Westridge History | 1923-1939
The Beginning
West Ridge was built in 1923 to designs by G Blair Imrie of Imrie and Angell for Alexander B Stewart.
An application for the building’s construction is recorded in the Epsom Rural District Council Register, number E2076, dated 6 April 1923. The electoral register shows that by 1924 Alexander Stewart was in occupation.
The whole north side of Walpole Avenue is in fact built on a what was a single field of Latchford’s Shaws farm. On the 1913 OS map of the area, the house and land is still part of the field, but a nearby house can be seen to have been built.
Original Owner
Alexander Bellamy Stewart (1891-1977) was born in London and married in Leytonstone in 1920. In 1922 he became a founding partner of Stewart and Hughman Ltd, a managing agency for Lloyds of London syndicates.
Previously to West Ridge, Alexander had lived in a nearby home, also built by the same architect, suggesting they may have been acquainted.
Today, following mergers and acquisitions, this business is now known as Chaucer. Alexander’s son, Brian Stewart, went on to work in the same business, retiring in around 1987.
In May 1926 Brian Stewart was born. He would go on to live in the house his entire life. Passing away in June 2017. Brian was cremated at Croydon Crematorium.
Country Life Magazine
In 1928 the house was featured in Country Life magazine as part of a series focusing on ‘The lesser country houses of today’. I managed to find a copy in an antique dealer online and had it shipped. The magazine being in remarkable condition.
Interestingly there are several mistakes in the plan. This could suggest a couple of things, namely that the original plan from the architect was utilised (as opposed to the ‘actual’ layout at the time of printing), or mistakes were made in the reproduction of the information. To date I have discovered around 10 major differences.
The Architect
George Blair Imrie, MBE FRIBA (1885-1952) was an architect by practise rather than qualification. He trained as a quantity surveyor and became a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1925 because of its merger with the Society of Architects.
On the 25th March 1913 shortly before he produced his best-known work, his partnership of “STODART, PINE-COFFIN, AND IMRIE,” was dissolved. This is likely where his architectural partnership with Thomas Graveley Angell (1880-1956) began, just prior to the First World War.
In 1914 he produced his best-known work, the Royal Horticultural Society Offices, Wisley Gardens, Surrey (listed Grade II). Imrie specialised in domestic architecture, large and small, working on new houses and the restoration of existing ones. He was also responsible for the layout of a number of private housing estates (most notably the Wentworth Estate in Surrey), and spent the last years of his career in Wiltshire designing housing for local and urban councils.
A number of Imrie’s houses featured in architectural journals and books of the inter-war period, many of the publications dedicated to showcasing smaller and medium-sized family houses, as well as those termed ‘lesser’ or ‘smaller’ country houses. Imrie was a keen supporter of the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England and a firm believer in the importance of houses harmonising with their context.
He was also a supporter of houses containing ‘all mod cons’ and having the most up to date technology and labour-saving devices of their time. This was mentioned in the Country Life magazine and is certainly supported by the evidence of the layout and elements found within the house (central heating).
He worked largely in a vernacular revival style, his houses typically reflecting the traditional forms and materials of the south eastern counties. His interest in working-class housing was established early but his main contributions to this sector came late in his career and won him three medals from the Ministry of Housing. T G Angell described his partner as combining ‘practical knowledge, common sense and great artistic ability to an unusual degree’ despite his lack of formal architectural training. He also recalled Imrie’s pride that, other than for council housing, he had never repeated a design.
