Wern Isaf is an early and exceptional house by the outstanding Arts and Crafts architect, Herbert Luck North (1871-1941), who moved from London to North Wales around 1901. The house was built in 1900 as North's own home and office. In its planning and its details, it incorporates many of the features which typify North's subsequent buildings.

The plan is a sort of reverse butterfly-plan, with the sun-catching concave side wrapped around the entrance and the main living rooms facing out on three sides towards the views. These rooms radiate from an octagonal double-height hall and are inter-connected by glass doors in such a way that they can be used separately or they can open up into one continuous space, showing the influence of Baillie Scott (who at this time was designing houses on the Isle of Man). Upstairs the bedrooms are reached from the gallery which circles the upper level of the hall. They have high ceilings and tall windows (for good ventilation), and spacious cupboards at the room angles and eaves.

The severe exterior is dominated by the three gables which face out towards the views. The walls are pebble-dashed (originally roughcast) and the steep roofs are slated. Decoration is kept to the bare minimum.

The interior is remarkably unchanged. There are fireplaces lined with Delft and de Morgan tiles, fitted dressers and shelving, splayed window reveals with seats and shutters each with a different shape of cut-out, Morris hangings etc.

The garden layout continues the radiating geometry of the rooms, with terraces divided by low stone walls and bushes, the formality becoming increasingly relaxed the further one goes away from the house. A large oak tree stands on an island in the turning circle outside the entrance

Wern Isaf Bach, built in the garden in 1925 for North's cook and gardener, is a timber building based on North's `Merton Abbey? proposals for inexpensive churches and church halls, commissioned by Morris & Co. It is clad with timber weather-boarding and asbestos roof tiles laid diagonally. The roof lifts above the windows, then cascades down to knee-height over the (former) garage.

Adam Voelcker (9 October 2009)