8 Melbury Road is a large detached house at the

Holland Park Holland Park is an area of Kensington, on the western edge of Central London, that contains a street and public park of the same name. It has no official boundaries but is roughly bounded by Kensington High Street to the south, Holland Road ...

district of Kensington and Chelsea, W14. Built in the Queen Anne style by the architect

Richard Norman Shaw Richard Norman Shaw RA (7 May 1831 – 17 November 1912), also known as Norman Shaw, was a British architect who worked from the 1870s to the 1900s, known for his country houses and for commercial buildings. He is considered to be among the g ...

, it is a

Grade II* In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

listed building. It was commissioned by the painter

Marcus Stone Marcus Stone (4 July 1840 – 24 March 1921) was an English painter. Stone was born in London, and was educated at the Royal Academy. Life Marcus Clayton Stone was the son of Frank Stone ARA. Marcus was trained by his father and began to ...

as a "studio-home" for himself. The house was designed by architect

in the Queen Anne style. Shaw was well acquainted with members of the art establishment, being friends with

Dante Gabriel Rossetti Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti (12 May 1828 – 9 April 1882), generally known as Dante Gabriel Rossetti (), was an English poet, illustrator, painter, translator and member of the Rossetti family. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhoo ...

William Morris William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He ...

and

Philip Webb Philip Speakman Webb (12 January 1831 – 17 April 1915) was a British architect and designer sometimes called the Father of Arts and Crafts Architecture. His use of vernacular architecture demonstrated his commitment to "the art of common ...

.Dakers 1999, p. 157. The choice by Fildes and Stone of Richard Norman Shaw as the architect of their houses was an important symbol of their ambition to become academicians, members of the

Royal Academy of Arts The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its purpo ...

, and of the art establishment themselves.Dakers 1999, p. 158. The imposing houses and studios that Shaw designed would impress potential patrons. The house is next to the home of

George Frederick Watts George Frederic Watts (23 February 1817, in London – 1 July 1904) was a British painter and sculptor associated with the Symbolist movement. He said "I paint ideas, not things." Watts became famous in his lifetime for his allegorical wor ...

, and backs on to the garden of the

Leighton House Museum The Leighton House Museum is an art museum in the Holland Park area of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in west London. The building was the London home of painter Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton (1830–1896), who commi ...

, the former "studio-home" of

Frederic, Lord Leighton Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton, (3 December 1830 – 25 January 1896), known as Sir Frederic Leighton between 1878 and 1896, was a British painter, draughtsman, and sculptor. His works depicted historical, biblical, and classical subjec ...

. Stone's studio occupied the whole of the first floor of the house. The house is now separated into flats. Following Stone's death the house was occupied by artist Percyval Tudor-Hart. The film director

Michael Powell Michael Latham Powell (30 September 1905 – 19 February 1990) was an English filmmaker, celebrated for his partnership with Emeric Pressburger. Through their production company The Archers, they together wrote, produced and directed a serie ...

lived at the house from 1951 to 1971 and shot parts of his controversial 1960 film ''

Peeping Tom Lady Godiva (; died between 1066 and 1086), in Old English , was a late Anglo-Saxon noblewoman who is relatively well documented as the wife of Leofric, Earl of Mercia, and a patron of various churches and monasteries. Today, she is mainly reme ...

'' at the house. It was the first of two houses in Melbury Road designed by Shaw, the second,

Woodland House Woodland House is a large detached house at 31 Melbury Road in the Holland Park district of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England. Built from 1875 to 1877 in the Queen Anne style by the architect Richard Norman Shaw, it is a Grade II* li ...

, 11 Melbury Road (now 31), was designed for fellow painter

Luke Fildes __NOTOC__ Sir Samuel Luke Fildes (3 October 1843 – 28 February 1927) was a British painter and illustrator born in Liverpool and trained at the South Kensington and Royal Academy Schools. He was the grandson of the political activist Mar ...

. Fildes and Stone were artistic rivals and each naturally regarded their own Shaw-designed house as superior. Luke Fildes wrote of his house that it was "a long way the most superior house of the whole lot; I consider it knocks Stone's to fits, though of course he wouldn't have that by what I hear he says of his, but my opinion is the universal one." Stone moved into 8 Melbury Road with his wife, Laura Broun, the daughter of a merchant.''StoneODNB''. Stone and Luke Fildes were the first two artists to build studio-houses in Melbury Road. In 1994

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

commemorated Stone with a

blue plaque A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom and elsewhere to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving as a historical marker. The term i ...

at 8 Melbury Road. A green plaque placed by the Directors Guild of Great Britain on the house commemorates Michael Powell.

Notes

References

*Dakers, Caroline. (1999) ''The Holland Park Circle: Artists and Victorian Society''

Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day, and became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and operationally autonomous. , Yale Universi ...

*{{ODNBweb, first=Pamela, last=Fletcher, id=101036, title=Stone, Marcus Clayton; cited as "StoneODNB" Artists' studios in London Houses completed in 1875 Grade II* listed buildings in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Grade II* listed houses in London Houses in Holland Park Queen Anne Revival architecture in the United Kingdom Richard Norman Shaw buildings