ARTISAN STUDIOS - Scarsdale Studios

The Artisan Studio @ Scarsdale Studios

During the late 1850’s a group of farmers, brickmakers and gentlemen saw the development opportunity  of the “Flower/Rhodes plan” and approached the London & County Bank for a loan to develop land in the Parish of Kensington. The brickmakers saw the value of London clay and river gravel for construction and it was the beauty of these handmade London Yellow Stock bricks that caught my eye a hundred & fifty years later. I too approached a bank and asked for a loan.

The small private courtyard seemed a perfect retreat for an Architect’s studio and painting gallery in the loft with its north light glazing. Oskar Kokoschka, the painter, poet and playwright had once lived in the front studio and had painted there, so I was to be in good company. Of course the brick cleaning operation was to be a careful task to remove the years of damage done by London smog and sulphuric acid rain. The utter beauty and colour of these bricks with the lime pointing flexibility (that withstood the two large bombs that fell either side during the war) held the secrets that the smog had concealed. The corbelling of the brick corner to grant the carriages and horse drawn carts a fair turning circle were well executed, but in a poor state of repair. The tall industrial scale windows needed replacement.

 Knowing that the clay had largely been extracted in the 1850’s and that good river gravel could be washed to make excellent concrete I designed a basement to house 2 bedrooms and free up an open plan ground Floor. A double height “studio” type volume was planned to highlight the dramatic industrial type windows with mezzanine gallery. I constructed the basement and completed the essential building works. The house/studio was then purchased by a lady after the bank who granted the mortgage went bankrupt…but that’s another story.