A few years ago I was surprised to learn that for about thirteen years the English Romantic artist J. M. W. Turner had a modest country retreat in Twickenham.
Sandycombe Lodge
Born in April 1775 in Covent Garden, in 1807 aged 32 he purchased two plots of land in the area. Established by that time as a commercially successful young painter, Turner set about designing his rural retreat. The build started six years later. A keen architect, he said he would have pursued that career had he not become a painter.
The curmudgeonly artist sold it in 1826, reportedly having spent very little time there, (possibly driven away – or in part at least – by the same thing that Tennyson was to find intolerable 27 years later, (see Post 37)). Turner arranged for his retired Dad, with whom he had shared the house, to continue to enjoy a favourite pastime of tending the garden while he wandered Europe with his sketchbooks.
Racing forwards to just a few years ago, a hefty grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund of about £1.4m went towards a total of over £2m worth of restoration work in 2016-17, the aim being to return the building to the simpler, smaller one Turner knew. Work included removing extensions added in the Victorian era, and repair to the staircase and ceilings damaged by vibrations from heavy machinery wheeled in during WWII as the lodge served as a temporary small factory producing airmen's uniforms.
On completion of restoration the lodge was opened to the public.
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