1919 – Hall & Cottages, Whiteley Village, Burhill, Surrey

In 1907 the wealthy owner of a large Bayswater department store, William Whiteley, was shot dead by a young man claiming to be his illegitimate son. In his will he specified that the then considerable sum of £1,000,000 be used to purchase freehold land ‘… as a site for the erection thereon of buildings to be used and occupied as homes for aged poor persons’. Four years later the £40,000 purchase of the 225-acre Burhill Estate, between Weybridge, Walton-on-Thames and Cobham, initiated the creation of Whiteley Village.

“The accompanying drawing — one of a series of three perspectives — was exhibited at the Royal Academy in illustration of the group of buildings forming part of the general scheme carried out by the Trustees of the Whiteley Homes in Burhill Park. Sir Aston Webb, R.A,, was the architect of this section, including the Whiteley Hall, and the two remaining views just mentioned will appear in our pages at an early date. The other groups of cottages, together with those now shown, form an octagonal lay- out adapted to the several plans of the six collaborating architects. We gave a block plan in detail, showing this general arrangement, in our’ issue of November 29, 1916. Mr. Waller Cave, F.R.I.B.A., the consulting architect to the trustees, designed the houses built on Section 8, as shown in the same and following issue, when Mr. Mervyn E. Macartney’s group also appeared. The remainder will be found fully illustrated: by Mr. Ernest Newton, A.R.I.B.A., May 31 1916 ; by Mr. Reginald Blomfield, R.A., June 21, 1916 ; and by Messrs. Ernest George, R.A., and A.B. Yeates, F.R.I.B.A., July 25, 1916. The builders of all the sections were Messrs Martin, Limited, of Northampton, and Mr. Comport was the resident clerk of the works.”