No. 49 Addison Road, on the old Holland estate in N. Kensington, London, is a large detached brick house built, like Nos. 48 and 60–61, by Nicholson and Son of Wandsworth in 1856-57 (Sheppard). The house is on a corner (Addison Road runs north to south on the left had side) but the entrance is actually in Napier Road (east to west). Frederic Leighton's Leighton House (now a museum) is only a few hundred yards away on the opposite side of Addison Road. The tall hedge obstructs any view from there but luckily the studio in Napier Road is very visible: a big house, and a spacious studio too: as Hannah Lund explains in her biography of Herbert Schmalz, the artist who moved there in 1893, the architect for the imposing later extension was the very distinguished John Simpson (1858-1933; President of the RIBA 1919-21), and the extension cost a grand total of £1,187.
From 1880, Schmalz had lived nearby, in 5 The Studios, Holland Park Road, where his close neighbours were the artists Henrietta Rae and William Blake Richmond. But in 1889 he married Edith, a sister of Leighton's favourite model Dorothy Dene, and in 1893 the couple moved into this already substantial house, adding the large studio at the rear.
Links to Related Material
- Homes of Artists, Architects, Sculptors, and Writers
- Melbury Road, Leighton House, and the Holland Park Artists' Houses
- Studio Houses on Holland Park Road
- Herbert Schmalz
Bibliography
Sheppard, F.H.W., ed. "The Holland estate: To 1874."Survey of London: Volume 37, Northern Kensington. London, 1973. British History Online Web. 31 August 2024. https://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol37/pp101-126
Created 31 August 2024