Have it your way…

We have quite a bit of modern furniture and in a conversation with a recent visitor she expresses a strong preference for a more traditional flair.  A former neighbour, Alan Day would have full-heartedly concurred and I thought I show how he designed his Studio in what I believe took more than 10 years.

The Hallway in Alan's former Studio

Alan stayed as close as he could to the original idea of the house, thus he made the front room (in our house now a library) a presentation room – here the Bachelor Artist according to the original plan would have entertained clients.  This room could have been decorated by William Morris himself.

... let's talk further about this commission ...

The studio was there for work and would probably not have been shown, although I am sure Alan did make exceptions to this rule…

Alan was an architect and worked in the studio

After Alan’s demise the house was sold and the furnishings sold at an amazing auction at Bonham’s (I got none of the lots I bid for).

LAMDA or Drama next door!

Yes, LAMDA or the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art is the next building west of the studios after Colet House, or more precisely it is a complex of three buildings.

LAMDA Building Main Entrance

The institutions that combined to form LAMDA actually date from 1861 and include the London Academy of Music making the Academy one of the oldest of its kind.  It moved here in 2003 (the site was formerly occupied by the Royal Ballet School, see my earlier entry on Margot Fonteyn).

For us the school has two advantages.  Firstly, there are constantly new productions to check out right in front of our door (see for upcoming productions on LAMDA’s site here).  And secondly, they have some grand plans for the site.  They chose Niall McLaughlin Architects and came up with this exiting idea:

The new building!

I will be coming back  for some more drama even when it is not next door anymore…

Our Neighbour, the Beauty from the 30s

Photo by Maggie Jones

Barons Keep is a nice apartment block.  Designed by Gunton & Gunton the property is five storeys in height and was designed to allow each of the 118 dual aspect flats a view of the open space to the West (presently occupied by West London College, see my earlier post for an image back then).

Here the layout, it has been built in a horseshoe shape around a central landscaped courtyard.

Photo by Maggie Jones

It has some excellent 1930s Art Deco features like the metal casement windows, in particular the fountain shaped staircase windows that run the whole height of the building, and swung balconies.  It is for those reasons Barons Keep has been listed by the Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham as a building of merit.

Barons Keep is managed by its residents and they have some cool ideas.  I particular like their proposed new 6th Floor made entirely of glas, it will look stunning!  Here an elevation study as seen from the courtyard.

One thing however I have not found out in my ten years here in Barons Court is the question of what is it with the missing apostrophe for Barons This and That.  Anybody knows?

As close as possible to a time machine

I have had all kinds of interesting conversations per email or phone due to this blog, one of the best started with a comment from New Zealand.  Nick Meek got in touch “I was bought up in that house (1964-1976). It was a cool place to live and I think back to it often. Next time I am in London (live in N.Z. currently) I intend to drop around; I expect to be let in. “.  I checked and indeed Alan Meek moved in in the early 60s (see my earlier article on former residents here).  So I replied casually “sure, why not” – thinking I would be long out of here before Nick makes it over!

But the Meeks upped the ante, the next to get in touch was his brother Alex, stating that he was effectively born in the house and that his father would like to have a look.  We thought this would be quite fun and arranged to meet.

A few days later Alan and Alex Meek came for coffee and – for a change – gave us a tour of the house!  My now office housed 5 children in a bunk and double bunk bed, our bathroom was their kitchen, they had birthday parties in our library, the studio was a proper photography studio and there was a huge field on the other side of the road.  It was lovely to meet our predecessors and to hear their stories!

Days later Alan popped by and brought us some photos of the good ol’ times:

Yes, this is our library

The grass was greener on the other side back then!

Keen to hear what Nick might have to say when he comes…

Been asked twice today…

…about parking I thought I better add a page to the site about it.

I personally prefer the cheap and efficient Resident Parking scheme

Again, there are surprisingly many options including garages and secure underground parking very close by, read here for more.

An Arts & Craft Epicentre

At the time of the construction of this terrace it was still relatively on the edge of town, overlooking the playing fields of St Paul’s School. The site was also close to the marshy Thameside village of Hammersmith and close to the part of the Fulham distinguished by the residency of Edward Burne-Jones (1833-1898) in the Grange, North End Road, since demolished. St. Paul’s Studios were built besides a previous large studio-house containing a number of studios, built in 1885 for Sir Coutts Lindsay Bt (1824-1913) founder of the Grosvenor Gallery. Used by a number of a 19th century painters it is interesting to note that Edward Burne-Jones worked on Arthur at Avalon in this studio in 1897-8.

Last Sleep of Arthur in Avalon

Immersed in his work, Burne-Jones identified himself with Arthur and even adopted Arthur’s pose when he himself slept. By 1885, four years into his work the association with Arthur reached the point where Burne-Jones had to ask his patron George Howard, 9th Earl of Carlisle to cancel or revise his original commission, replacing the grand scene with a smaller painting focused on the departed king. Howard agreed to cancellation and never requested his downpayment back. Nevertheless, Burne-Jones returned to the original grand painting, and worked on it for the remaining thirteen years of his life. The studio was also occupied by his son Philip and in 1912-14 Frank Brangwyn R.A. (1867-1956) used them while working on a large-scale project. Brangwyn himself lived close by in Hammersmith, on Queen Caroline Street.

At the same time as the St. Paul’s Studios were constructed in 1891, C.F.A.Voysey – possibly the finest Arts & Crafts designer and architect – designed an interesting studio house, built just around the corner at 17 St. Dunstan’s Road, for W.E.F.Brittan (1848-1816) the decorative painter.

Studio House in St Dunstan's Road

There are other late nineteenth century studio-houses in Margrave Road and Avonmore Road showing off the artistic activity in this area in the early 20th century.  One of note is the Fulham Glass House, 1906, a workshop and studios for stained glass design, built on Lettice Street off the Fulham Road, for Lowndes and Drury with whom Christopher Whall was closely associated – he himself living in Ravenscourt Park.

The Fall of Man

The series of window installed by Whall in the Lady Chapel, part of Cloucester Cathedral, between 1899 and 1913 is widely acknowledged to be the finest glass of the period in England.

Our former neighbour Dame Margot Fonteyn

Dame Margot Fonteyn de Arias, DBE, (18 May 1919 – 21 February 1991), the British prima ballerina assoluta, was considered by many to be the greatest English ballerina, and one of the greatest dancers of the 20th Century (apparentely there were only 5 prima ballerina abssoluta tin total – ever!).

Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev in the Grand Adage of The Kingdom of the Shades in 1963

She was born Margaret Hookham 1919 in Surrey , to an English father and an Irish mother of Brazilian ancestry, who was the daughter of Brazilian industrialist Antonio Fontes. Early in her career, Margaret transformed Hookham into Fontes into Fonteyn and Margaret into Margot; for a much better ring to her name. Her mother signed her up for ballet classes with her brother when they were young.  She joined the Royal Ballet while sin her teens and had been trained by some of the greatest teachers of the period, Olga Preobrajenskaya and Mathilde Kschessinskaya . Already in 1939, she was the company’s prima ballerina assoluta and the inspiration for many ballets of the day, such as Ondine, Daphnis and Chloe, and Sylvia.  Fonteyn was awarded a DBE  in 1956 at the young age of 37. In 1949, the Royal Ballet toured the United States and Fonteyn became an instant celebrity.  She lived for a number of years in Studio No. 8 and her ballet mirrors are still there (she used the sutdio for training).

I like some of her bonmots, like this one “Life offstage has sometimes been a wilderness of unpredictables in an unchoreographed world.”  As to that constantly asked question if she had an affair with Rudolf Nureyev I leave that up to others to decide (the residents of the studios hold together).  Here at article in the Sunday Tims on the subject.

Our local park got even more beautiful

Nikolai and I went to the park and were excited for two reasons.  First we heard and saw a great spotted woodpecker.  Second, there were a lot of new improvements made in the last few days and the park is nicer than ever!  I did not know, but there is a group called the Friend of Margravine Cemetery and they got a grant and spend it wisely (see for their site in the Link section on the right).

We can see the park's trees both from our garden and and from the Studio

Their website also has a lot history and I quote the part of it that made the cemetery into such a nice park: “The 16½ acres of Margravine Cemetery became a Garden of Rest in 1951 when the then Hammersmith Council concerned at its dilapidated appearance decided to remove as many memorials and bury as many tombstones as possible and lay the cleared land to grass; there were many local objections but in general the Council paid heed only to those received from the registered grave owners and left such plots undisturbed, as were those in the care of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Some of the more significant memorials also were retained, including the Young family mausoleum, the only one in the cemetery.”

Margravine Cemetery is definetely worth a visit and they have events including Fungi talks and walks!

The Barons Court Conservation Area

The Station from the East

Here a brief history of the Conservation Area (from the Conservation Area Character Profile here):

The name of Barons Court is believed to have been devised by Sir William Palliser, who owned and developed the land, formerly part of a large agricultural holding. Use of the name to attract potential house buyers may have been suggested by nearby Earls Court or possibly in allusion to the Court Baron held by the Lord of the Manor, the Bishop of London. The 1865 Ordnance Survey Plan shows that most of the Barons Court Conservation Area was in agricultural use, although the main arterial thoroughfares of North End Lane (upgraded and renamed Talgsth Road), North End Road and Old Greyhound Road (renamed Greyhound Road), existed at this time.

By the time of the publication of the 1894/5 Ordnance Survey Plan much of the residential road framework was in place with the majority of the residential development having already occurred. Significant developments which had taken place since the earlier Survey are the construction of the over-ground District Railway and Barons Court and WestKensington Stations, and the laying out of Hammersmith Cemetery, then known as Margravine Cemetery.

The 1916 Survey shows very little change to the road layout, although a second phase of residential development had taken place. For example, to the west of the conservation area, Margravine Gardens had been extended to give access to St Dunstan’s Road facilitating further residential development creating an enclosed residential street block. Furthermore, at this time the remainder of the properties on Claxton Grove and Beaumont Crescent had been completed and the two mansion blocks on Palliser Road were built.  In the 1920s & 30s the green space between Barton Road and Barons Court Road was replaced by residential accommodation, including Barton Court.

and from the South

A House Portrait

We had been introduced to Liam Wales, an illustrator who specialises in London houses and here the result:

She looks good