HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT

Many will have wondered what lies behind the huge windows of the Victorian-era studios on one of London’s busiest roads. Rosie Paterson takes a peek

- Rosie Paterson

DRIVING east or west, in or out of London on the A4, it’s hard not to notice the imposing terrace of eight Renaissance revival houses on the south side of Talgarth Road. The steep stone steps leading up to each front door; the arresting brick façades with strap-work friezes and terracotta detailing; the impossibly tall, round-headed windows that project forward, looming large over the road. They look so out of place next to the streams of traffic, drivers white knuckled at steering wheels.

Of course, it wasn’t always like this. When the terrace was built in 1891, it looked out onto a narrower street—horse-drawn carriages clip-clopping by—a line of mature trees and the grounds of St Paul’s School beyond. It was designed by architect Frederick Wheeler for fine-art publisher James Fairless, although the latter had no intention of living there and the houses, named St Paul’s Studios, were marketed to bachelor artists living and working in Kensington and Fulham. Previous residents of note include Ruby Levick (1871–1940), a Welsh sculptor and medallist, and William Logsdail (1859–1944), whose oil painting St Martin-in-the-Fields (1888) is in Tate Britain’s collection. Years after Fairless sold the freeholds, non-artists started to move in, such as Dame Margot Fonteyn (1919–91), who used the space at number eight as a dance studio.