The Rogers family has handed 22 Parkside to the National Trust, placing the Grade II*-listed house designed by Richard Rogers and his then wife Su in 1967 into national care, with plans to open it as an educational resource and public visitor destination. The 22 Parkside National Trust transfer marks the end of nearly six decades of family stewardship over one of the foundational built works of the High-Tech architectural movement.
The house will open to the public for the first time on 12 September, as part of London’s Open House Festival. Visitors to the festival will also have the opportunity to step inside Rogers’ Lloyd’s Building, which is marking its 40th anniversary and which built directly on ideas first explored at 22 Parkside.
A laboratory for High-Tech ideas
Originally constructed for Rogers’ parents, 22 Parkside is regarded as an early working model for the architectural principles that would later define some of the world’s most recognised buildings, among them the Pompidou Centre in Paris and 122 Leadenhall Street, known as the Cheesegrater. The house features an exterior of glass and brightly coloured yellow steel ribs. It is split into two parts: a flat that served as a pottery studio for Rogers’ mother, and the main open-plan house set in the trees behind.
Norman Foster, who worked in partnership with Rogers in the 1960s, described the building as capturing the optimism of that decade. ‘In many ways the building encapsulated the spirit of the 1960s. It was the essence of optimism. It is a tribute to the National Trust that they have taken this initiative, this responsibility to preserve it for future generations to visit, to enjoy,’ he said.
According to Dezeen, Rogers’ son Ab moved into the house with his family in 1998, continuing its life as a lived-in family home well into the twenty-first century. That domestic continuity is part of what makes the building unusual among listed architectural landmarks: it has functioned as both a manifesto and a residence simultaneously.
The house underwent a restoration in 2015, carried out by architect Philip Gumuchdjian and landscape architect Todd Longstaffe-Gowan, according to ArchitectureAu. That work brought the structure and its setting back to a condition that could now support sustained public access, underpinning the viability of the National Trust’s programme.
22 Parkside National Trust plans for community and education
Ben Rogers, the son of Richard and Su, set out the family’s motivation plainly. ’22 Parkside is much more than a family home. It is one of the most important buildings my father and mother created, a place where many of the ideas that would go on to influence my father’s work and some of the world’s most celebrated architecture were first tested and explored,’ he said. The family chose transfer to the National Trust rather than allowing the property to remain ‘a private asset’, with Ben Rogers saying they wanted to ‘ensure that this remarkable house would be protected, cared for and shared with future generations’.
The National Trust’s programme for the site is intended to extend well beyond heritage tourism. The organisation plans to provide activities for the local community and to work with international partners to ‘inspire the next generation of architects, designers and creatives’. Guided tours, digital content and use of the building as an educational resource for schools and universities are all under consideration.
National Trust director-general Hilary McGrady said: ‘We are profoundly grateful to the Rogers family for placing this extraordinary house in our care. Their generosity means that 22 Parkside will now become part of our shared inheritance, belonging not to a single family but to the people of England, Wales and Northern Ireland.’
To secure the building’s long-term future, the National Trust said it had raised a ‘significant endowment’ from private donors and charitable trusts, including Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Sigrid Rausing Trust. The organisation has also appealed for further donations to support the new vision.
Twentieth Century Society director Catherine Croft welcomed the transfer, describing 22 Parkside as a ‘highly experimental manifesto house’. ‘From this small acid-yellow pavilion off Wimbledon Common, to the heights of the Pompidou Centre and the Lloyd’s Building, the house paved the way for the globe-straddling Avant Garde architecture that followed,’ she said. The National Trust added that the acquisition would broaden its existing range of twentieth-century buildings, enabling it to tell the story of modern architecture more fully. The building opens its doors on 12 September.
