1, Holland Park Avenue

House and Studio, 1 Holland Park Avenue

Built in 1820-1 by developer James Brace, this double-fronted villa has been substantially altered and embellished over its history. An artist's studio was added to the second floor around 1864-5, and the building was refurbished and enhanced by the artist James McBey in 1919-20, with further work undertaken with his wife Marguerite during the 1930s.

The building is constructed of stucco and roughcast over brickwork, with a blue Welsh-slated roof set behind a parapet. The facade is irregular and buttressed, tied with wrought-iron cross bands.

The ground floor features two canted, rusticated bay windows with small-panel wood casements on either side of a central entrance with a four-panel door (upper two glazed) and fanlight. At the far left is a bay added around 1864-5, with one full-length French casement window flanked by pilasters with moulded consoles carrying a projecting balcony with cast-iron balustrading decorated with honeysuckle motifs.

The first floor has two wood sash windows without glazing bars at the right, and three narrow full-length French casements to the centre and left, set behind a continuous balcony with wrought-iron balustrading featuring scrollwork, ovals and Chinese Chippendale trelliswork. A single window at the far left matches the ground floor bay. The second floor is dominated by a large studio window at the left, iron-framed with three long lower panes, three square panes, and three opening casements each with nine small panes. The upper part projects above parapet level as a dormer. A single light horizontal casement sits beneath a dripmould in the upper centre, with a small nine-paned bullseye window lower right. The facade cuts back on the diagonal behind a small balcony at the left, whilst at the right a ramped parapet in the form of a half Dutch gable sweeps down, concealing the lower roof slope.

Interior

The entrance hall opens with a study to the right, which has a fireplace with bolection moulded surround and a dowelled reclaimed oak-boarded floor. The dining room to the left contains re-set 18th-century softwood panelled walls with raised and fielded panels, a moulded dado rail, and moulded wood cornice. Its fireplace has a bolection moulded surround and Dutch-tiled grate recess. An arch opening to the right defines a panelled sideboard and servery recess.

The dog-leg staircase to the upper floors has a lowest flight with moulded hardwood handrail terminating in a moulded cast-iron newel of mid 19th-century pattern. Upper stairs have plain square wood newels, stick balusters and simpler moulded rails, with panelled walls largely from the 1919-20 refurbishment.

The first floor large drawing room has simple reset softwood 18th-century panelled walls with fielded panels behind quadrant frames, an extended frieze and moulded cornice. Its fireplace has a carved hardwood Louis XV-style surround with elaborate foliated scrollwork ends and black fossil marble inner lining. A first floor lavatory contains a hardwood cased valve closet.

The second floor studio features exposed roof trusses with hammer beams and profiled corbel brackets, a boarded and beamed ceiling with part timber-cased girders, and a raised rooflight behind the large northlight window. At the rear is a four-light mullion and transom window with iron casements. At the left front is a recess with a raised platform, coved ceiling and obscure-glazed timber screen opening to a lower level preparation area lit by a casement dormer. In the centre, above the entrance from the landing, is a bracketed-out balcony with a stick baluster front and ladder recess.

History

Numbers 1 and 3 Holland Park Avenue were built in 1820-21 by James Brace, reputedly for two sisters, and were originally known as 'Rose Bank' and 'Ivy Bank'. The studio was constructed in 1864. During the 1890s the house was occupied by the academic artist Professor George Sauter. In July 1919, the property was acquired by James McBey, Official Artist to the Egyptian Expeditionary Force from 1917-19, who was known for his portraits of T. E. Lawrence. McBey began refurbishment in the 1920s, continuing with his wife Marguerite during the early 1930s, since when it has been little altered. The McBeys lived abroad in Morocco and the United States, and McBey became an American citizen in 1942.