Conservation and remodelling of G F and Mary Watts Studio

Following the conservation and remodelling of Watts Gallery, the Watts Gallery Trust successfully bought Limnerslease, the former home of Victorian artist G F and Mary Watts. The Grade II Listed Victorian home was built in 1891 in the Arts and Crafts style. 

An HLF grant was awarded to provide public access to their historic workspaces, recreating G F Watts’ studio, providing new galleries for Mary’s design work and new learning and craft studios and an art conservation workshop.

Working alongside architects ZMMA, ACA provided structural engineering for a carefully detailed timber framed extension together with sensitive alterations and repairs to the existing building. This also involved introduction of services and a lift.

A key feature in the building is Frederic Watts Studio. Here his unfinished painting ‘The Court of Death’ is supported on a two-storey high easel. This allowed the painting to be lowered through a slot in the floor enabling work on the top of the canvas. Reinstating these important details formed part of the structural design.

Client
Watts Gallery Trust

Architect

ZMMA

Value

£1.4m supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund

Photography

ZMMA

Tags

Public, Historic, Education