Tudor Lodge

Tudor Lodge is a house and artists' studios dating from 1843-4, reportedly designed by the painter Charles Lucy himself. Further studios were added in 1860 and 1870. The building is constructed of red brick with blue brick quoins, over a rendered basement. It is two storeys high with an attic and basement, and the rear studios are accessible via a separate passage, as well as from within the house. In 1872, the house and studios were separated by blocking the connecting door.

The Tudor style façade has two gabled bays, the smaller set back and containing the entrance. Steps lead to the front door, which is set under a four-pointed arch of gauged blue brick and a hoodmould with carved stops. The door is of timber plank construction, fitted with iron brackets. A top light contains stained glass. Above the door is a two-light oriel window. The main windows to the left are of three lights with slightly pointed heads and horizontal glazing bars, set within gauged blue brick heads and hoodmoulds. A gable features ears and a finial, with a small single-light attic window set within it.

Inside, a staircase with balusters shaped like liquorice sticks rises through the hallway, which has a cornice with ball mouldings and a plaster roundel reproducing Michelangelo's Madonna. The front parlour has a bracketed cornice and a fireplace. Other fireplaces are found in the upper rooms. The rear studios were not inspected.

It is suggested that Lucy designed the house himself, and some believe Tudor Lodge Studios represents the earliest deliberate provision of purpose-built artists' studios in London. The house has historic links to several notable Victorian writers and artists, including Ford Madox Brown, Thomas Woolner, and George MacDonald. MacDonald's novel The Vicar’s Daughter (1872) describes the house, which remains recognisable today.

The building is included on the list for its significance as an early, relatively unaltered Tudor dwelling, the early artists' studios it contains, and its important connections with artists and writers, particularly the fantasy writer George MacDonald.

Sources: George MacDonald, The Vicar's Wife, 1872; Giles Walkley, Artists’ Houses in London, 1994.