Heathcote is a Neoclassical-style villa in Ilkley, West Yorkshire, England. Designed by architect Edwin Lutyens, it was his first comprehensive use of that style,^[1] making it the precursor of his later public buildings in Edwardian Baroque style and those of New Delhi.^[2] It was completed in 1908.

In December 2014 English Heritage designated it a Grade I listed building, raising it from the Grade II* designation that it received in 1979.^[3] In its new listing for Heathcote, English Heritage called it a "pivotal" building in Lutyens's career, and "an imaginative and inventive essay in Mannerism".^[4] The gardens are Grade II listed in the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.^[5]

House

In 1906,^[2] Lutyens was commissioned by John Thomas Hemingway (1857–1926), a wealthy self-made Bradford wool merchant, and his wife Emma Jane, to replace their existing villa, which was at the lower, southern end of a sloping site,^[6] 4 acres (1.6 ha) in extent.^[7] Lutyens was given a free rein in the design. He built the new villa at the top of the site, in a size and style intended to dominate the neighbouring villas.^[6] Lutyens had already mixed elements of classical architecture into his earlier, vernacular and Neo-Georgian designs, and his correspondence with Herbert Baker displayed a growing enthusiasm for classical architecture.^[2] Later, he acknowledged a stylistic debt at Heathcote to the 16th-century Italian architect Michele Sanmicheli. Lutyens has been criticised for using a grand style more suited to a public building than to the Hemingways' dwelling.^[6] Lutyens came to call his new style "Wrennaissance", after Christopher Wren.^[8]

The house is built of local ashlar: yellow Guiseley stone decorated with grey stone from Morley,^[10] with rustication on the ground floor and on the tall chimneys. The main features of the house and gardens are symmetrical around a north-south axis.^[2] English Heritage have identified a compositional influence from the 17th-century French architect François Mansart.^[4] The house has a three-storey central block, set back between two flanking two-storey pavilions to east and west, each with an additional one-storey outer wing. Each of these five components has a hip roof,^[4] made of red pantiles.^[10]

Entry is from King's Road, via a walled entrance court, to a door in the centre of the north elevation. The central hall leads out to a terrace garden giving a view southwards towards Ilkley Moor.^[7] The south, garden elevation is more elaborate than the north, with wrought-iron balconies, additional setbacks in the central bay, and Doric pilasters on the flanking pavilions.^[2] English Heritage have called the south elevation a "witty reinterpretation" of Michele Sanmicheli's Porta Palio in Verona.^[4]

For the interior design, Lutyens continued the classical theme.^[2] The vestibule floor was white marble.^[11] The hall had green Siberian marble columns, a black marble staircase and a vivid green carpet. Blue was used for some other surfaces, and for the Lutyens-designed furniture.^[12] He also designed star-shaped light fittings.^[2] Other interior features designed by Lutyens which remain intact include the fireplaces, cabinets and cupboards.^[4]

Emma Jane Hemingway died in the house in 1937.^[6] The company NG Bailey used the building as offices from 1958 to 2011. After a planning application to split it into two apartments was unsuccessful, it was converted back into an eight-bedroom house in 2012.^[13]

Gardens

The gardens were laid out by Lutyens,^[5] with pools and parterres, and retaining walls for the terracing, including that of the central lawn.^[7] The Grade I listing of 12 December 2014 combined numerous garden and courtyard features that were individually Grade II* listed, as well as some outbuildings and a pair of cottages fronting onto King's Road.^[4]

The planting of the gardens was by garden designer Gertrude Jekyll.^[14]