Willow House, 2 Willow Road

The study

The living room
The clock and light switch (Erno designed all the fittings himself)

The master bedroom

As seen at night, from Hampstead Park

This weekend we went to visit Willow House in Hampstead. The house designed, built and lived in by architect Erno Goldfinger in the late 1930's. He was said to be quite an unpleasant man, but he did have an amazingly nice house!
Willow House has lots of smooth surfaces, warm woods, interesting pieces of furniture, cleverly hidden cupboards and a collection of artworks by Henry Moore, Max Ernst and Man Ray. Most of the rooms had partitions that could be pulled aside to make one big open plan living space - so Erno could hold great big parties for his artist friends.

Erno Goldfinger. (He was known to have mad rages!)

Here's what else I learnt about Erno Goldfinger:
*He fired assistants if he thought they were inappropriately jocular. He was said to be humourless.
*Ian Fleming named the Bond villain Goldfinger after him. Erno threatened to sue. Fleming said he'd change the name to Goldenprick. They eventually settled out of court.
*Many of his buildings were controversial - he was a great fan of concrete tower blocks.
*He married the heiress to the Crosse and Blackwell fortune. Hmm pickles.
*Goldfinger fitted his wardrobe with wooden trays, each carefully dimensioned to particular items of clothing.