Former Home Of Artist Lucien Pissarro To Be Restored

Grade II listed building in Stamford Brook has a wealthy new owner

A major renovation and restoration is planned for the former home of artist Lucien Pissarro, believed to be backed by a new owner who is a wealthy investment banker.

The Brook is a five-bedroom 18th century Grade II Listed house in the Stamford Brook Conservation Area, and was put on the market for the first time in 116 years last year with an asking price of £2.5 million. Finlay Brewer handled the sale.

The property was still in the ownership of Lucien Pissarro's descendants years after the artist’s death in 1944.

The house requires substantial works to brickwork, windows and woodwork, as well as to the roof. A great deal of work to the interior is also proposed and an application to Hounslow Council has been made in the name of Mr. Urquhart Stewart, a wealthy investment banker who is a regular television pundit with an address in Hammersmith.

The applicant says that the proposed restoration, repair and alterations will create an improved high quality environment
within the Listed Building. There will be no loss to any part of the existing fabric, and it will make a significant contribution to the historic asset.

The Brook as built in 1760 at a time when Stamford Brook and the surrounding areas were made up of market gardens and orchards. It was one of the first four houses to be constructed overlooking the common, of which now only The Brook and nearby Stamford Brook House remain.

In 1901 Lucien Pissarro, (son of Camille Pissarro, painter of the French Impressionist school) and his wife Esther, took the lease on The Brook for 21 years; the house was in a very poor state having been left to deteriorate in anticipation of demolition and the construction of flats on the
site. Much work was required to bring it to a habitable condition.

The old stable building (now a part of 27A Stamford Brook Road) was converted into Lucien
Pissarro’s studio. A smaller workroom was provided to the rear of the kitchen in the scullery
wing. In Pissarro's lifetime, he worked with contemporaries such as Paul Signac and Vincent Van Gogh, who dedicated his 1887 painting, Basket of Apples, to Pissarro.

He created many artworks here, including The Brook, Sunny Weather. Pissarro was also an engraver and publisher and he founded the Eragny Press in 1894. A separate building was constructed to house the printing press, which still sits next to the property but is now part of the neighbour’s land.

Lucien Pissarro developed his type face ‘The Brook’ whilst living in the house, and some
paintings of The Brook at this time survive. The Pissarros purchased the house in 1919. It was occasionally let out over the following years while they spent time in France and in their South London House, and in the countryside. In the 1930s they converted the studio in the old stables into a separate flat.

The Pissarros moved to the country in 1939; Lucien died in 1944, and Esther returned to The
Brook; she died in 1951. The same year The Brook was Listed Grade II. Esther’s niece, Dr B
Shovron, inherited the house in 1952; central heating was installed, and internal alterations were carried out.

Commemorated with a blue plaque in 1976 to mark the life and work of Pissarro, the 2,800 sq ft home is arranged over two floors with a double reception room, study, two bathrooms, utility/shower room and open-plan kitchen, breakfast and dining room.

April 20, 2019