Anchor Studio

Anchor Studio

An artist's studio built in 1888 by Benjamin Arthur Bateman for the painter Stanhope Alexander Forbes, RA (1857-1947).

The building comprises two ranges constructed from granite rubble and weatherboarded timber frame, with scantle slate and asbestos tile roofs. The structure is single storey with a basement beneath the eastern end, where the ground falls away steeply. The rectangular plan contains a single studio room open to the roof, with a fireplace at the west end, entrance on the south side, and a large north light on the north elevation.

The western range is a three-bay granite building with a central entrance doorway under a granite lintel, reached by three granite steps, with a plank and batten door. To the left is a four-light multi-paned horizontally-sliding sash window under a timber lintel, and a similar two-light window under a granite lintel to the right. A brick ridge stack is positioned at the left end. The western gable end is blind. The northern elevation is dominated by a very large fixed-light multi-paned window rising through the eaves as a massive gabled half-dormer with weatherboarded gable.

The eastern range, adjoining the western range with a lower roofline, is timber-framed and weatherboarded, raised on granite piers over a basement. The north side has a large multi-paned window set centrally in the ground floor; below it the basement wall is rendered with a doorway and window opening. The eastern gable wall is weatherboarded to the upper floor with a large vertical window opening (boarded at inspection in 2018). The gable is asymmetrical, extending north to accommodate an enclosed external stair rising from basement to ground floor level. The south elevation is weatherboarded with a two-over-two sash window to the right of the stair. A blocked doorway to the left indicates the former entrance before the stair was relocated. The basement is partly enclosed between the granite piers with rubble stone walling.

The interior of both ranges forms a single large studio space. The western range has plastered walls with matchboarding to dado height. Against the west end wall stands a timber fire surround with plain uprights, a frieze of Delft tiles, reeded brackets, a moulded mantle with fluted front edge, and a modern woodburning stove. The timber-framed range to the east has boarded walls. Simple A-frame roof trusses with two rows of purlins span the space, which is open to the roof except for later inserted ceilings in the bays either side of the entrance door. A built-in metal rail spanning the studio width just east of the division between the two ranges was formerly used to hang painted backdrops. The studio retains its life modelling platform on castors (unfixed). A plank door at the eastern end accesses a ladder stair which joins the external staircase to the basement. The basement is divided into several rooms with lightweight partitions and variously clad walls.