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 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…

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?

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…

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.

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.

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.

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 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

Our Street in 1934

See the St. Paul’s School (now in Barnes) and how Talgarth Road becomes Colet Garden hugging the school’s park!

One of the drawings

Giles Walkley’s entry was shown in the Architects’ Journal 6 December 1978.  It came in 4 sheets in pen and ink in the colours black and red; one each of the front, back, side and from top.  It got a special price and the Judges commented: “A good choice of buildings, well laid out and nicely drawn.  Interesting use of colour as line rather wash or tone, giving a feel of the texture and appearance of the building.  The competitor notes that it took him 600 hours to measure and draw.  The plottings are very good, but not such a good set of photographs.”

Intrigued I wanted the drawings(I was not so much interested in the photographs since I guess that is much easier to be done today).  But who would/could spend 600 hours on a set of drawings?  And how to get them?  Doing an extensive Google search I had an address of a Giles Walkley in Australia.  Not knowing if it was the right one I decided to write to it.  I got a reply more than a year later – the letter had gone to his parents’s address and his father gave it to his sister who put it in a her handbag (probably one of many) and did not think about it for 12 months.  Needless to mention that my surprise was big when Giles’ letter came in the form of a tube with colour copies of the plottings!  They are now hanging in the house are are indeed very good!  Thank you again, Giles!

• William Logsdail (1859-1944) genre painter particularly of London scenes,
• Edward Tennyson-Reed (1860-1933), Punch cartoonist from 1893,
• Charles Sims R.A. (1873-1928) painter and illustrator and Keeper of the R.A. from 1920-1926, and
• Otto Scholderer (1834-1902) a German born painter of still life and friend of Manet and Fantin-Latour.

And here samples of their work:

William Logsdail's St Martin-in-the Fields

Edward Tennyson-Reed's In Vain You Argue or Protest

Charles Sims' Night Piece to Julia

Otto Scholderer's Violin Player at the Window

And now please do vote for your favourite St. Paul’s Studios artist in our poll.

Colet House

Originally 46 Colet Gardens and now 151 Talgarth Road Colet House is part of our terrace of houses that was originally known as 1-9 St Paul’s Studios. It was built circa 1885. The eight individual studios were built a couple of years later than Colet House. All nine houses have huge windows catching the north light. Colet House is much the largest and is differently designed from its neighbours. It has two spacious ground floor studios and an exceptionally large studio on the first floor – 10.5 metres by 22.5 metres (35ft x 75ft), comfortably long enough for a cricket pitch. There is a symmetry that is almost exact with one side of the house being virtually the mirror image of the other. The present main staircase was a 1938 addition, there being, originally, two staircases at the rear. There are still stone turret staircases at the east and west perimeters. Behind each ground floor studio is a rear room, probably once intended for domestic use and suggesting that the ground floor was originally suitable for division into separate accommodation.

Top Studio (22m x 10m)

Sir Coutts Lindsay, a painter and founder of the first Grosvenor Gallery in Bond Street, then something of a rival to the Royal Academy, is reputed to have been the builder of the studios. What is now Colet House, from the start, had a multiplicity of occupants, mostly painters. The best known was Sir Frank Brangwyn (1867- 1956). Son of a Welsh architect, he was born in Bruges, Belgium, and came to London, aged 10. He was apprenticed to William Morris, travelled widely, establishing himself first as an illustrator, but turning also to design of furniture, stained glass, metalwork and much else. By early 20th century Brangwyn had built a new reputation as a painter and etcher but also as creator of large – very large – works! His main studio was at his house just off Hammersmith Broadway and there it was big enough for him to handle most of his commissions, including a set of wall paintings for the House of Lords (these were never hung where intended but ended up in the Guildhall in Swansea). But one commission was clearly too large for his available space. In the early years of the 20th century, Gordon Selfridge was planning his huge department store on Oxford Street.   Brangwyn was commissioned to design mosaics for the building’s dome, which was to be 70 ft in diameter. It is thought that it was to create this work that Brangwyn acquired space at Colet House. He is reported to have described the ‘Baron’s Court Studio’ as ‘a wonderful place … the finest studio in London … a place fit for Michelangelo himself…’ In fact, the Selfridge dome was never built — its potential weight was judged to be so great as likely to cause the whole store to sink onto the Underground tracks running beneath!

One of the two Studios on the lower floor (8.5m x 10m)

Many artists continued to occupy Colet House studios until the mid-30′s when dancers began to have classes in its fine studios. Nicolai Legat, the Russian ballet master, held classes there with Margot Fonteyn, Ninette de Valois, Anton Dolin and Serge Lifar reportedly amongst his pupils. The Russian influence in the house increased and in 1938 P D Ouspensky, the philosopher and writer chose it to be the headquarters of his work. It was at Colet House that he founded a society, today known as The Study Society, or to give it its full name, the Society for the Study of Normal Psychology. Large gatherings assembled in the top floor studio that was then equipped with plush tip-up seating. A printing press (since removed) was put into the basement. At the start of World War II the building was requisitioned by the Admiralty and returned in time for Ouspensky’s last lectures in 1947. Shortly afterwards it was leased to the Royal Ballet, their main school being next to Colet House (now housing the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art or LAMBDA) to the west. In 1957, with the ballet’s own premises enlarged, the house was for sale and was again acquired by Study Society.

There are lots of other rooms, like the Blue Room (6m x 6m)

Alfred Wolmark Self-Portrait

Alfred Wolmark came to England as a child in the 1880s, when his parents fled Poland. He early developed skill at drawing and after studying at the Royal Academy School he became a full-time painter. His early works reflected his parents’ Jewish circle, but after 1910 he took inspiration from the French avant-garde Fauves and painted many works in strong, imaginative colours, with less concern for exact drawing.

Wolmark was one of the pioneers of Modernist art in Britain, and before the First World War he was a close friend of the French sculptor Gaudier-Brzeska (of whom he painted remarkable portraits), and of Jacob Epstein, mixed with the members of Sickert’s London Group. Between 1910 and 1935 he achieved his full potential as a creative artist, and he was active in many fields other than painting, such as stage design, ceramics, posters and sculpture. He designed a huge stained glass window for St Mary’s church at Slough, which can still be seen.

He took his subjects from the whole range of portraits, landscapes, still-lifes, and nudes both mythological and profane. Portrait sketches were a feature of his work and many important cultural figures sat for him, such as Thomas Hardy, Somerset Maugham, and Aldous Huxley.

Wolmark travelled widely within Britain, to Ireland, Wales, Cornwall and Devon, and in Europe to Paris and Switzerland, where he painted numerous mountain scenes. Further afield, in 1919 he went to New York where he painted several skyscraper views, and in 1927 to Tunis where he painted the local people.

He lived in London, except for a few years during the Second World War when he and his family sought safety in Oxfordshire. He moved to St Paul’s Studios at the end of the war and settled into his last home there.

Never a member of a prominent artistic group, he preferred to mix socially with other artists with progressive views and to plough his own furrow throughout a long and productive life of over 80 years until his death in 1961. His works can be seen in public collections such as the National Portrait Gallery, Tate Britain and Birmingham City Art Gallery. In his lifetime he exhibited widely in Britain and Europe, and a large exhibition was shown at the Ben Uri Gallery, London, and the Ferens Art Gallery, Hull in 2004 (here a link to the Exhibition Announcement).

Sir Roy Strong

In 1995 Roy wrote a column calling our house his London Dream Home.   He called them an “eruption of joy”, “architecturally unique” and said he ” particularly liked their sense of identity – without being pompous they possess enormous bravura and style”.  He then continues confiding that his wife and he “muse upon who owns them and imagine how the light and space would induce terrific feelings of freedom”.

Baron's Court

James Gunter, the developer of West Brompton fame, not only financed this splendid terrace that was `specially designed to suit the requirements of bachelor artists, with accommodation for a housekeeper on the lower floor’, he also financed all of the southern third of W14.

Between Talgarth Road and Lillie Road, the area has been named and renamed in its time but Barons Court seems to be catching on these days. Developed in the early 19th century, the road names here and in the neighbouring Earls Court estate reflect Gunter’s Welsh origins.  Gaps filled in by his grandson Robert have Yorkshire names alluding to his wife’s origin.

I like the fact that James’s father started as a confectioner and made his way up owning huege parts of South Kensigton, Earls Court, Baron’s Court and other areas.  More on the Gunter’s family fortunes here.

Another ad from 1979

Young Lady in a Blue Bonnett, oil painting on canvas

Here is another artist working from St Paul’s Studios (I do not know which one yet). Apprenticed to a lithographic draughtsman he studied in the evenings, later for a year at the Acadamie Julien in Paris (his allowance was one Pound a week).  He worked also briefly in Belfast.

Barribal created such memorable images as posters for the Schweppes advertising campaign and the Waddingtons playing cards series, which are avidly collected today. He is also well-known for the bold Art Deco posters designed in 1920s and 1930s for the London North Eastern Railway.

Barribal also worked for various magazines, including the fashion champion Vogue, and between 1919 and 1938 regularly exhibited his work.

Interestingly, after he married his wife became his only model and inspiration, appearing on picture postcards, almanacs, calendars and pages of leading weeklies.

I'm thinking of you Postcard

His images of exquisite and fashionable Edwardian women have become classics and the work of many a modern fashion artist shows traces of the unmistakable “Barribal style”.

I assume that both painting and postcard show the mysterious Ms Barribal, another form resident.