Details
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1900/0/10357
St John's Wood
CARLTON HILL
Nos. 92-96
06-SEP-04
II
House and studio, converted into two houses and flatted apartments c.1948. 1873 by W.J. Miller for George Speedy, with extensive remodelling c.1910 by Sir Edward Guy Dawber for Sir George Frampton. Stock brick, some rendered; wooden small pane casements; hipped tiled roofs with deep overhanging and bracketed eaves.
EXTERIOR: SOUTH elevation has main two-storey range with full-height rectangular bays with small pane casements to each floor, flanking central bay with wooden porch under plain window, and first floor window under red brick rounded arch; central dormer has replaced windows. To west, linked by curved parapet wall with red brick coping and rectangular window over entrance, is advanced and lower former coach house fully rendered with three first floor rounded windows. To east, with similar link but with short wide bay over outshut, is studio range. Original pair of tall doors under rounded arch replaced mid-C20 by rectangular window. NORTH elevation taller for sloped site. Main range has central projecting brick tower with further advanced gabled range with small pane casements. The rest of this elevation is brick with deep rendered band under eaves. Lower STUDIO range to east has chimney, pair of small pane glazed doors under red brick segmental relieving arch and rectangular window under concrete lintel; taller behind with large north facing windows.
INTERIOR: East wing of c.1910 was reduced in size when this wing was converted to a separate residence, but it retains its north facing elevation with large windows, as well as the full height spatial qualities from the period of Frampton's work. Main range and west wing converted to flats and residence and not inspected in 2004.
HISTORY: In 1910, Sir George Frampton commissioned the transformation of a 'Mid-Victorian suburban house of a commonplace and ugly type' (as it was then described in The Studio, the mouthpiece of the Arts and Crafts Movement) in St. John's Wood, to one in a new style more appropriate for a contemporary artist. Frampton was actively involved in the Art and Crafts Movement, which is reflected by his choice of style and his apparent involvement in the new design. This included replacing the Italianate deep eaves brackets and paired windows under rounded arches, with wide full-height rectangular bays, a new wooden porch, Lady Frampton's painting studio with open trussed roof, a George Frampton designed marble fireplace in the drawing-room, and William Morris wallpaper.
The coach house to the west was incorporated into the new design, and a balancing wing added to the east, which was to hold the main studio. This, 'perfectly lighted and of great extent, but with no pretence of adornment...literally a workshop designed by and for the use of a workman.' (The Studio, 1910), was to the north side of the wing facing then extensive gardens. The Studio text refers to much of the design being by Sir George Frampton himself, although the drawings are signed by the notable Edwardian architect E. Guy Dawber. Sir Edward Guy Dawber (1861-1938) was a Norfolk-born architect who specialised in Arts and Crafts style country houses, mainly in the midlands and home counties.
Sir George Frampton (1860-1928) is a nationally important artist who received a Knighthood in 1908, the year he bought this house on Carlton Hill and began commissioning its architectural overhaul. He lived in the house until his death in 1928. A Blue Plaque to Frampton was erected in 1975 on his house at 32 Queen's Grove, where he lived and worked before here, from 1894-1908. Many of Frampton's sculptures are listed, included that of the Grade II* 1911 Peter Pan sited Kensington Gardens and the Grade I Edith Cavell Memorial on St. Martin's Place, both of which were made in the studio at Carlton Hill.
Arthur Fleischmann (1896-1990), born in Bratislava, moved to London in 1948, and into the studio wing of 92 Carlton Hill soon afterwards. His work, commemorated in centennial exhibition in 1996, includes ceramic and Perspex sculptures and bronze architectural pieces, and he famously sculpted four Popes. There is a Westminster City Council Plaque to Fleischmann on the studio wing, the present No.92.
SOURCES: The Studio (vol.49), 1910.
Listed Grade II for its architectural qualities, as an 1873 Italianate villa remodelled in 1910 for Sir George Frampton (1860-1928) by the notable Edwardian architect Sir Edward Guy Dawber (1861-1938) in an Arts and Crafts Style, work which included the addition of a studio which contributes to its historic importance as that of the nationally important sculptor Frampton, who completed the Grade II* Peter Pan statue in Kensington Gardens here, and latterly that of sculptor Arthur Fleischmann (1896-1990).
