HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT
DRIVING east or west, in or out of London on the A4, it’s hard not to notice the imposing terrace of eight Renaissance revival houses on the south side of Talgarth Road. The steep stone steps leading up to each front door; the arresting brick façades with strap-work friezes and terracotta detailing; the impossibly tall, round-headed windows that project forward, looming large over the road. They look so out of place next to the streams of traffic, drivers white knuckled at steering wheels.
Of course, it wasn’t always like this. When the terrace was built in 1891, it looked out onto a (1888) is in Tate Britain’s collection. Years after Fairless sold the freeholds, non-artists started to move in, such as Dame Margot Fonteyn (1919–91), who used the space at number eight as a dance studio.
