- Xavier Pick
-
Workshop 6
- The Royal Victoria
- Patriotic Building
- Fitzhugh Grove
- Trinity Road
- London
- SW18 3SX
- 0208 8123 780
By Car - Aim for Wandsworth Bridge, over the roundabout heading south, down Trinity Road. After second traffic lights take a left onto Fitzhugh Grove and follow the signs to Royal Victoria Patriotic Buildings. The Studio is situated in the first courtyard.
By Public Transport there are three options.
1- Northern Line tube to Tooting Bec then take the 219 bus along Trinity Road until it becomes a dual carriageway. Cross over to Fitzhugh Grove
2-Catch any train to Clapham Junction (from Waterloo station or Victoria for example) From there it is a short walk or you may catch the 219 up Trinity Road from outside the station.
3-Catch the train to Wandsworth Common and a pleasant walk diagonally accross Wandsworth Common will take you around the back of the building.
Furthermore if you are planning for a trip in the evening there is "le Gothique" an excellent French Restaurant and bar next door to the studio. Click on the link above to view a menu and book a table.
Built in 1857 with its foundation stone laid by Queen Victoria, the Royal Victoria Patriotic building is surely one of London's most fascinating buildings.Originally an orphanage for dependents of servicemen lost in the Crimean War, it has enjoyed an extremely colourful history. Strange noises and rattlings have been a constant feature of the gothic cloisters. They are apparently the work on one Charlotte Jane Bennett who perished in a fire in 1862 whilst locked in solitary confinement in the superintendents bathroom. A public inquiry was later told that although her screams echoed throughout the dormitories, the other girls were so frightened of their matron that they didn't dare to call for help. Temporary respite for the girls came when the building was requisitioned as London's third general hospital during the 1914-18 war. It was not until 1938 that the institution was finally closed down.But as one chapter ended, another more bizarre opened, for during the second world was the Royal Victoria Patriotic Building became home to the M.I.5. and the M.I.6. Used as a detention and interrogation centre, the building spawned cells underground and all manner of truth extracting apparatus. Rudolph Hess was amongst the reluctant guests who enjoyed its hospitality. In the fifties the building was bought by the London County Council for use as a school. But despite its Grade 2 listing, was allowed to fall to disrepair. The present re-birth with mixed use and residential occupancy is the result of an entrepreneur who persuaded the GLC to part with the building for the princely sum of one pound, provided that he undertook the total renovation at his own expense. Today 29 luxurious apartments and 25 studios and workshops along with a drama school and Le Gothique french restaurant occupy the former orphanage.
