138 Kensington Church Street

House, 1736-7 altered in the late C18, refitted c1820-30 and probably in the later C19, refurbished in 2013. From the later 1970s until his death in 2011, it was the home and latterly studio of the artist Lucian Freud.

MATERIALS: buff-brown brick street frontage with red brick dressings, the rear rendered and lined as ashlar; slate mansard roof.

PLAN: three storeys, basement and attic within the mansard, the front elevation in three bays, with the entrance to the right and an internal stack to the left.

EXTERIOR: on the street frontage, ground floor windows and taller first floor windows, that cut through the brick plat band, have nine-over-nine pane horned sashes; smaller upper floor windows have six-over-six pane sashes. All are slightly recessed in narrow architraves and beneath flat gauged, red brick arches. The entrance, reached by steps from the street level, is slightly recessed beneath a round-arched opening also in red brick, and has a four-panelled door in a reeded architrave with paterae at the corners and beneath a fanlight. The rear elevation is arranged in two window bays, the upper floors projecting over the ground floor, which has French doors. First and upper floor windows are six-over-six, and eight-over-eight pane sashes, some horned, and a tall first floor casement, all beneath slightly cambered arches. Within the roof on both elevations there are C20 horned sashes and casements.

On the street frontage there are iron railings on a low parapet wall.

INTERIOR: ground and first floor rooms are said to have dado panelling and shallow moulded cornices. Principal door and window architraves throughout the house are reeded with moulded paterae at the angles; doors include a six panel door on the first floor. Windows have panelled linings and shutters, with stays, catches and hinges. First floor rooms have moulded or reeded marble chimneypieces with paterae at the corners, some with cast iron grates.

In the basement, barrel vaulted cellars have slate slab shelves on brick piers.