An art-filled Kensington house with a bohemian history
Inside a high-ceilinged 1860s house in west London, there is a remarkable and intensely personal collection of twentieth-century paintings - interiors, landscapes and abstracts, which have been assembled over the past 37 years by its owners Linda and David Heathcoat-Amory. It includes works by Laura Knight, Cedric Morris, William Nicholson, Joan Eardley, Anthony Fry, Frank O Salisbury and James Reeve. There are also many portraits of their children by Don Bachardy, Maggi Hambling and Linda, who is a painter. An alumnus of Camberwell College of Arts and the Royal College of Art, she worked as a paper restorer before taking up her brush again.
'We bought this house in 1978 in the most fortuitous way,' says Linda. 'We were looking to buy and the decorator Melissa Wyndham, a great friend, bumped into the artist Howard Hodgkin in the street. He was flustered, he explained, as he couldn't sell his house. It was run down and uncared for, lived in by his family and various artists on different floors - including Patrick Caulfield and Mick Moon - and his studio was in the attic.
'It was both a wreck and a jewel,' continues Linda. 'Chaotic, with damp patches on the walls and improvised kitchens on various floors, but also totally unmodernised.' With its lovely proportions and original cornices, its stained-glass windows and large attic studio, it was difficult to resist, especially as Linda already knew it: during her year at Byam Shaw School of Art, her student group had been taken there to see Howard at work. It also had a greenhouse at the back, leading to a leafy garden - perfect for Linda, who is a passionate gardener and loves potting and taking cuttings. She and her husband looked round it and decided to buy it the next day.
It was a daunting undertaking. Once the building work was finished, they moved in and camped in three rooms. Linda started furnishing the house and simultaneously set up her own business in the studio, restoring works on paper, soaking and mending delicate contemporary pieces by Jim Dine, David Hockney and others for the Petersburg Press. Later, changing tack, she took up painting: of the interiors of people's houses, of artists at work in their studios, landscapes and portraits. It was at this point that David and Linda tentatively started collecting paintings, veering towards subject matter that she was tackling herself. The house was large and empty, but they gradually accumulated what was needed, purchasing mostly from Ann Gore in Barnes, who guided them over many years. Decorating the house was more of a problem. 'I am not very interested in decoration,' Linda admits. 'I like moving rugs around, but find it difficult to know what goes with what.' Luckily, Melissa was there to advise. Linda says, 'Our house is more about our collection of paintings, furniture and objects than it is about decoration, although I have to admit, I am slightly ashamed of my attachment to them.
As you enter the house, the light-filled hall leads you towards the back door into the greenhouse and on towards the garden. A Robert Buhler landscape of France from the Forties hangs against a Nina Campbell wallpaper. On the left is David's library, with a chunky Victorian desk and a naive painting of a sailing boat by the Spanish artist Ramiro Fernández Saus above it; the double-handled vessels underneath are from Ardgowan Antiques. The desk stands on a modern rug designed by Linda - inspired by Paul Klee and Navajo tribal rugs.
The mood changes next door. In the orange drawing room, with its magnificent Agra carpet, hangs a monumental wartime painting by Laura Knight, depicting the construction of the first-ever concrete railway sleeper. 'I adore this painting because it represents an extraordinary moment in history,' explains Linda. 'I think it's her great masterpiece and should really be in the Imperial War Museum.' The Regency sofa covered in a Colefax and Fowler fabric has a student painting above it by Andrew Gadd; it is framed by a cluster of smaller oils and watercolours. By the window, two Swedish Arts and Crafts pots sit above a nineteenth-century American desk by cabinetmakers J & J W Meeks.
The basement dining room has a soft green William Morris wallpaper that plays engagingly with the semi-abstract seashore by Scottish artist Joan Eardley, from her Catterline period, which is above the chimneypiece. A modern pottery piece stands in the middle. The Gothic Revival dining chairs are part of an original set of 48 that belonged to the Earl of Derby; Linda bought 12 from Geoffrey Bennison and had them restored and covered with horse hair. The bedroom on the first floor is a graceful high-ceilinged cube. To the left of the four-poster bed hangs a Pissarro drawing; the painted pale-blue and white stripes on the walls were inspired by the photographer Derry Moore's house
Both Linda's collection and her career are works in progress. In her studio, where she often senses the presence of Howard Hodgkin, her thoughts have been turning to her next show. 'My last one was with Jonathan Clark in Fulham,' she says. 'The next one is going to be quite different: a dozen big paintings and some drawings.' And the Heathcoat-Amory collection of paintings will continue to grow. Linda's fascination with the painted canvas is deeply engrained - meaning that new acquisitions will adorn the walls for many years to come.
Alicia Taylor1/11Artwork in the drawing room includes a student painting by Andrew Gadd; under it is a Regency sofa, with a pair of ikat cushions from Yastik by Rifat Ösbek.
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Alicia Taylor3/11William Morris 'Willow' wallpaper enlivens the basement dining room.
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Alicia Taylor5/11Blue-and-white striped walls in the main bedroom were inspired by Derry Moore's house.
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Alicia Taylor7/11Sketches and works in progress fill Linda's attic studio.
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