Description

798-1/0/10262 ALBERT STREET
02-SEP-03 20
Tudor Lodge

GV II
House and artists' studios. 1843-4 for the painter Charles Lucy, reportedly to his own design, with further studios added in 1860 and 1870. Red brick with blue brick quoins over rendered basement. Two storeys, attic and basement with rear studio reached by separate passage as well as from within the house. In 1872 house and studios were separated and the door between them blocked.

Tudor style façade of two bays, both gabled, the smaller set back and having the entrance. Door reached up steps, door set under four-pointed arch of gauged blue brick and hoodmould with carved stops. Timber plank door with iron brackets. Toplight with stained glass. Above, a two-light oriel window. Main windows to left of three lights with slightly pointed heads and horizontal glazing bars, under gauged blue brick heads and hoodmoulds. Ears and finial to gable, in which is a tiny single-light attic window.

Interior has barleysugar baluster staircase. Hallway with ball moulded cornice and roundel plaster copy of Michelangelo's Madonna. Front parlour with bracketed cornice and fireplace. Other fireplaces in upper rooms. Studios to rear not inspected.

MacDonald and others always claimed that the house was built to Lucy's own design. Giles Walkley has written that the 'earliest instance of deliberate concerted provision for artists is likely to be Tudor Lodge Studios', ie. that it is the earliest surviving purpose-built artist's studio in London. The house has added interest for it was leased to other noted Victorian writers and artists, including Ford Madox Brown, Thomas Woolner, and most notably George MacDonald, the fantasy writer. MacDonald described the house in his novel The Vicar's Daughter (1872), and it is palpably still recognisable today.

Included as a very early, little-altered Tudor dwelling, early artists' studios and for its historic associations with artists and writers, including the fantasy writer George MacDonald who so carefully described the house in 1872.

Sources
George MacDonald, The Vicar's Wife, 1872
Giles Walkley, Artists' Houses in London, 1994.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q27087021

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
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