Pre-Haslemere Peasant Houses

I do like snooping at other people's houses and I have been googling to look at the houses the key members of the Peasant Arts movement used to live in before they moved to Haslemere.  It is difficult to know whether road names or house numbers have changed since 1900, but hopefully I have been looking in the right places!

Joseph King
In 1881 King was living as the head of the household at Welford House, Hampstead.  There is a Welford House Residents Association registered at Arkwright Road, Hampstead NW3 6AA, so I was wondering if the house was on this road.  It no longer appears to be there, perhaps as a result of the heavy bombing of Hampstead during World War 2; there appears to be a number of high explosives and incendiary damage on Arkwright Road.  Welford House seems to now be a collection of new houses, however it presumably looked like one of the older houses on the road.

Typical Arkwright Road house, Hampstead, NW3 6AA

Welford House?  Hampstead

In 1891 Joseph King was living at 6 Wedderburn Road, married to Maude Egerton King.  The houses on both Arkwright and Wedderburn roads look quite substantial, and similar in design.

Typical Wedderburn Road house

Greville MacDonald

From 1867 the MacDonald's lived at The Retreat, now known as Kelmscott House, Hammersmith.  They sold the house to William Morris who renamed it and made it famous.  

The Retreat, childhood home of Greville MacDonald 1867- 1878

Drawing Room interior of Kelmscott House (formerly The Retreat) 1896,
when owned by William Morris,
Victoria and Albert Museum

Greville's father owned Casa Coraggio in Bordighera, Italy, and the family spent a lot of time there.  I understand that the house was a gift to George MacDonald from a fan. The Italian climate was thought to be beneficial for George's health and that of his children, tuberculosis killed four of Greville's siblings.

Interior of Casa Coraggio, by Irene MacDonald
from The George MacDonald Informational Web

Italian home of George MacDonald,
Casa Coraggio, Bordighera

Greville lived, and presumably operated his private practice also, at 85 Harley Street in the 1880s, and lived there until he moved to Haslemere in 1919.  In 1891 Greville's brother, Robert Falconer MacDonald, was also living with Greville and Phoebe.  He was the architect who designed the house St. George's Wood in Haslemere for his father, George MacDonald.  Greville had three servants, a cook, a housemaid and a professional nurse.  I do not understand the professional nurse being classed as a servant, was she a colleague of Greville's working for his practice?   Or maybe she was looking after Greville's wife Phoebe, who at around 1919 "lost her leg"(MacDonald, Greville, 1932, Reminiscences of a Specialist, London, George Allen and Unwin).

85 Harley Street,
home to Greville MacDonald until 1919

Maude Egerton King (nee Hine) & Ethel Blount (nee Hine)

The Hines were living at 26 Park Road, Hampstead in 1871.  I am not sure where this road is, perhaps it is the Park Road that runs alongside Regents Park from Baker Street.  This road continues as the A41 to St Johns Wood, Swiss Cottage and up to Finchley Road but it is renamed at several points.

In 1881 the family were living at 130 Haverstock Hill.  It looks like that house is no longer in existence, possibly bombed during World War 2 also.

Hine family residence 1881
Haverstock Hill, 130 on left?  Typical house on right

The Hine residence was close to nearby Arkwright Road and Wedderburn Road where Joseph King was living in 1881 and 1891 respectively, in 1891 with Maude Egerton King, his then wife.  As the Hine's had so many children, Maude as the youngest was in the unusual position of being just 2 years older than her niece Ellen Shenton (or Sheraton) who was also living at 6 Wedderburn Road with Maude and Joseph, and their two servants.

Nearby also in 1891 was Ethel.  Ethel Blount as she then was, was living with Godfrey Blount at 1 Church Row Mews, Hampstead.  I think this is now simply called Church Row, Hampstead Parish Church is on Church Row.  I wonder if the Blounts and the Kings visited the church?   In contrast to the others, Godfrey and Ethel had no servants living with them; they continued to be servantless in 1901 and 1911.

1 Church Row Mews?
Residence of Godfrey & Ethel Blount 1891

St-John-at-Hampstead, on Church Row, Hampstead

The proximity of the four different residences is highlighted in the map below.

Map of Hampstead highlighting the Kings, Blounts and Hines addresses

Godfrey Blount

Godfrey Blount's childhood house looks quite inferior in size and stature to those of the other Peasant Arts members.  He lived at 6 High Street, Bagshot.  According to the 1861 census there were 4 servants living here, including a governess, cook and a groom.  Including visitors, there were 13 people staying here in 1861, this makes me wonder how the photograph below can be the same address, as the house would have been overflowing.

6? High Street, Bagshot
home of Godfrey Blount 1861

High Street, Bagshot

I think these photographs show that the Kings, Greville MacDonald and the Blounts were all living in respectable houses prior to their move to Haslemere.  Joseph King, Greville MacDonald and the Hines houses were all quite substantial residences, and were members of a privileged class.  Godfrey Blount on the other hand appears to have been living in a much smaller residence but nonetheless a comfortable one.