Polo & More 2014
Leamington Pavilion, Barbados
Photo courtesy Blue Sky Luxury
up and renovated what is considered his greatest contribution to
Barbados; Fustic House. It is the most expansive private estate
on the island, sitting on over 11 acres of land. The Great House
was the first building Messel was contracted to redesign, a coral
stone building with Jacobean architecture that has stood for
over three hundred and fifty years. On completion of the Great
House, Messel built the self titled “Messel Wing” and finally the
“Plantation Wing”. On Fustic House Messel added small touches
like shutters and parapets designed to functionally allow the
breeze to flow and keep the daunting sun out. One of its most
unique features is the swimming pool, which at first glance looks
like a natural lagoon pooling in a bed of rock.
Messel also redesigned Cockade House, a former 18th century
Oliver Messel photographed by Angus McBean in
sugar plantation which proudly wears his branding of trellises,
his London studio in 1959
balustrades, with adornments of antique English furniture and
Photo courtesy Thomas Messel
open air verandahs.
Though he was born in Britain and first ventured into the Caribbean via Mustique, Oliver Messel considered
Barbados his paradise. Thanks to his contributions to many of our culturally significant estates, we Barbadians are
proud to call him one of our own.
It’s a well known fact that we applied his namesake to his favourite shade of green, the earthy sage so often
gracing his designs and still popularly sold throughout the island under the moniker ‘Messel Green’. In Mustique,
however, he was known to be partial to the colour yellow, and here in Barbados there is a hint of this Messel yellow
on the walls of a building in Holetown - but blink too quick and you’ll miss it n
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