14 SOUTH PARADE.
Bedford Park
London.
1891
For Joseph Wilson Forster (portrait artist).
New wing on the left by Voysey in 1894.
According to Nikolaus Pevsner, the house is amazingly independent, considering the date, 1891. The arrangement of the windows is particularly striking. But whereas this kind of free grouping also prevails in the work of Norman Shaw and his school, the whiteness of the walls was an open protest against the surrounding red brick of Shaw's garden suburb. The tower-like tallness of the house also and the skipping rhythm of bare walls and horizontal window openings were innovations introduced deliberatly and not without a youthful sense of mischief. (Nikolaus Pevsner, Pioneers of Modern Design).
Brandon-Jones has pointed out that the original designs of the Forster
house (drawn in 1888)
were anything but way out. (David Gebhard)
See image at the bottom of this page.
14 South Parade, Bedford Park, copyright: Peter Marshall 1987
.jpg)
14 South Parade, Bedford Park, copyright: Peter Marshall 1987
14 South Parade, Chiswick, photo courtesy of John Trotter
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14 South Parade, Chiswick, photo courtesy of John Trotter
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14 South Parade, Chiswick, photo courtesy of John Trotter
Bedford Park, photo by Elena Antonietta on flickr
Photo by Jamie Barras on Flickr
Photo by John Milgram on pinterest
Photo on paradisebackyard.blogspot.de
Photo by Julian Osley, geograph.org.uk
Studio window,
Photo by Charles Holland on
fantasticjournal.blogspot.de
,%20photo%20courtesy%20of%20John%20Trotter.jpg)
14 South Parade, Chiswick photo courtesy of John Trotter
,%20photo%20courtesy%20of%20John%20Trotter.jpg)
14 South Parade, Chiswick, photo courtesy of John Trotter
,%20photo%20courtesy%20of%20John%20Trotter.jpg)
14 South Parade, Chiswick, photo courtesy of John Trotter
Contemporary photograph,
RIBA Photographs Collection
Bedford Park.
Image published in The Studio,
International Art Magazine, 1897.
Elevations and Floor Plans published
in John Brandon-Jones, C.F.A. Voysey,
and
published in Peter Ferriday, Victorian Architecture, London 1963, p.
278.
Floor plans published in The British Architect, 18th September 1891.
Elevation published in The British Architect, 18th September 1891.
Elevation published in The British Architect, 18th September 1891.
14 South Parade drawn by David Wrightson, 1988,
Back cover of The Orchard, Number Ten, Autumn
2021.
>
Photo of the Studio window from inside by David
Wrightson, 2021,
on the front cover of The Orchard, Number
Ten, 2021.
Fireplace published in The British Architect, 18th September 1891.
Corbel of bedroom chimney piece,
published in The British Architect, 18th September
1891.
Text from The British Architect, 18th September 1891, p.209.
Sketch by T. Raffles Davison.
Published
in Duncan
Simpson, CFA Voysey an architect of individuality, London 1979, fig.6,
and published in
The British Architect, 18th September
1891.
Photographs and Drawings Courtesy of The Royal Institute
of British Architects.
Photographs, drawings, perspectives and other design
patterns
at the Royal Institut of British Architects Drawings and
Photographs Collection.
Images can be purchased.
The RIBA can supply you with conventional photographic or
digital copies
of any of the images featured in
RIBApix.
Link >
RIBA Drawings Collection: all Voysey
Images
Link > www.victorianweb.org
Pevsner's London 3: North West (with Bridget Cherry, 1991) says in Chiswick: Perambulation 4: Bedford Park. In SOUTH PARADE:
The No 14 of 1891 by CFA Voysey for the artist J W Forster, a tower house, with the large studio occupying the whole of the top floor in the tradition of urban studio houses (cf. Tite Street Chelsea, KC). It was one of Voysey's first houses, designed evidently in conscious opposition to the red brick cosiness of the suburb. It is roughcast and shows proudly its bare grey walls and robust (originally unpainted) stone dressings around the metal frames of the horizontal windows. The far-projecting eaves are carried on elegant thin iron brackets. Voysey added the lower side wing in 1894.
Description
on Historic England
SOUTH PARADE 1. 5010 W4 No 14 TQ 2078 8/6 2.2.70 II* 2. 1889-91 by C F A Voysey. Added lower wing of 1894, also Voysey. Later altered by insertion of garage doors. This is one of Voysey's first houses, designed evidently in conscious opposition to the red brick cosiness of the surroundings. It is roughcast and shows proudly its bare grey walls and the robust stone dressings of the horizontal windows. The far projecting eaves are carried on elegant thin iron brackets. Three storeys with later 2 storey wing to left. Multi light leaded casement windows. Two storeyed bay with tented roof. Of greatest historical importance. Built for artist J W Forster.
Commentary from the 1897 Studio
Perhaps the best known of all this architect's work is An Artist's Cottage at Bedford Park, a white house in the very centre of the red-brick revival, a "cottage" of three storeys, that contains a studio 31 ft. by 17 ft., and a parlour 17 ft. 6 in. by 14 ft., with three bedrooms and the usual offices. The contract price for this was £494 105., a price that takes one's breath away, and tempts one to believe that if the site were obtained it would be economic as well as delightful to quit one's present tenancy, and employ Mr. Voysey to design another for one's own needs. It is amusing to read that it was found necessary, in order to prevent the builder from displaying the usual "ovolo mouldings," "stop chamfers," fillets, and the like, to prepare eighteen sheets of contract drawings to show where his beloved ornamentation was to be omitted. Plus topsy-turvy proceeding is delightfully suggestive of the entirely mechanical adornment in general use which is so thoroughly a part of the routine that great pains have to be taken to prevent the work men from unconscious "decoration," according their wonted habit. . . . But the value of Mr. Voysey's art is not in the use of any material, or on any mannerism, but in his evident effort to seek first the utilitarian qualities of strength and fitness, and to obtain beauty by common honesty. This separates it at once from the spurious honesty which ultra-Gothic designers made ridiculous; or from an affectation of clumsy simplicity which defeats its purpose. In these houses illustrated you can discover that it is neither Gothic nor Classic architecture which Mr. Voysey practises, but house building pure and simple, The habit of making pretty pictures, to be carried out in all available materials, regardless of cost and, often enough, of good taste also, has not attracted him, as it failed to attract the other men of his profession who have regained a lost position for English domestic architecture.
Text published in David Gebhard, Charles F. A. Voysey Architect,
Hennessey & Ingalls, Los Angeles 1975. (10 MB)
"Charles F. A. Voysey: An Introduction to the Architect and his Work", p.22.
References:
Wendy Hitchmough, CFA VOYSEY, London 1995 pp. 36-9.
The British Architect,
XXXVI,
September1891, pp. 209-210.
The Builder's Journal &
Architectural Record, IV, 1896, p. 68.
The Studio, XI, 1897, pp. 20 & 25.
Architectural Association Journal, LXXII, 1957, pp. 249-251.
David Gebhard, Charles F. A. Voysey Architect,
Hennessey & Ingalls, Los Angeles 1975.
(10 MB)
"Charles
F. A. Voysey: An Introduction to the Architect and his Work", p. 22.
Budworth, D., '14 South Parade: the addition and the client', The Orchard (no.2, 2013), pp. 63-5.
Butlin, G., 'C.F.A. Voysey’s tower house on South Parade', Bedford Park journal (Autumn/Winter 2021), pp.14-5.
Prof. Ian Hamerton, 'Small Houses of Artistic
Pretensions' - C F A Voysey's studio designs for artistic clients,
The Orchard
(no.10, 2021), pp.11-12.
Norman Shaw's houses:
Bedford Park, set by Steve Cadman on Flickr
R. Norman Shaw, set by Steve Cadman on Flickr
Bedford Park: R. Norman Shaw and others, photos by Jamie Barras on Flickr
Hempstead Garden Suburb Trust: Temple Fortune Lane - Willifield Way.pdf
_______________________________________
Previous designs by Voysey.
Brandon-Jones has pointed out that the original
designs of the Forster house (drawn in 1888)
were anything but way out.
(David Gebhard)
1888, House at Bedford Park, unexecuted design for Mrs Forster.
Link > RIBA Drawings Collection: Front elevation.
.jpg)
Link >
RIBA Drawings Collection:
Ground, bedroom and studio floor plans.
_______________________________________
1889, unexecuted design for a Tower
House, Streatham Hill.
RIBA Drawings Collection.
1889, unexecuted design
for a Tower House.
Image by Voysey Society on picuki.com.
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