Lutyens at Play

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that the revered architect Sir Edwin Lutyens & the Never Land Peter Pan would ever cross paths seems unlikely-but there is more than just a passing connection. Lutyens and J.M.Barrie-creator of Peter, the lost boys and the Darling children- were friends. The original sets for the Barrie play were designed by Lutyens.

The nursery was a big square room, with a gay frieze round the walls 

of nursery tale pictures and jungle animals. There was a bathroom

leading out of it, and the playroom was next door.  The window

to which the strange boy had come had never had bars across as

most nurseries do. Wendy's bed was nearest the fire, which had a 

brass fireguard set round it. The boys were on the other side of the 

room, and over each bed there was a night light fixed to the wall.

The story goes that the Darling children's nursery-described by Barrie, was modeled after the Lutyens children's own nursery at Bloomsbury Square. Apparently the British architect's genius lay in many directions, including a love for and a special affinity with children. He let his creativity soar when designing nurseries: a circular nursery- so no child would be sent to stand in a corner, secret windows, & checker board floors laid out for nursery games.

Queen Mary's Doll House

Lutyens delighted in designing Queen Mary's Doll House and included a toy theatre staging Peter Pan- of course. Lady Sackville admonished him for giving more attention to it than to an important commission he had just received for a new headquarters for the Persian Oil Company  (from the LUTYENS TRUST)  The Doll House project commenced in 1920 and was completed in 1924.  All in miniature with nothing left undone, working plumbing, electricity and titled books- their text written out in full.

The Queen's Library

 Lutyens Nursery in the Queen's Doll House

Doesn't this Lilliputian nursery seem just perfect?

Lutyens was known for his energetic nature, his raucous humor and puns. Lady Diana Cooper said  'Duff and I would give up anything if Ned Lutyens was free for lunch-he was such fun.'  E. V. Lucas wrote about him  in The Book of the Queen’s Dolls’ House: ‘...His friends were legion; his mind was electrically instant to respond to any sympathetic suggestion; he never broke his word; he never let you know if he was tired; and with it all he was out for fun.’(from the LUTYENS TRUST) He charmed, he vexed and  he always captivated children. His designs found free reign for whimsy in New Delhi in the nursery at the Viceroy's House. His constant doodlings resulted in a child's delight of chandeliers for the nursery at Viceroy House- Angels in Prayer and Children Fishing.

 light bulbs
-as egg yolks

-as bait off fishing lines

&
-as celestial stars in orbit.

Sir Edwin & his family 

photographs from the Lutyens Trust here

that Lutyens own children did not delight in his company is quite impossible. There is something of the child in all of us & as Albert Einstein said:

The Pursuit of Truth and Beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted 

to REMAIN CHILDREN all our lives-

The Luytens Trust here
Lutyens Furniture here
Windsor Castle here

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