2 Willow Road by Dennis Gilbert © National Trust
2 Willow Road is not the grandest sounding address in the National Trust’s repertoire. But then, it was never meant to be a grand address. Tucked away in leafy Hampstead, it is the Modernist family home of Erno Goldfinger, the Hungarian born architect and furniture designer famous for his imposing, love-it-or-hate-it creation, Trellick Tower, behind London’s Portobello Road.
Goldfinger completed 2 Willow Road in 1939, part of a terrace of houses in which he lived with his wife Ursula and their children until his death in 1987. The house caused some considerable controversy both during his life and after. A number of Victorian cottages were demolished to make way for the construction, much to the displeasure of a number of local residents including novelist Ian Fleming. So, yes – Fleming’s infamous Bond villain is indeed named after Erno Goldfinger.
After Goldfinger’s death, the National Trust acquired the property which again caused quite a stir – this was to be the first Modernist building to be acquired by the trust. And thank goodness it was.
From the outside, 2 Willow Road looks unremarkable. It is set back from the road, built of red brick and appears a little on the stark side. The nice young National Trust volunteer girl on the door injected a little warmth as she took my entry fee on the wet afternoon I visited, and ushered me into the garage to watch the obligatory introductory video. I started to get fidgety – all I really wanted to do was get up the stairs before everyone else in the group, and have a good poke around.
As I ascended the spiralling staircase of cork and thin rope banisters, I was struck by the amount of light there was, given the gloom of the day, flooding down from a beautifully crafted sky light in the roof, creating a calming sense of balance and making for a much better impression than the exterior.
The huge first floor living room houses an important collection of works by Henry Moore, Max Ernst and Bridget Riley amongst others, as well as original furniture and fittings designed by Erno Goldfinger himself. The faint aroma of Danish teak oil lingers in the air; at one end Goldfinger’s desk is immaculately arranged with a period 1960s hole punch, a Sellotape dispenser and an Anglepoise lamp – all terribly run of the mill at the time, but now with the appearance of something from an expensive and trendy Shoreditch interior design shop.
This is clearly a room that Erno Goldfinger and his family loved to live in and share with their friends. A central wall in the middle of this large first floor room cleverly concertinas to the side, which would have allowed them to fill the space with so many of the Hampstead intellectuals, artists and writers who came to use 2 Willow Road as something of a local salon.
As I climbed the cork spiral staircase to the final floor, I couldn’t help but feel I was about to be caught out. No one else was up there. No other visitors, no guide. Just me. The main bedroom felt so lived in, I thought. I slid open the wardrobe doors to the sight of clothes, hats, shoes and a whiff of mothballs. The bed was made up. There was a Penguin paperback on the side table, its pages yellowing. The large and light connecting bathroom had cabinets that remained filled with family photos, toothpaste and ointments.
The spiral staircase at 2 Willow Road
As I stood in the bathroom, slightly giddy from gazing up through a perfect circle in the ceiling, drawing my gaze to the battleship grey London sky above, I wondered, just for a moment, if 2 Willow Road really was in the hands of the National Trust. Perhaps I imagined the guide in the entrance. Perhaps the Goldfingers had just popped out, due home at any moment, to find me in this very private part of their home.
2 Willow Road is best visited alone. This isn’t Chatsworth and the space is limited. But more than that – it’s not really the sort of place you want to walk around surrounded by chatter. You won’t hear the endless National Trust visitor choruses of “oooh how lovely”, “not sure about those curtains” and “that colour would like nice in the front room”. This place has a calm confidence to its interior that commands you to hush. It is a shrine to true Modernism. C
2 Willow Road, Hampstead, London NW3 1TH
020-7435 6166; nationaltrust.org.uk