Victorian illustrator Kate Greenaway's "bewitching" Hampstead artists' studio on sale for £1.85 million
The artist and writer lived at the house, which was designed for her by Richard Norman Shaw, for the last 16 years of her life
Kate Greenaway, a Victorian-era writer and artist, was successful enough in her own lifetime that she was able to commission the architect Richard Norman Shaw to build her a house with its own artists' studio in Frognal, Hampstead.
This same studio, which has been converted into a one bedroom apartment, is now on the market for £1.85 million with Love Living Hackney.
Shaw designed her studio to run along the top floor of the building, with windows and roof lights facing north east to capture as much natural light as possible.
Greenaway bought 39 Frognal in Hampstead in 1885 and commissioned Shaw, a pre-eminant 19th-century architect, to design her a four-bedroom house in the Queen Anne Revival style with red bricks and white sash windows.
“Her house, which stands with a few others on a delightfully open piece of ground at the foot of a hill, is the most bewitching of the Queen Ann [sic] mansions," wrote an article published in a 1892 edition of the Ladies Home Journal.
"One can see at once where Miss Greenaway received the inspiration for her quaint gabled houses."
Greenaway had popularised the Queen Anne style in her children's book illustrations, which often featured children in 18th-century garb with Regency-era bonnets, mobcaps, and frock-smocks for girls, and boys in skeleton suits — buttoned overalls worn by boys before they graduated to breeches.
Born to a working class family in Hoxton, Greenaway trained as an artist at the Slade and published many children's books in her lifetime.
A blue plaque on the side of the house was erected in 1949 and memorialises Greenaway as "1846-1901, Artist, lived & died here". The plaque has a special floral border so as to be in keeping with its setting and the artist it memorialises.
The rest of the Grade II listed house has been split into apartments, with the top-floor studio turned into its own separate property.
Access to the apartment is via a communal stairway, with an entrance lobby featuring original parquet floor and wooden balustrade.
The front door is found on the third floor lobby, which is painted in Farrow & Ball pink, said agents Love Living Hackney.
Its main living space occupies the original artists' studio, with high ceilings and original fireplaces, with a kitchen at one end with its own pantry cupboard.
A double bedroom features a walk-in wardrobe and has views of the London skyline.
Hampstead has always been popular with artists and writers. A house on Well Walk once lived in by the English Romantic painter John Constable is currently on the market for almost £5 million.
A medieval house once owned by the illustrator Quentin Blake is also currently on the market in Hastings for £950,000.
