High and Over is a country house in Amersham, Buckinghamshire designed for (and in close collaboration with) the noted archaeologist Professor Bernard Ashmole, later to become director of the British Museum. The house was completed in 1931. Built with a reinforced concrete frame in the shape of a letter 'Y', High and Over is amongst the first Modernist houses in Britain. While it is correct to attribute the design to Connell, plans for the house carry the joint names of Connell and Thomson. It is a Grade II* listed building.[1]
The house is situated on a prominent hillside with spectacular views over the old town of Amersham and the Misbourne Valley on land that was originally part of the estate of the Tyrwhitt-Drake Family who lived at the nearby Shardeloes. The house was part of a larger scheme that included a gardener's lodge, water tower and generator house set in a garden that combined Cubist elements with the English landscape tradition. It was later joined by a group of speculative houses in similar style - the "Sun Houses".[2]
In this early and impressive design, Connell utilises his deep understanding of Roman architecture in a complex reworking of Corbusean modernism, attempting a fusion that would connect the classical and modern worlds. While some British critics interpreted this as muddled formalism, it was a beacon to a younger generation of architects including Alison and Peter Smithson. In 1931 British Pathe produced a short film about High and Over in its recently completed state, entitled "The house of a dream". The film is introduced with "For centuries houses have been built to meet the needs of each age. Today, we dream of houses open to sun and air, embodying everything that modern science can offer." and features excellent shots of the interior and exterior (B/W).[3] The house also appears in the 1973 BBC documentary by Sir John Betjeman, Metro-land.
In 1962, it was divided into two separate dwellings in a (successful) effort to save it from demolition. In the 1960s a large part of the grounds of the house were sold off to developers and the drive was re-used to make an adopted road, Highover Park, serving approximately 50 1960s detached, semi-detached and town houses. This development had no connection to Connell but the houses do share certain allusions to the modernist style. This development and other in-fill developments around High and Over during the last 40 years have had an impact on the house's immediate environment and aspects, and new developments still generate considerable public attention and protest about their impact on High and Over.[4] Although the house was divided into two apartments in 1962, it was later converted back into a single dwelling. It was then placed on the market for sale at £2.5m (May 2010) but the actual price is not yet in the public domain.