Amazing Spaces' George Clarke visits St Lawrence eco-home

Haddon Lake House provides studios for landscape designer Phillippa Lambert, and Steve Lambert, a graphic design and architectural illustration specialist, who work in partnership as Lake House Design.

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The house is no stranger to television screens — it was a finalist in the eco-home category of the 2006 Grand Designs awards, and featured the in 2008 television series I Own Britain’s Best Home and Garden, where it won programme five of six.

Filming took place here in August 2015 for the Channel 4 series, Building the Dream and recently Channel 4 returned to film George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces.

Haddon Lake House, St Lawrence, which is being featured on George Clarke's Amazing Spaces.

Read more: George Clarke's Amazing Spaces and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang on Channel 4

Phillippa said: “George Clarke was every bit as engaging and charming as he appears on screen. A larger than life character — ebullient, lively, energetic — whom the film crew obviously loved.

“He clearly was completely taken with the house and was endlessly patient about getting just the right shots.

“George rowed up and down the lake (with great oarsman expertise) and managed to follow some very precise directions from the producer!

“The main focus of his remarks was the subtle Japanese influences on the design of the house, combined with the tranquil and appropriate landscape in which it is set.”

Inside Haddon Lake House, St Lawrence, which is being featured on George Clarke's Amazing Spaces.

Haddon Lake House is a self-build home in a restored historic setting. The two-acre grounds were formerly part of the grounds of Old Park, a Victorian mansion dating back to the 1820s.

In 2002, permission was granted to Phillippa and Steve to build a contemporary house on the lake site, on the proviso that this landscape be restored to its full glory.

The house is a self-build contemporary ‘boathouse’ with Japanese influences, which appears to float on the water.

The interior, filled with light and the reflections of the water, has a cohesive palette of natural materials and glass surfaces. These natural materials tie the whole structure to its environment, producing a cool, contemporary building which blends seamlessly with its landscape.

The landscape restoration project has included the careful reinstatement of the early Victorian walled kitchen garden, complete with period greenhouse, cold frames, potting shed and paths arranged in a decorative potager design.

Phillippa and Steve in the garden.

Adjoining the walled garden is a contemporary Japanese-influenced courtyard.

The reinstatement of the set-piece one-third acre lake, enhanced with a gravity-fed fountain, and of the adjoining woodland, where new planting reflects the favoured micro-climate of the site, completed the restoration.

The Haddon Lake House gardens have been described in print as a ‘miniature Lost Garden of Heligan in a magical seaside setting’ and it goes back to the philosophy of ancient gardens in sustaining the body as well as the soul.

Andrew Wilson, garden author and chair of assessors for RHS Chelsea show gardens, wrote: ‘Some places are simply special, revealing their unique character as one arrives, drawing the visitor in with a distinctive personality and presence. Haddon Lake House is such a place; one dip into its isolated beauty and you will be forever hooked’.

If you have missed the television programme, you can CLICK HERE to watch it on catch-up - it's Episode Five of Series Ten.

You can also read about Haddon Lake House in the latest edition of Isle of Wight Living magazine - CLICK HERE to subscribe to the FREE online edition.

The Isle of Wight's very own Chitty Chitty Bang Bang has also featured in the latest series and you can read more by clicking here.