This
article is more than 10 years old
Inside St
Paul's Studios: a painters' workroom home
This
article is more than 10 years old
An Arts
and Crafts studio built for painters has been reinvented as a home full of
light
Sun 24
Jan 2016 07.00 CET
Talgarth
Road in west London is one of the capital’s busiest, dirtiest thoroughfares.
With three lanes of traffic thundering to and from the M4, it’s easy to miss
the row of eight Arts and Crafts-era houses when driving past Barons Court
station.
For
architect Marius Barran and his wife Veronica, living in one of these historic
homes, built in 1891 as artists’ studios, is worth the inconvenience of the
busy road. Veronica first spotted the house online when the couple were looking
to move in autumn 2013.
St Paul’s
Studios: the outside aspect. Photograph: Sophia Evans/The Observer
“I sent
the link to Marius almost as a joke,” she says. It was at the top end of the
couple’s budget, and very different from the other properties they’d seen. But
Marius, who had known and admired the houses all his life, went to view it that
afternoon.
The
terrace’s remarkably large windows were designed by architect Frederick Wheeler to
provide natural light for bachelor artists to work in. St Paul’s Studios, as
they are known, have been used for various artistic endeavours through the
years, from a dance school for the Margaret Morris
Movement to a home for the writer Ernest Gébler.
The
remarkably large windows were designed to provide natural light for bachelor
artists
The
Barrans were sold their end-of-terrace “studio” by an elderly art collector
from America named Dorothy Braude Edinburg. But there was lots of work to do to
restore the Grade II-listed home to its original spacious glory.
“In the
30s or 40s, we think, it went through a fairly unglamorous period of being
multiple occupancy, when it was subdivided to make as many bedrooms as
possible,” says Marius. The large studio room, which is now the couple’s
bedroom, had been bisected horizontally by a mezzanine floor.
Clean
lines: the ensuite bathroom overlooking Barons Court station. Photograph:
Sophia Evans/The Observer
“Someone
told us it was put in during the Second World War, when the house was
requisitioned by the RAF,” says Marius. “There would have been a couple of RAF
sergeants lying on their backs on the mezzanine floor, looking up through the
studio window with night-sight binoculars, in radio contact with the RAF to
warn of approaching German bombers.”
The
‘enviably large’ bedroom and mezzanine Photograph: Sophia Evans/The Observer
The
couple kept a part of the mezzanine, where their six grandchildren play and
sometimes sleep, and refitted the bathroom underneath. They cleared the rest of
the room to create an enviably large bedroom, with a new fireplace and
furniture that complements the style of the era. The striking batik is by the
painter and singer Thetis Blacker, a friend of Marius’s mother.
“Our
existing furniture and pictures worked very well in this environment,” says
Marius. “And we’ve designed the furniture we’ve built to be in keeping as much
as possible with the original style.”
RAF
men would have lain on their backs, looking up through the studio window for
bombers
The house
has two floors and a basement, where Marius works. The yellow wallpaper in the
hall was designed by Veronica’s niece, fabric and wallpaper designer Neisha Crosland. “It
brightens the hall up, as otherwise it’s a little bit gloomy,” says Marius.
As well
as fitting shutters on the doors and acoustic seals on the windows, Marius and
Veronica have found another solution to the traffic problem. They have turned
their back on the busy road by building a new back entrance to the house, right
next to Barons Court station.
“The back
door is constantly in use; 95% of the coming and going takes place via that
door,” says Marius. “Living this near to the station has revolutionised life in
London. I used to drive my car every day, but the tube is so much more
convenient.”
Room with
a view: the ‘studio’ bedroom. Photograph: Sophia Evans/The Observer
While
Marius sometimes uses the studio bedroom for painting, Veronica enjoys
gardening and is getting used to the noise of the road.
“I like
living here. We have fewer rooms than in our old house, but there’s an amazing
feeling of space,” she says.
“It’s not
what I intended to do at this age, but it has kind of worked out. This isn’t
the first time we’ve taken on a wreck – we have never moved into anywhere where
you could just boil the kettle and put your feet up.”
- This is the archive of The
Observer up until 21/04/2025. The Observer is now owned and operated by
Tortoise Media.
St.
Paul’s Studios
https://baldwinhamey.wordpress.com/2013/12/10/st-pauls-studios/
Posted by
Baldwin Hamey in building
Tags
Anyone
travelling out of London along the A4 (or the Great West Road as it used to be
called) must have seen this row of houses on the left-hand side at Talgarth
Road (numbers 135-149), just before the Hammersmith flyover. They were designed
as artists’ studios by Frederick Wheeler (1853-1931) and built in 1891. Wheeler
designed the studios in the Arts and Crafts style for James Fairless, a
publisher of prints of classical works of art. The houses were meant for
bachelor artists and had three rooms on the ground floor and in the basement a
kitchen and a room for the housekeeper. Despite this intention of providing
houses for single artists, many inhabitants managed to cram more people into
the studio than was originally envisaged; in 1911, William Logsdail, for
instance, lived at number 5 with his wife, his son and daughter and a servant.
The studios themselves were situated on the first floor and were 30 feet long
and 22 feet wide (9.1 × 6.7 m). The large barrel-vaulted windows, facing north,
were specifically designed to let in as much light as possible.
Advertisement
Privacy
Settings
Just to
the west of the studios, at number 151, is Colet House, which, although not
part of the studio project, is in the same style and often referred to as 9 St.
Paul’s Studios. It is a larger property that has been used for various
purposes, such as the ballet dance school where Margo Fonteyn worked. It was
originally thought that Colet House was also designed by Frederick Wheeler, but
recent research favours Fairfax Blomfield Wade-Palmer (1851-1919). For more
information on Colet House see here.
In 2007,
the contents of one of the studios came on the market and the sale was reported
in the Hammersmith & Fulham News of August 2007. In the leaflet, a
number of photos of the interior of the studio give a good idea of what they
must have looked like when they were just built. Disregard the modern office
chairs for a moment and you could be back in the 1890s.
Click on
the picture to go to the original PDF from the Hammersmith & Fulham Council
website
The stretch
of Talgarth Road with the studios started life as Red Cow Lane, later to be
named Colet Gardens after John Colet, Dean of St Paul’s. It received its
present name in the 1960s. Over the years, many famous and not so very famous
artists have lived in the studios. From various sources, the following – most
likely incomplete – list will give you some idea. Click on the * to get more
information on an artist or her/his work. A ? before or after a year means the
artist may have lived there before or after that date, but I have found no
information on the exact period. If you can add to the list, please leave a
comment.
.jpeg)
No comments:
Post a Comment