The Chiswick School of Art, sometimes called the Chiswick School of Art and Science, was an art school in Bath Road, Bedford Park, London, from 1881 until 1899, which was then merged into the Acton and Chiswick Polytechnic. In 1928, it became the Chiswick Polytechnic.
The development of Bedford Park as a garden suburb was made possible by the creation of the District Line in 1869. The lead developer was Jonathan Carr, who in 1875 bought 24 acres (9.7 ha) of land just north of the new Turnham Green Station. The City of London was then thirty minutes away by steam train. [1]
The school was planned to help to give the new garden suburb a sense of community. The arts and crafts architect Maurice Bingham Adams was commissioned to design a School of Art building, which was completed on Bath Road in 1881, near the new Tabard Inn, Richard Norman Shaw's St Michael and All Angels Church, and a shop. [2]
The school was formally opened on Saturday, 19 November 1881, and this was followed by an evening party with the Conservative member of parliament Alexander Beresford Hope presiding. [3]
The new building was illustrated by Thomas Erat Harrison in a book of 1882 called Bedford Park. [2]
At the outset, the school taught "Freehand drawing in all its branches, practical Geometry and perspective, pottery and tile painting, design for decorative purposes – as in Wall-papers, Furniture, Metalwork, Stained Glass". [4]
By 1887, the name of the school had become the Chiswick School of Art and Science, and in November of that year new classes were announced in Chemistry, Steam, and Electricity. [5]
In 1899, the school was taken over by Middlesex County Council to become part of the new Acton and Chiswick Polytechnic. In 1928, the two branches of this were separated, so that the building in Bedford Park became the home of the Chiswick Polytechnic. [4]
The building was destroyed by a V-1 flying bomb in 1944, [6] but a new Chiswick Polytechnic rose from the ashes. In 1976, this was merged into the West London Institute of Higher Education. In the 1980s, the site was acquired by Arts Educational Schools. [7]
Students included Jack Butler Yeats, his sisters Elizabeth and Susan Yeats, [7] and Bruce Angrave. [8]
Jack Butler Yeats RHA was an Irish artist and Olympic medalist. W. B. Yeats was his brother.
Acton is a town and area in west London, England, within the London Borough of Ealing. It is 6.1 miles (10 km) west of Charing Cross.
Chiswick is a district of west London, England. It contains Hogarth's House, the former residence of the 18th-century English artist William Hogarth; Chiswick House, a neo-Palladian villa regarded as one of the finest in England; and Fuller's Brewery, London's largest and oldest brewery. In a meander of the River Thames used for competitive and recreational rowing, with several rowing clubs on the river bank, the finishing post for the Boat Race is just downstream of Chiswick Bridge.
The London Borough of Hounslow is a London borough in West London, England, forming part of Outer London. It was created in 1965 when three smaller borough councils amalgamated under the London Government Act 1963. It is governed by Hounslow London Borough Council.
Gunnersbury is an area of West London, England.
Elizabeth Corbet Yeats, known as Lolly, was an Anglo-Irish educator and publisher. She worked as an art teacher and published several books on art, and was a founder of Dun Emer Press which published several works by her brother W. B. Yeats. She was the first commercial printer in Ireland to work exclusively with hand presses.
Susan Mary Yeats, known as Lily Yeats, was an embroiderer associated with the Celtic Revival. In 1908 she founded the embroidery department of Cuala Industries, with which she was involved until its dissolution in 1931. She is known for her embroidered pictures.
Stamford Brook was a tributary of the Tideway stretch of the River Thames in west London supplied by three headwaters. Historically used as an irrigation ditch or dyke the network of small watercourses had four lower courses and mouths.
Arts Educational Schools, or ArtsEd, is an independent performing arts school based in Chiswick in the London Borough of Hounslow.
Bedford Park is a suburban development in Chiswick, London, begun in 1875 under the direction of Jonathan Carr, with many large houses in British Queen Anne Revival style by Norman Shaw and other leading Victorian era architects including Edward William Godwin, Edward John May, Henry Wilson, and Maurice Bingham Adams. Its architecture is characterised by red brick with an eclectic mixture of features, such as tile-hung walls, gables in varying shapes, balconies, bay windows, terracotta and rubbed brick decorations, pediments, elaborate chimneys, and balustrades painted white.
South Acton is an area in Acton, West London, 6.4 miles (10.3 km) west of Charing Cross. At the 2001 census, Acton, comprising the wards of East Acton, Acton Central, South Acton and Southfield, had a population of 53,689 people.
The Tabard Theatre is a small 96-seat theatre in Chiswick in the London Borough of Hounslow. Close to Turnham Green Underground station, it is situated above the Tabard public house on Bath Road. The Tabard Theatre was licensed and opened for theatre use in 1985. It was renamed as the Chiswick Playhouse in 2019 which closed in March 2022. It is reopening as the Tabard in September 2022.
Acton Green is a residential neighbourhood in Chiswick and the London Borough of Ealing, in West London, England. It is named for the nearby Acton Green common. It was once home to many small laundries and was accordingly known as "Soapsuds Island".
The block of three buildings containing The Tabard public house is a Grade II* listed structure in Chiswick, London. The block, with a row of seven gables in its roof, was designed by Norman Shaw in 1880 as part of the community focus of the Bedford Park garden suburb. The block contains the Bedford Park Stores, once a co-operative, and a house for the manager.
St Michael and All Angels is a Grade II* listed Church of England parish church in Bedford Park, Chiswick. It was designed by the architect Norman Shaw, who built some of the houses in that area. The church was consecrated in 1880. It is constructed in what has been described both as British Queen Anne Revival style and as Perpendicular Gothic style modified with English domestic features. Its services are Anglo-Catholic.
Maurice Bingham Adams FRIBA (1849–1933) was a British architect in the Arts and Crafts style.
Bruce Angrave was an English illustrator and poster artist. He designed many posters for the large railway companies, as well as posters and cartoons for Ministry of Information during World War II.
Berry Francis Berry was an English painter and book illustrator. He was born in Barrow Hill, St John's Wood, London, to George Berry and Ann Woods. On 24 June 1880 he married Amy Palmer Goodall in Fulham, London; they moved to Chiswick and had four children. In 1895 he was principal of "The Berry Art School" at 86 Fellows Road, Swiss Cottage, offering tuition in drawing and painting, the main element being life drawing. Landscape classes were offered in summer. Berry illustrated F. A. S. Reid's 1881 children's book Comic Insects, published by Frederick Warne. He contributed a painting to an 1882 book Bedford Park, celebrating the then-fashionable garden suburb of that name. He died in 1926 in South Hampstead, London.
The architecture of Bedford Park in Chiswick, West London, is characterised largely by Queen Anne Revival style, meaning an eclectic mixture of English and Flemish house styles from the 17th and 18th centuries, with elements of many other styles featuring in some of the buildings.
Enwrought Light is a sculpture in Bedford Park, London. It was sculpted by Conrad Shawcross and commemorates the poet W. B. Yeats who was a resident of the area for many years. It was unveiled on 6 September 2022 by Rowan Williams, the former Archbishop of Canterbury. The sculpture stands on Bath Rd and The Avenue, outside St Michael & All Angels Church at the corner of The Avenue and Bath Road.