An All-Round Addition

An unusual sixteen-sided Georgian cottage in Devon recently joined the list of National Trust acquisitions and made the news when Dame Jennifer Jenkins, former chairman of the Trust launched an £850,000 appeal towards its preservation and restoration – £500,000 of which is hoped to be raised by public donation. The cottage, called A la Ronde, was built around 1795 by two women cousins just outside Exmouth in Devon.

The purchase of A la Ronde can be seen to indicate an increasing interest by the Trust in the acquisition of more vernacular buildings, particularly because it is rare for them to buy a property outright. However, apart from being a modest-sized home), A la Ronde can barely be described as vernacular in the sense of conforming to the other buildings of the period in the surrounding area. It is very definitely a one-off, built to satisfy a creative imagination, although the end product looks more like a giant dovecot (very English) than the octagonal basilica of San Vitale, allegedly its source of inspiration.