Britain built a 70-foot water tower disguised as a house in 1923; its 50,000-gallon tank was damaged by a wartime shell before the landmark became a holiday home | World News
In the English village of Thorpeness, a 70-foot structure built to store water was designed to resemble a house perched above the trees. Completed in 1923, the building concealed a tank with an original capacity of 50,000 gallons, while the structure below provided living accommodation. Known as the House in the Clouds, it was part of the development of Thorpeness, a planned holiday village on the Suffolk coast. Glencairn Stuart Ogilvie, the owner and developer of the Thorpeness Estate, conceived the village and commissioned architects to help realise its distinctive design. Historic England credits Frederick Forbes Glennie with the building’s 1923 design, commissioned as part of Glencairn Stuart Ogilvie’s development of Thorpeness. Its timber weatherboarding, gabled roof and domestic-style windows helped it fit the village’s unusual architectural character. More than a century later, the building remains a landmark, despite no longer serving its original purpose as a water tower.
House in the Clouds: how Thorpeness disguised a water tower
The House in the Clouds was built to provide a water supply for Thorpeness. Its unusual appearance reflected the character of the village, which Ogilvie developed as a holiday destination with buildings designed to create a distinctive landscape rather than a conventional resort. The building’s Historic England listing describes a steel-frame structure clad in weatherboarding, topped by a pantiled, gabled roof. The lower part consists of a five-storey tower, while the upper section, supported by arched corner braces, housed the water tank. Windows were incorporated into the structure, including casement windows and projecting bay windows.The original tank held 50,000 gallons. According to the property’s official history, water was pumped from a well using the neighbouring windmill, with a petrol engine available as an alternative when wind conditions were insufficient. The elevated tank formed part of the water-supply system developed for the village. The building was initially called the Gazebo. Mrs Malcolm Mason, a children’s author and friend of Ogilvie, christened it the House in the Clouds. The property’s history records that a poem she wrote in 1923 was inspired by the building. Its new name captured the appearance of a house seemingly suspended above the surrounding trees. Historic England, which designated the building Grade II listed in 1995, describes it as a landmark and the best-known building in the resort village. Its combination of domestic architecture and water-storage infrastructure has helped preserve its distinctive identity.
Wartime damage changed the water tower’s capacity
The building was damaged during the Second World War. According to the property’s official history, an English Bofors anti-aircraft shell passed through the tank’s south-eastern corner in 1943 while the gun was firing at a V1 flying bomb. The shell damaged the tank, and two women, the Miss Humphreys, were occupying the accommodation below and were asleep at the time. The subsequent repairs reduced the tank’s capacity from 50,000 gallons to 30,000 gallons. The property’s history records that sections of the tank’s existing steel were used in the repair. The reduction meant that the tower could hold 20,000 fewer gallons than it had originally been designed to store.The building’s water-supply arrangements also evolved over the following decades. An electric pump replaced the petrol engine in 1953, according to the property’s history. By 1963, a wider water supply had been introduced to the area, although the tank continued to be used for storage for a period afterwards. The tower eventually ceased to serve its original function. The property’s history places the end of its use for local water storage in 1977. The tank itself was removed in 1979, opening the way for the former storage space to become part of the house. Refurbishment of the interior and restoration of the garden began in 1987. These changes allowed the structure to survive beyond the purpose for which it had been built. Rather than remaining a working water tower, it became a house whose unusual upper section no longer needed to accommodate a large volume of water.
From water infrastructure to holiday accommodation
Today, the House in the Clouds operates as holiday accommodation. Its official accommodation page lists five bedrooms distributed across the second, third and fourth floors, with a games room on the fifth floor. The different levels allow guests to experience a building whose layout developed from its original combination of a water tank and living space. The property stands on Uplands Road in Thorpeness, in Suffolk, close to the village’s golf course and Meare, the artificial lake created as part of the resort’s development. Visitors can find practical details through the property’s official location page.The building’s appeal comes from the contrast between its appearance and its original function. From a distance, its roof and weatherboarded exterior resemble a house elevated above the village. Its history, however, is tied to a practical need: storing and supplying water to the developing community. The House in the Clouds is an example of how infrastructure can become part of a place’s architectural identity. Built in 1923, damaged during wartime, altered when its water-storage role ended, and later adapted for holiday use, it has remained a recognisable feature of Thorpeness. Its original purpose has disappeared, but the structure continues to serve a new one while retaining the appearance that made it unusual in the first place.
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