138 Kensington Church Street

Summary

House, built in 1736-7, altered in the late C18 or early C19, and subsequently. From the late 1970s until his death in 2011, it became the home and studio of the artist Lucian Freud. Formerly listed as one asset with 136 Kensington Church Street (NHLE 1424034).

Reasons for Designation

138 Kensington Church Street, built in 1736-7, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Architectural interest: dated early to mid-C18 house, part of a speculative development initiated though not designed by the architect Isaac Ware; the facade is the least altered of the group;
* Historic interest: well-documented C18 speculative development;
* Artistic and cultural association: from the late 1970s to 2011, No. 138 was the home and studio of the artist Lucian Freud.

History

In 1736 the land which includes 138 Kensington Church Street was sold by the Craven family for £360 to the architect Isaac Ware. Six months later a portion of the estate was conveyed by Ware to Charles Carne, a glazier from St Martins in the Fields. In August 1736 an agreement was made between them and Richard Gibbons of Bloomsbury, a carpenter, to develop the land. Craven House was demolished and twelve houses built on the street frontage (formerly 1–6 and 7–12 High Row) now 128–142 (even) and 152–168 (even) Kensington Church Street, and let by Ware and Carne on 71 year leases to Gibbons and tradesmen who had been involved in the work. There is no evidence however that Ware was involved in the design or construction of the houses.

After the houses were built Ware and Carne sold most of the estate; Gibbons was declared bankrupt in 1737. The southern group of six houses (128–142) was bought for £500 in October 1737 by James Allen of Dulwich who subsequently conveyed them in trust to Dulwich College to provide an income for a schoolmaster or schoolmistress to teach reading to poor children in Dulwich (Survey of London vol 37, 1973).

The surviving houses in the southern group appear to have been altered in the later C18 or early C19, in the case of 138 Kensington Church Street c1820-30 when interior joinery and chimney pieces were renewed, and probably again in the later C19.

LUCIAN FREUD (1922-2011)
Lucian Freud, painter and draughtsman, was born in Berlin, emigrating with his family to England in 1933. He spent most of his life in central London moving to Holland Park and Notting Hill in the late 1970s, where he lived and worked at 138 Kensington Church Street while also maintaining a separate studio in the area. His use of the house as a studio is described by the art critic Martin Gayford in Man with a Blue Scarf (2012, 33-4), his account of sitting for a portrait by Lucian Freud, while elements of the studio also appear in works such as Fireplace (1997), Brigadier (2003-4) and in photographs of Freud and his sitters taken by his assistant, the artist and photographer David Dawson.

He used the double first-floor room as distinct studios - a naturally-lit day studio in the north-east facing rear room and artificially-lit night studio in the west-facing front room, the shutters kept closed. Photographs show the walls and door frames thickly daubed with accumulated palette scrapings.

Although the human form dominated his work, Freud also executed cityscapes, viewed from his studio windows, and obsessively detailed nature studies (Tate website, 22.10.2014). From the 1980s his work was marked by increasing boldness of scale, composition and complexity. He noted in 1974, 'My work was purely autobiographical. It is about myself and my surroundings. It is an attempt at a record. I work from people that interest me and that I care about, in rooms that I live in and know.' (Lucian Freud Portraits, National Portrait Gallery, 2012).

Details

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.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

417871

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Cherry, B, Pevsner, N, Buildings of England: London 3: North West, (1999), 505

Websites
Survey of London, vol 37, North Kensington (1973) Chapter 1, accessed 22 October 2014 from http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=49864
Lucian Freud, accessed 22 October 2014 from http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/lucian-freud-1120 a

Other
M Gayford, Man With a Blue Scarf, on Sitting for a Portrait by Lucian Freud (2012)
Lucian Freud Portraits, National Portrait Gallery (2012)
Lucian Freud: Painting People, National Portrait Gallery (2012)
D. Dawson, A Painter's Progress: A Portrait of Lucian Freud (2014)

End of official list entry

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