Glass menagerie: the ground floor sitting room. Photograph: Sophia Evans for the ObserverGlass menagerie: the ground floor sitting room. Photograph: Sophia Evans for the Observer

The ObserverHomes

An Arts and Crafts studio built for painters has been reinvented as a home full of light

Talgarth Road in west London is one of the capital’s busiest, dirtiest thoroughfares. With three lanes of traffic thundering to and from the M4, it’s easy to miss the row of eight Arts and Crafts-era houses when driving past Barons Court station.

For architect Marius Barran and his wife Veronica, living in one of these historic homes, built in 1891 as artists’ studios, is worth the inconvenience of the busy road. Veronica first spotted the house online when the couple were looking to move in autumn 2013.

St Paul’s Studios: the outside aspect. Photograph: Sophia Evans/The Observer

“I sent the link to Marius almost as a joke,” she says. It was at the top end of the couple’s budget, and very different from the other properties they’d seen. But Marius, who had known and admired the houses all his life, went to view it that afternoon.

The terrace’s remarkably large windows were designed by architect Frederick Wheeler to provide natural light for bachelor artists to work in. St Paul’s Studios, as they are known, have been used for various artistic endeavours through the years, from a dance school for the Margaret Morris Movement to a home for the writer Ernest Gébler.

The remarkably large windows were designed to provide natural light for bachelor artists

The Barrans were sold their end-of-terrace “studio” by an elderly art collector from America named Dorothy Braude Edinburg. But there was lots of work to do to restore the Grade II-listed home to its original spacious glory.

“In the 30s or 40s, we think, it went through a fairly unglamorous period of being multiple occupancy, when it was subdivided to make as many bedrooms as possible,” says Marius. The large studio room, which is now the couple’s bedroom, had been bisected horizontally by a mezzanine floor.

Clean lines: the ensuite bathroom overlooking Barons Court station. Photograph: Sophia Evans/The Observer

“Someone told us it was put in during the Second World War, when the house was requisitioned by the RAF,” says Marius. “There would have been a couple of RAF sergeants lying on their backs on the mezzanine floor, looking up through the studio window with night-sight binoculars, in radio contact with the RAF to warn of approaching German bombers.”

The ‘enviably large’ bedroom and mezzanine Photograph: Sophia Evans/The Observer

The couple kept a part of the mezzanine, where their six grandchildren play and sometimes sleep, and refitted the bathroom underneath. They cleared the rest of the room to create an enviably large bedroom, with a new fireplace and furniture that complements the style of the era. The striking batik is by the painter and singer Thetis Blacker, a friend of Marius’s mother.

“Our existing furniture and pictures worked very well in this environment,” says Marius. “And we’ve designed the furniture we’ve built to be in keeping as much as possible with the original style.”

RAF men would have lain on their backs, looking up through the studio window for bombers

The house has two floors and a basement, where Marius works. The yellow wallpaper in the hall was designed by Veronica’s niece, fabric and wallpaper designer Neisha Crosland. “It brightens the hall up, as otherwise it’s a little bit gloomy,” says Marius.

As well as fitting shutters on the doors and acoustic seals on the windows, Marius and Veronica have found another solution to the traffic problem. They have turned their back on the busy road by building a new back entrance to the house, right next to Barons Court station.

“The back door is constantly in use; 95% of the coming and going takes place via that door,” says Marius. “Living this near to the station has revolutionised life in London. I used to drive my car every day, but the tube is so much more convenient.”

Room with a view: the ‘studio’ bedroom. Photograph: Sophia Evans/The Observer

While Marius sometimes uses the studio bedroom for painting, Veronica enjoys gardening and is getting used to the noise of the road.

“I like living here. We have fewer rooms than in our old house, but there’s an amazing feeling of space,” she says.

“It’s not what I intended to do at this age, but it has kind of worked out. This isn’t the first time we’ve taken on a wreck – we have never moved into anywhere where you could just boil the kettle and put your feet up.”

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