At Anna Maria Garthwaite’s House
Anna Maria Garthwaite, the most celebrated texile designer of the eighteenth century, bought this house in Spitalfields when she was forty years old in 1728, just five years after it was built. Its purchase reflected the success she had already achieved but, living here at the very heart of the silk industry, she produced over one thousand patterns for damasks and brocades during the next thirty-five years.
The first owner of the house was a glover who used the ground floor as a shop with customers entering through the door upon the right, while the door on the left gave access to the rooms above where the family lived. For Anna Maria Garthwaite, the ground floor may also have been used to receive clients who would be led up to the first floor where commissions could be discussed and deals done. The corner room on the second floor receives the best light, uninterrupted by the surrounding buildings, and this is likely to have been the workroom, most suited to the creation of her superlative designs painted in watercolours – of which nearly nine hundred are preserved today at the Victoria & Albert Museum.
Anna Maria Garthwaite contrived an enormous variety of sprigged patterns each with different permutations of naturalistically rendered flowers, both cultivated and wild species. Yet equally, her work demonstrates a full understanding of the technical process of silk weaving, conjuring designs that make elegant employment of the possibilities of the medium and the talents of skilled weavers. Many of her designs are labelled with the names of the weavers to whom they were sold and annotated with precise instructions, revealing the depth of her insight into the method as well as offering assistance to those whose job it was to realise her work. She was credited by Malachi Postlethwayt in The Universal Dictionary of Trade and Commerce of 1751 as the one who “introduced the Principles of Painting into the loom.”
Born in Grantham, Lincolnshire, Garthwaite moved to York with her twice-widowed sister Mary in 1726, coming to down to London two years later – and it is tempting to imagine that the pair became a familiar sight, taking long walks eastwards from the newly built-up streets into the fields beyond, where they collected wild flowers to serve as inspiration for botanically-accurate designs.
In spite of its commanding corner position at the junction of Wilkes St and Princelet St (known as Princes St in Anna Maria Garthwaite’s time), this is a modest dwelling – just one room deep – and, nearly three centuries later, it retains the atmosphere of a domestic working environment. In common with many of the surrounding properties, the house bears witness to the waves of migration that have defined Spitalfields through the centuries, subdivided for Jewish residents in the nineteenth century – the Goldsteins, the Venicoffs, the Marks, the Hellers, who were superseded by Bengalis in the sixties and seventies, until restoration in 1985 revealed the interiors and unified the spaces again.
Apart from wear and tear of centuries, and the stucco rendering on the exterior from 1860, Anna Maria Garthwaite would recognise her old house as almost unchanged if she were to return today.
Christ Church seen through an old glass pane from Anna Maria’s Garthwaite’s workroom.
There will be an opportunity to visit Anna Maria Garthwaite’s House on Tuesday 16th April, further details and tickets from the Huguenots of Spitalfields Festival
You may also like to read more about Spitalfields silk
What a gorgeous, lovely, gracious, and HOMEY home! The love shines through.
what a stunningly beautiful house! that would be my absolute dream house. is it possible to visit it some other days as I won`t be in london in april?
Very interesting and a trip to the V&A is needed to find out more and see her work.
Thank goodness someone has preserved this beautiful house for our modern eyes. The cat looks like a ghost from the past waiting for her mistress to return home. Thank you for a very beautiful post and an excellent history lesson.
Debs
Really looking forward to the V&A Clothworkers Centre opening up at Blythe House, Kensington Olympia later this year.
http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/t/textile-study-rooms,-95-100-and-the-clothworkers-centre/
This means that it should be easier to get to see the Garthwaite designs up close – even if you will have to make an appointment. It’s been a long two years for many people since the Textile Study Rooms closed down at the V&A.
I always look at photos of houses like this and wonder where all the accumulated domestic stuff we all collect is!
Best wishes,
Joan
How I wish this was my home, it is beautiful in its simplicity.
A particularly interesting post for me, as I have lived so much of my life in areas where textiles of one sort or another were important, and now are no longer: in particular Yorkshire and the Pays d’Olmes, France. So glad this lovely home and its history is being preserved
How beautiful! – thank you.
What a lovely house.Wonder who the J.C.Cornwell was,( maybe a distant relative!)
Beautiful house, so evocative of the past and completely timeless.
What a lovely house, very tranquil and homely. I was lucky enought to get to Spitalfields on my visit to London last week – have to say, so much redevelopment has taken place since I worked there about 13 year ago that I did not recognise parts of her. I even nearly walked past the SPAB’s offices, despite the fact I had worked there for a while and my husband had to point them out as we were passing. However, it was late at night and dark!
Still, it was worth it for memories (plus the brick Lane curry and the Beigel Bake ) – but next time I’ll be back in daylight and hopefully I won’t have to leave it another 10 years like this visit.
so beautiful to see the old paint and finishes, the old floor, the perfume on the mantel, the pictures of the children, the beautiful leaves climbing the — candelabrum, was it? to think there were wildflower fields nearby. such a privilege to be invited inside, thank you.
It is interesting to see one of the old china counterpoise weights on the lit light over the table with the bowl of fruit.
These weights were in common use when electric lighting came into use in the 1920’s/30’s.
They consisted of a china pot with a screw lid to which was fitted to a pulley through which the light flex passed, the flex then went over a higher pulley, the pot was filled with lead shot to counter the weight of the light so that the light could be raised or lowered at a touch. They were widely used over work benches at the time.
Gary
Dear Gentle Author,
I recently discovered this site and am thoroughly enjoying it. I feel such gratitude to
you for work you do to keep us informed….. and inspired! I love Spitalfields! And
hope to visit one day.
Winona Stewart
Carmel, CA USA
My ancestors were silk weavers in Spitalfields, and Bethnal Green in the 1800s. The family belief was that they were Huguenots, but I have never been able to prove this. I don’t think any of them lived in a house like this, though!
I am trying to trace the link between Anna Maria Garthwaite and my husband’s family. Having gone to Christ Church in Spitalfields yesterday to try to find her grave I discovered that within about 15 years of her burial there in 1763 the graveyard was converted to a pleasure garden. Does anyone have any information about where the graves were relocated to please?
Will the house at 2, Princelet Street be open again in the near future? I would love to visit. Thank you.
Facinating,I will re visit again and again I am sure.I love the way the old paint finishes were kept on some walls.The render on the ground floor elevation is missing in parts,would this be a later edition to the house Ann knew? Here on the Island Medina Mortar was made,Osborne House was covered in this and after many attemps to match the colour it was decided to paint instead.
I did what I normally do for houses for sale in France,Google Earth and have a walk around.What is going to happen to the next house ,painted pink,in Princelet Street? The shutters are all still there on the ground floor but the box sash are gone on the floors above,does this indicate the interiors have gone as well?
This is so beautiful… Just what we people who love England from afar, (the US) would like to think all English housed look like.
Re Sarah Garthwaite – have you found what you were looking for yet?
If not, I may have some suggestions.
This is wonderful! I’m writing an article that includes attention to Anna Maria Garthwaite. You include some info here that’s new for me. Thanks very much.
Delighted to see the pictures of the house. My wifes ancestor Pierre Campart produced silk used by Anna MG and we guess his house probably looked much the same. We hope to get to see it and perhaps establish more links with the Camparts
Enjoyed this page. Recently finished “Black Berry and Wild Rose” by Sonia Velton, first book of fiction, about the silk weavers of Spitalfield and the Huguenot community of the 18th century. Many of my ancestors were French/Dutch Huguenots weavers and in the cloth trade and fled to England in the mid 1550s so this was a nice addition on information. One of them in the British History records is listed as living in the house with the ‘worm on the hook” and seems to be that it means a red house and the color was a sign of great wealth as it was difficult to come by since it came from a rare beetle from Asia or Africa – all in all – it has been most enjoyable.
I love this – must take a quick look next time I’m in Princelet Street.