Look

We meet Lindsey and Rik on the sofa, next to the fire in the Looking Glass Lodge.

Did you grow up in this area?

Rik.  My Dad, John, was from South London; he worked in RSPCA clinics in the area. My parents wanted to get out of London; initially, they were thinking about moving to the New Forest. Then they saw an advert through the RSPCA saying that Mallydams Wood, a 60-acre woodland had been bequeathed to the RSPCA by Horace Quick (1891 - 1966), a local artist and wildlife enthusiast. I think the RSPCA were getting into the wildlife aspects rather than just focusing on the welfare of domestic animals. The advert said that they are looking for a warden to move in and set it up from scratch.

Dad got the job, so my parents relocated to Fairlight. When they got here there was just a bungalow, and very soon, injured animals were being brought in. They had to almost build the pens and aviaries as the animals came in to be looked after. And my mum was involved in that as well though she didn’t always get the recognition she deserved. She was always beavering away in the background.

“My parents learnt about the wildlife aspects through their love of it. They learned as they went along and very quickly.”

I was born down here. My parents moved here around 1962 roughly and lived in the bungalow which came with the job. They thought, hang on, after we retire, where will we live when we haven’t got any income? So they bought the cattle barn on the border of Mallydams and did it up for 25 years. Every weekend they were tinkering with it to make it into somewhere they could live. They moved in when dad retired in the early 1990s.

Dad continued maintaining the land almost as an extension of Mallydams Wood as a nature reserve, which is about eight acres. There are no formal gardens; it is rustic and natural to encourage local species and wildlife.

I moved to the Midlands around 2000 to start a new job and Lindsey and I met in 2005.

Lindsey.  We came down to visit Rik’s parents in the barn, and I could see how this area could become a home. Rik’s parents were getting older, in their eighties at the time. So we decided to move down here, do up the coach house and support them next door. They had bought the land next door with the coach house from the Grangewood Estate to get the services into the barn. John used it as a shed for the mowers and other bits and bobs.

Unfortunately, Rik’s dad, John, died before we moved, but luckily we were here for Beryl, Rik’s mum. She is thriving, still out and about at 94. We spend time in the garden together; Beryl brings her chair and helps out; she’s amazing.

I was working as a freelance graphic designer while looking after our daughter, helping Beryl and keeping on top of the land. Rik is a pilot, so he is away a lot. After we had lived here for about four years, we thought about a way to use the land to bring in an income that could be put
back into the land.

“We wanted visitors to experience an immersion within the woodland, to feel fully amongst the trees.”

Rik.  So we started with the idea of a tiny rustic shed where people would stay. We thought about elevating it off the ground like a treehouse, so you have little impact on the wildlife on the woodland floor, and that evolved and developed into what we have today.

Dad also used to run residential courses in the study centre in Mallydams. He would put food out for the badgers in the wood at night time so people might have a chance to see them. So we thought it’d be nice to continue sharing the land with people, in a different form, which helps us to look after the land.

“We thought if we built it, we would only do it once. So let’s make it great.”

How did the idea of the Looking Glass Lodge develop?

Rik.  Everything was mapped out, so we knew what flora and fauna was in the area to avoid any impact. The process took two and a half years altogether.

We knew we wanted to elevate the building to be amongst the trees with panoramic views. Several companies we approached were one-stop shops which didn’t have the right feel; The result would have been a more rustic treehouse look and feel.

Lindsey.  And that was different from what we were looking for; we wanted something more unique, so it didn’t feel like we were following a formula.

How did the look and feel of the Looking Glass Lodge develop?

Lindsey.  We spoke with a few architects and sustainable builders. Then we saw an article in Dezeen and a building on TV by Michael Kendrick Architects called Ogof Arthur (Arthur’s Cave) in Snowdonia. We love the style of his buildings, and he is based near my parents purely by coincidence.

We knew the planning would be a battle because of our location, so it needed to enhance the land. We had to do many surveys including arboricultural, environmental and topographical, and our first design was rejected.

Mike, the architect created drawings for a different style of building situated in a completely different place. It was down the bottom of the garden in an area we call Jake’s Wood, near to the Mallydams border. it was rejected by the planners because you could see it from the houses and it was too close to Mallydams. That process moved the lodge up to a higher point.

Rik.  Once we had decided on a new position, it became evident that the design needed to be different from the original ideas so it was back to the drawing board. Mike came up with a new idea that featured a lot more glass. We’ve cut down on the number of panels now, but initially, the end panels were supposed to be glazed as well; it is a lot cosier this way.

The actual location led the design because we wanted it to feel open. We have this great redwood tree, so we want that to be the dominant presence, to be visible wherever you are. It was important to us not to change the woodland by removing trees so the lodge was placed in a natural clearing. It sounds cliché to say that the design process flowed organically but it did.

Rik.  The glazing is reactive, so you can’t see in from outside, and there is no light spill after dusk to affect the wildlife, as the glass tints black. That was one of the planning conditions but it also encloses you and makes it feel cosy indoors. It is perfect for privacy, and you can adjust it at any time of the day.

Lindsey.  We knew we wanted the interior and exterior to be unique, with everything being a feature and biophilic, so that everything had a texture. Plus, with a colour palette to match the surroundings, this helped the building blend in.

Rik.  When the cedar wood battens went on the outside, we thought it’ll also work to carry that on in the interior. Initially, the wood was going to be larch, then chestnut and finally cedar but Brexit and COVID-19 restrictions helped us make that and other decisions.

Lindsey.  During COVID, materials seemed to triple in price. So everything that we’d had quoted was entirely out the window. We didn’t have the money to finish the build. So it was a complete rethink because we had gone too far to back out of the build. We did a lot of work ourselves; all groundwork, dug trenches, all the insulation, the membrane, and all the dirty jobs to keep the building process moving and the project to budget. Project management was the most challenging part, with Rik working away a lot.

At one point we needed to create a makeshift road to the site for the steel and glass to be delivered, but we had two days to do this in before Rik needed to head off to work.

Rik.  The screw piles went into the ground in July 2021. And we thought, great, by August, we’ll start the building. Then there were so many conversations between the architect, the structural engineers and the people installing the steel. Everyone was pulling in different directions, so it took about six months. We had initially thought we’d be open by October 2021. The steel arrived in March 2022. So that was a hefty chunk of time that had been and gone. Looking at it in a glass-half-full way, this saved us building through winter. Then jumping forward, we had our first paying guests in October 2022.

Lindsey.  So we worked solidly to get it finished and opened so it could start paying its way. On the 16th January, it featured on Channel Four’s George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces (Series 11, Episode 2), which we also had a deadline for. We knew that we had to get it ready by September. It was planned to be on the previous series, but there was no way we could meet that deadline.

People must witness the wildlife casually moving around the woodland when they stay here.

Rik. Y ou see the buzzards wheeling overhead; it is so quiet, just bird song. The foxes and badgers come through from the woods; my mum feeds them, so they troop down there and then do a little tour around the houses. We also have quite a few squirrels that entertain the guests.

Then after the building work ends, you need to concentrate on the business.

Lindsey.  We’re only just starting to settle slightly from the manic building process. We’ve been involved with so much of it and know every detail of the place, everything, every screw, dimension, shadow gap, every little bit. So having gone from the full-on building process of being covered in mud all the time, we had to get behind a computer and figure out how to gain experience with marketing.

We’ve had pointers from many people and watched endless YouTube videos even when working on the build. My friend Alex created the identity and built the website, which looks great. She was so helpful, even in writing the content for the website; we didn’t know what to say or how to say it. Alex brought all the information together, and it is perfect.

Most of the furnishings and products we have here are local. The businesses were beneficial, enthusiastic and wanting to help out. When guests book to stay at the Looking Glass Lodge, we send a digital guide out to them that gives information about the Lodge and lists all the suppliers. So, for example, we have personalised chocolate bars from Rye Chocolates, we’ve got Knoops Hot Chocolate, all our eco products come from Kind Table, and the cushions around the sofa are from Sailors in Rye.

The revenue from people staying will be invested in the woodland, which will allow us to plant more trees and bushes, we’ll extend the trails and build it up section by section.

“It’s an exceptional place; I don’t think there’s anywhere like it. When it flourishes in the spring and summer, it’s just a fantastic place to relax and take it all in.”

Looking Glass Lodge
Grangewood, Battery Hill, Fairlight, Hastings, East Sussex, TN35 4AL
hello@lookingglasslodge.co.uk
Instagram
www.lookingglasslodge.co.uk

RSPCA
Mallydams Wood Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre
rspca.org.uk/local/-/rspca/mallydams-wood

Architects
www.michaelkendrick.co.uk