The classic exterior of this Georgian country manor house belies its intriguing interior, decorated with a mix of mid-century pieces and African art by its creative new owners
FEATURE COSMO BROCKWAY PHOTOGRAPHY JAMES MCDONALD
It is an obvious design choice when furnishing an English country house to choose the traditional style of chintz and antiques, but this is exactly what Henri Davies and his husband Barry wanted to avoid. While they may have decided on a handsome manor in a sleepy Norfolk village, there is no sense of them being bound by its past. “I was reluctant to change my style for the house,” reflects South African-born designer Henri. “We wanted a fresher take on living in a period home.” Filling the handsomely proportioned rooms with mid-century furniture, modern art and vibrant textiles, the couple have accomplished a striking feat. “We are wearing the house, rather than letting it wear us so to speak,” Henri laughs, standing in the light-flooded drawing room.
In fact, this is not the first time Henri and Barry have bucked the constraints of their surroundings; in the Nineties, they restored a Georgian silk weaver’s house in the then largely neglected Spitalfields area of London. “We were pioneers there, alongside the likes of artists Gilbert & George,” Henri remembers. “It was a tall, rambling house, full of atmosphere, and, like here, we filled it with modern things we loved – the effect was fantastic.”
While they revelled in the community feeling – Dennis Severs (whose house is now owned by the Spitalfields Trust) would come for Christmas drinks and Spitalfields Market still had donkeys and bales of hay – the couple, somewhat reluctantly, decamped to a modernist Span house in Blackheath, one of seven built on an old bombsite and designed by Royston Summers. “We loved it there, so full of light and the walks on the heath, but, in the end, we wanted to be closer to the sea,” Henri says. “Barry is a sailor by hobby and we yearned for coastal life.”
Visiting friends in North Norfolk turned out to be, as is so often the case, a seminal moment. “We were firstly struck by how friendly everyone up here was towards us and our dog, and secondly, we loved the beaches. Holkham Sands is still our favourite place in the world,” Henri explains.
Having lost out on their first choice of house, the couple found their current home through a call from Savills. “We sat in the car, looked down the drive at this piece of Georgian perfection and knew it was it,” Henri says. Fortunately, the house, a mellow medium-sized building with an 18th-centur
