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.

A Robert Buhler landscape of France from the Forties hangs in the hallway.

Alicia Taylor

‘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.

Alicia Taylor

Alicia Taylor