According to John Doswell Gwynne chose materials that would withstand the harsh marine environment

According to John Doswell, Gwynne chose materials that would withstand the harsh marine environment. The five bedrooms and three bathrooms are on the ground floor From the living room there are two sets of double doors. At the front they lead directly on to the balcony, and at the side they lead to a spacious terrace, which Doswell says his parents used as an outside dining room during the summer.Unlike many Modern movement houses, Gwynne’s careful use of materials means that the exterior has remained in remarkably good condition. John Doswell, their son, is now selling it on behalf of the family after the death of his father last year. “We love spending time here, and I feel it would be a great betrayal of my parents if the house were to be demolished,” he says. “My parents made few alterations and when they did, my father usually consulted Patrick Gwynne.

We still have all the correspondence.”Vista Point is shaped like a squat hourglass and the rooms are anchored around a stunning panelled central stairwell in ribbed ash, lit by a large, circular, domed skylight. The living rooms are on the first floor in order to take full advantage of the seaside views. Patrick Gwynne’s clients included Jack Hawkins, Laurence Harvey and Charles Forte. His own house, Homewood at Esher in Surrey, has been given to the National Trust and will open to the public for pre-booked tours every Friday from 26 March.Vista Point is currently for sale for £850,000, and although this is around £200,000 more than the land alone is worth, the estate agent, Andrew Harris at Jackson-Stops and Staff, does not think it is impossible that someone with deep pockets might want to buy the house simply for its wonderful site. It was built for Patrick Gwynne’s quantity surveyor Ken Monk, but was sold in 1972 to Hove hoteliers Greville and Jessica Doswell, who loved all things modern and cherished the house.

He had been a rising star on the London restaurant scene before the branding incident that stalled his career. The house was built at the end of the 1960s but can trace its architectural parentage back to the ideas of the Modern movement, which advocated the use of modern building materials and new ways of living with an emphasis on space and light.Vista Point was designed by Patrick Gwynne, who as a young man worked for Wells Coates, another firm of architects building in the modernist idiom. After such an act of architectural vandalism, what chance do lesser modern houses have?
Vista Point is a jaunty and surprisingly spacious house, set in a large garden with direct access to the beach on the exclusive and much sought-after Willowhayne Estate at East Preston in West Sussex. The demolition of this pioneering Connell Ward and Lucas modernist house dating from the 1930s was opposed by English Heritage and the Twentieth Century Society, but the local council sided with the owner and gave permission for its destruction. At the end of September, the owners of Greenside, overlooking the Wentworth golf course, sent in the bulldozers and razed it to the ground. Until, that is, the big guns’ own children become tenants in their own right – then they discover just how ghastly the experience can be for many people A little bit of charm won’t go amiss..