White House, Cambridge

The first Modernist-style house in Cambridge and one of the earliest in Britain, it dates from 1930–31, and was designed by the New Zealand-born architect George Checkley for his own use.

The house, a flat-roofed, white-rendered Cubist construction drawing direct inspiration from Le Corbusier's work in France, is an example of the International Style.

[5][6] Cambridge has an unusual concentration of Modernist houses,[6][7] with twelve dating to the interwar period;[5] other early examples include the nearby 31 Madingley Road, designed by Marshall Sisson (1931–32).

[6] The architectural historians Nikolaus Pevsner and Simon Bradley describe the road as "a progressive enclave" which attracted academics such as the Cornford and Darwin families.

[11][17] The three form a group of white Modernist houses, which were originally set in extensive grounds and adjacent to the wilderness area.

[8][6] On the interior, the entrance hall is located in the middle of the house, with a concrete staircase faced with black Minton tiles and with an unpierced balustrade.

[22] The original design was heated by central-heating panels, in addition to fireplaces, plentiful electrical sockets were supplied, and all of the bedrooms had fitted wardrobes and plumbed-in wash basins.

[12][22] A contemporary report in The Times describes the house as lacking "ornamental excrescences" to "impair the rectangularity of a long, low elevation" interrupted only by windows, and goes on to characterise the building as "an object-lesson in a new form of house", which forms a "vivid contrast to the historic and conventional styles of architecture of which Cambridge is so rich."

[22] It was documented in a 1932 article in The Listener by the Cambridge architect H. C. Hughes, who characterises it as "in the high Corbusier manner"; he describes it as "set about with trees whose forms pattern its plain surface with their shadows in the winter and shield its long glass windows from the summer heat".