The modernist home of musician Imogen Holst gets Grade II listing

Your average person might not look twice at this little home in Aldeburgh, Suffolk. But, as of today, Nine Church Walk has been listed at Grade II on the advice of Historic England.

This modernist bungalow was the home of composer, arranger and conductor Imogen Holst, daughter of composer Gustav Holst. It was designed by Jim and Betty Cadbury-Brown, the architect duo behind the 1951 Festival of Britain’s Southbank site. The house is currently owned by music education organisation Britten Pears Arts and is available as a holiday rental, as well as opening to the public every year for Heritage Open Days.

Nine Church Walk was built between 1962 and 1964 for Holst, and she lived there until her death in 1984. It is, as such, filled with idiosyncrasies: it features a soundproofed music room, innovative for the time, where the composer worked. The windows are positioned to frame views of the parish church. Original features include built-in shelving systems and curtains with recessed tracking; Holst’s personal items such as a writing desk and coloured glass panel that she hung over the window to diffuse the sunlight also remain. The property houses furniture that belonged to Gustav Holst, including his oak music cupboard, where Holst stored her father's manuscripts.

In 1952, Holst was invited to assist composer Benjamin Britten on his opera, Gloriana, a work which marked the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Holst later became the artistic director of the mainly classical music festival, Aldeburgh Festival.

She commissioned the Cadbury-Browns to build the house on her land on Church Walk, later writing to the pair to thank them: ‘My IMMENSE and perpetual gratitude for the loveliest house in the world. I think of you both every night of the year and send blessings in your direction for having enabled me to get on with my work in such heavenly quiet and solitude and comfort.’ Her ‘rent’ to the Cadbury-Browns for the property consisted of a crate of wine at Christmas and yearly Aldeburgh Festival tickets.

‘The significance of Imogen Holst’s home extends far beyond its status as an unassuming yet notable example of Jim Cadbury-Brown’s architecture,’ heritage minister Sir Chris Bryant has said of the Grade II designation. ‘It was here at Nine Church Walk where some of the greatest musical minds of the 20th century converged, exchanged ideas and laid the foundations of the Aldeburgh Festival… By listing this remarkable building, we preserve not only its architectural merit but also the rich legacy of Holst and her peers.’

brittenpearsarts.org