Standen House & Garden

Standen is best known for its house, an Arts and Crafts family home designed by Philip Webb and furnished with William Morris designs, but the garden is the reason many visitors linger. It is laid out on a hillside just south of East Grinstead, so as you walk round you keep catching wide views out across the Sussex countryside towards Ashdown Forest. House, garden and view were meant to be enjoyed together, and that is still the pleasure of a visit.

Two features stand out on a walk round. The quarry garden is a sheltered hollow worked into the hillside, where the change of level and the shelter give a different feel from the open slopes. The bamboo walk makes a cool green passage on a hot day and a contrast with the broader views elsewhere. Between them, paths cross the slope at different levels, and each one gives a slightly different view back to the house and out over the valley.

For gardeners, Standen is a lesson in working with a sloping site: using the shelter of a hollow for planting that would not suit the open hill, and borrowing a distant view so a garden feels bigger than it is. It also shows how a house and garden can be designed in the same spirit, which is the heart of Arts and Crafts thinking. Allow time for the house, where the Morris wallpapers and fabrics are the draw, wear shoes suited to slopes, and check the National Trust website before you go for the latest on what is open.