The Entrance front of the Barbados beachfront villa known as Heron Bay. Photo from ARCHITECTURE DESIGN IN BARBADOS The Devoted Classicist's favorite house in all the Caribbean is the Palladian villa called Heron Bay in Barbados. Designed by Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe, a British architect best known for landscape design, for Marietta and Ronald Tree, it was built by local labor and believed to have been completed in 1947 (although some sources say 1949). Ronnie Tree had a great deal of design input, apparently, and technical assistance may have been provided by British architect Paul Phipps, a former pupil of Sir Edwin Lutyens (and uncle by marriage to the former Mrs. Tree). Inspiration for the design of the house was provided by Andrea Palladio's 16th century Villa Barbaro, also known as Villa di Maser. Andrea Palladio's design for Villa Barbaro. Image from THE FOUR BOOKS OF ARCHITECTURE Heron Bay has a two-story central block with arcaded wings to each side ending in pavilions. But instead of the wings being straight like at Villa Barbaro, the arcades are curved to end in pavilions clearly inspired by the Palladian model. View of Heron Bay from the water showing one of the end pavilions. Image via Flickr, Kellsboro. The beachside of the central block has a two-story portico facing a garden created by the curving arcades. The seafront portico and one of the flanking curving arcades of Heron Bay. Photo from Country Life magazine, 1959. The portico at Heron Bay photographed by Slim Aarons from A PLACE IN THE SUN. Twin staircases lead down from the upstairs Drawing Room to the portico's paving that holds a large stone table, often used for dining. Views, top, showing the portico set for dining. Bottom, the ground floor Morning Room and the upstairs Drawing Room. From VOGUE July 1968 via NYSD. The coral stone walls were left exposed in the Great Room and other principal rooms of the house, a reminder of the sometime harsh seaside conditions despite the tropical temperature. A recent view of the Drawing Room showing the screen from Ditchley at the end. Rendering by Will Topley. The wonderful painted screen at one end of the Drawing Room was brought from Ditchley, the country house that Ronald Tree had shared with his former wife, Nancy, known to most readers as Nancy Lancaster. (More about that in a future post).  A view of the Hall at Ditchley Park showing the backside of the screen now at Heron Bay. Photo from NANCY LANCASTER, ENGLISH COUNTRY HOUSE STYLE by Martin Wood. Ronnie had bought the painted canvas screen measuring 14 x 20 feet in Venice; the perspective of a Palladian interior might have originally been a theatrical backdrop. The Great Hall at Ditchley showing a glimpse of the screen on the right. Watercolor by Alexandre Serebriakoff, commissioned after the divorce of Ronald and Nancy Tree from JANSEN by James Archer Abbott. Other decorative elements in the room include a pair of blackamoors and a set of oval framed floral paintings that appear to have been once part of an architectural assemblage such as overdoor panels. The other end of the Heron Bay Drawing Room in 1987. Photo by Derry Moore for Architectural Digest. The cover of Architectural Digest featuring Heron Bay, photographed by Derry Moore. The Morning Room on the ground floor, shown during the Tree's ownership, had similar but somewhat less formal furnishings to suit the scale of the room.  The Morning Room of Heron Bay, 1987. Photo by Derry Moore for Architecural Digest. After selling Ditchley and moving to New York to a townhouse on East 79th Street, the Trees had a friendly separation with Ronnie spending more time in Barbados and Marietta in the United States. (Yes, there is a lot more to that, but no need to get off track on this post). Ronald Tree died in London in 1976 and Marietta died in her Sutton Place, New York City, apartment in 1991.  A garden pavilion at Heron Bay. Photo from ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN IN BARBADOS.  The Pineapple Bridge at Heron Bay. Photo by Derry Moore for Architectural Digest. The garden pavilion and Pineapple Bridge are attributed to Geoffrey Jellicoe. But the pool pavilion, which appears to be later, may have been designed by Ronnie Tree; it is somewhat reminiscent of his contributions to the original buildings of the nearby Sandy Lane resort (since replaced by the existing buildings).  The swimming pool at Heron Bay. Photo from ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN IN BARBADOS. This writer is uncertain about the timeline of subsequent ownership, but Carole and Anthony Bamford are the current owners. Using the Heron Bay estate has a tropical get-away during the winter months, Lord and Lady Bamford's primary residence is the magnificent country house, Daylesford, located in the scenic Cotswolds. (See the previous post here for the Bamfords at Daylesford which also links to other posts on that extraordinary house). Daylesford had been redecorated for the Bamfords with the help of Colefax & Fowler's Wendy Nicholls, managing director of Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler as the interior design part of the business is called, and she was also involved in the supplemental furnishings for the Bamfords at Heron Bay.  A bedroom at Heron Bay, presumed to be the Master in one of the end pavilions. Photo from ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN IN BARBADOS. In addition to the Liz Smith article in New York Social Diary and the chapter in Keith Miller's book ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN IN BARBADOS, more information and photos may be seen in a post by P. Gaye Tapp on her blog Little Augury.  The beachfront side of Heron Bay, Barbados. Photo from ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN IN BARBADOS The next post of The Devoted Classicist will feature another aspect of the Tree connection to this series of essays. Those Devoted Readers following by email can have access to the blog archive and the search feature by clicking on the regular (current) webpage here. 

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