Villa Pretty Cottage, anciennement Scarabée
Monument
Villa Pretty Cottage, anciennement Scarabée, located in Le Touquet-Paris-Plage (Pas-de-Calais), is a modern edifice built in the 19th-20th centuries. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- autre
- Period
- Modern (19th-20th century)
- Location
- Le Touquet-Paris-Plage, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 50.5155, 1.5935
- Mérimée Reference
- PA62000025
An eclectic jewel in the crown of Le Touquet, Pretty Cottage features a ship's hull roof - formerly covered in green tiles - and brickwork of Dutch sophistication.
History
In the heart of Le Touquet-Paris-Plage, a garden city born of the imagination of British developers and the European elite at the beginning of the 20th century, the Pretty Cottage villa - long known by its evocative name of Scarabée - is the epitome of the bold creativity that made this Pas-de-Calais seaside resort so famous. Nestling in a setting of dune vegetation, it immediately stands out for the uniqueness of its silhouette: a sharply curved roof, resembling the overturned hull of a ship, which earned it its original nickname and gives it an extraordinary architectural presence. What makes the villa truly unique is the density of its formal vocabulary. Where other residences in Touquet play the Norman exoticism card or the English Arts and Crafts style, Le Scarabée claims a direct lineage to Dutch architecture: elaborate gables, cleverly composed brickwork, carefully carved wooden details. Each corner reveals a new subtlety, an unexpected assembly, as if the building had been designed to be contemplated at length, from the street as well as from the garden. The experience of visiting - even from the outside, as the villa remains a private property that is partially listed as a Historic Monument - is one of gradual discovery. First you take in the size of the roof, whose organic curvature is as reminiscent of the shell of a beetle as it is of the hull of a ketch. Then your gaze descends to the façades, where the brickwork reveals its shades of brown and ochre, its careful joints and its window surrounds treated like small architectural tableaux. The setting adds to the charm of the whole. Le Touquet-Paris-Plage is a town designed like a park, where villas and gardens follow one another between the maritime pines and the consolidated dunes. The Pretty Cottage fits into this landscape like a collector's item: rare, precious, and carrying with it the history of a Belle Époque that lasted right through to the inter-war years, when the Côte d'Opale was still the favourite playground of aristocrats, artists and cosmopolitan businessmen.
Architecture
The architectural identity of Pretty Cottage derives from a clear reference to Dutch architecture of the early twentieth century, interpreted with a creative freedom typical of the seaside commissions of the inter-war period. Its most striking feature is the roof, with its deep, continuous curves that hug the living spaces like an upside-down ship's hull. This roof, originally clad in green tiles - a colour that has now disappeared but is the basis of the original name Scarabée - gives the whole structure a rare plasticity and formal unity that is more common in the Dutch polders than on the dunes of the Côte d'Opale. The façades are composed of a highly sophisticated brickwork, clearly executed by craftsmen with a perfect command of Flemish and Dutch laying techniques. The meticulous joints, subtly relieved window surrounds, claustras and decorative elements in moulded brick bear witness to an attention to detail that goes well beyond the usual standards of contemporary seaside construction. Worked wooden elements - awnings, brackets, window trims - complete this vocabulary and accentuate the building's handcrafted, precious character. The villa is organised around a compact main volume, topped by the characteristic curved roof, to which are attached projections and offsets that punctuate the façades and create a play of light and shadow that changes according to the time of day. The whole building is set in a garden planted with dune vegetation, whose evergreen species provide a contrast to the elaborate geometry of the building. The partial Historic Monument listing covers the most representative exterior features, guaranteeing the continued existence of this unique architectural heritage.
Related Figures
Architecte inconnu, maître d'œuvre probable des années 1920-1930, formé aux courants architecturaux néerlandais et nordiquesJohn Whitley, promoteur britannique fondateur du Touquet-Paris-Plage, initiateur du développement villa par villa de la stationLes propriétaires successifs de la villa, dont l'identité reste à établir par les archives locales
Tags
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Villa Pretty Cottage, anciennement Scarabée located?
Villa Pretty Cottage, anciennement Scarabée is located in Le Touquet-Paris-Plage, Pas-de-Calais department, Hauts-de-France region, France.
When was Villa Pretty Cottage, anciennement Scarabée built?
Villa Pretty Cottage, anciennement Scarabée dates back to a period built in the modern era (19th-20th century).
Is Villa Pretty Cottage, anciennement Scarabée open to visitors?
Villa Pretty Cottage, anciennement Scarabée is currently closed to visitors.