Hampton Wick Artists

Hampton Wick was home to a thriving art group

This artgroup was active from about 1900 to 1939. Most of the studios were in Lower Teddington Road. Principal artists were:-

William Spencer Bagdatopoulos

Katie Blackmore, R.B.A.

Lucy Millett

Enoch Ward, R.B.A.

Hampton Wick is a village in the south-west corner of London, England. It is just across the River Thames from Kingston-Upon-Thames, a major suburb of London and the town where seven Saxon Kings of England were crowned. Hampton Wick is in the London Borough of Richmond.

several notable artists lived and worked in the village.

The first of these artists was Lucy Millett, a long time resident who taught art at the South London Art School. Her studio was in Lower Teddington Road and art activities seemed to revolve around her. In 1906, she formed the Thames Valley Art Club, which is still going strong and holding annual exhibitions.

William Spencer Bagdatopoulos now has a world-wide reputation.

He was born on the island of Zante, in Greece and grew up in Rotterdam, studying art there. Before the First World War, he came to London, living for some years at Hampton Wick, near to Lucy Millett's studio. While there he constructed a stained-glass window which can still be seen, though recently damaged (2009). This house had been the home of writer R.D. Blackmore, back in the 1860s.

William Bagdetopoulos did commercial art work in india.

He is best remembered for his commercial art. He emigrated to the USA, living in Santa Barbara, California, from the 1930s to the 1950s. He exhibited extensively, indeed, his works were shown by The Smithsonian Institution, which holds some of his work. Bagdatopoulos returned to England around 1958 and is said to have died in Cornwall.

Enoch Ward, R.B.A. lived at Walnut Tree House.

He came to Hampton Wick in 1920, but died two years later. His studio was a converted coach-house and can still be seen. He was noted as a social-realist, sketching the poor at work. He submitted thousands of sketches to magazines of the time, such as 'Pall-Mall' and 'Black-And-White'. He was on the staff of art magazines and edited them.

Katie Blackmore R.B.A. had various studios in the district

Katie also travelled to Northern Italy, where she did landscape paintings, in pastels, at Alassio. Katie Blackmore's exhibits included four at the Royal Academy, ninety-nine at the Royal Society Of British Artists and seven at The Society Of Women Artists. Her agents, Carfax, of St James', showed thirty-five. They also handled Gwen John's works, allowing comparisons to be made. Katie Blackmore was a follower of the Glasgow Girls group of painters, doing figurative work in their symbolist and imaginative style.

Albert van Hoorn was a lesser known artist

Albert arrived around 1910 under the patronage of Lord James Harberton. His works included popular songs, music-hall and cinema performances, and portrait-painting. He was involved in setting up and running the 'Crystal Films' movie studio, which can still be seen behind the shops in the high street. The studio was used by 'Master Films' production company, for about two years from 1915. In 1918, they moved to Weir House, Teddington Lock, which later became ITV. Albert van Hoorn invented the rotary clothes-airer, which was marketed, in Australia, under his Doravan trade name.

'Crystal Films' was part of the loose conglomeration now fancifully known as 'Hollywood-On-Thames'. The other studios were: Hepworth, Pavilion, Climax, Regency, Weir House, EC-KO, Homeland, Phoenix, Marble Hill, London, Samuelson, Kinecolor (American, hence the spelling), Clark Labs and Broadwest. Some of these were quite near the Thames, though 'Pavilion', was near Sandown Race Course, 'Regency' was near to Surbiton Lawn Tennis Club, at the top of Surbiton Hill and 'Clark Labs' was at Hounslow, towards London Airport. 'Kinecolor' was stated to be in Bushy Park, Teddington. 'Samuelson' was at Isleworth, and, though it seems impossible, Humphrey Bogart made 'The African Queen' there, in later years.

A literary connection - R. C. Sherriff, writer of "Journey's End", lived in the white house at the village end of Seymour Road. He wrote the screenplay for "The Dambusters".