belly of West Wycombe.
And. We’re back in Marylebone. Back from Amersham. No longer in Buckinghamshire. Still thinking about one of our favourite kitchens.
