Kettle's Yard; The House

Kettle's Yard is part of the University of Cambridge Museums consortium and was originally the Cambridge home of Jim Ede and his wife Helen;  they moved to Cambridge in 1956 and converted four small cottages into one house as a place to display Ede's collection of early 20th-century art.  Ede was a curator at the Tate Gallery in London, and as such it is biased towards works from the British avant-garde of the first half of the 20th century.  In 1966, Ede gave the house and collection to the University of Cambridge, but continued living there before he and his wife moved to Edinburgh in 1973; the house is preserved as the Ede’s left it, making a very informal space to enjoy the permanent collection, and in 1970, the house was extended.

Kettle's Yard is located in a quiet corner of Cambridge, overlooking St Peter’s Church, and is a beautiful house filled with beautiful objects placed to create a harmonic whole; a visit to the house has to be booked in advance.  Our small group starts by ringing the bell, as visitors had to do when Ede maintained an 'open house' each afternoon, giving any visitors, particularly students, a personal tour of his collection. Our guide shows us the downstairs area and explains how everything - including arrangements of pebbles, sculptures and paintings - has been left in its exact place. On the next floor we see a lounge area and internal balcony which leads to the gallery extension downstairs (there is a bedroom area up another flight of stairs) - this gallery, also used for small live musical performances, is delightful.  It was amazing to see how the four cottages had been joined together and the way it had all been laid out with great care and attention to detail.

There is also an exhibition gallery on two levels next to the house, which has been built in a contrasting modernist style (see next post).Read more