Late afternoon light illuminates the dancing figures that adorn the walls of Charleston Farmhouse in East Sussex, hand-painted by Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant during the years the Bloomsbury Group lived and worked there. At the house’s sister gallery in Lewes, the exhibition Robert MacBryde & Robert Colquhoun: Artists, Lovers, Outsiders brings together the Scottish painters’ portraits, still lifes and correspondence, tracing the lives of two artists whose often turbulent and experimental existence moved through bohemian, subversive circles in mid-century Britain. In their work and their lives, ‘the Two Roberts’ echoed the experiment that began at Charleston, the belief that art and living could be one and the same.

Pictured 1. Robert Colquhoun at Bedford Gardens studios, photographed by Clifford Coffin 2. Still Life of Vegetables, Robert MacBryde, Aberdeen Archives

In London, Bedford Gardens Studios in Kensington became home to a close circle of artists and intellectuals who shaped postwar cultural life. Robert MacBryde and Robert Colquhoun lived and worked there throughout the 1940s and 50s, sharing a studio that became one of the city’s vital artistic enclaves. The space was filled with the energy of their partnership, canvases stacked against the walls and friends gathered around a table scattered with bottles, brushes and cigarette packets. Visitors recalled the intensity of the room, where conversation, painting and performance became one. Around them moved a circle of artists, writers and poets including Francis Bacon, John Minton, George Barker and Dylan Thomas, whose antics spilled from the studio into Soho’s Colony Room and back again, influencing the creative landscape of the time.

Among those connected to this world were Tristram and Veronica Hull, the maternal grandparents of our director. Both were active in the literary circles that intersected with the visual arts in postwar London. Tristram founded and edited Nimbus, a literary magazine that published contemporary poetry, fiction and criticism, while Veronica Hull wrote novels and essays that reflected the shifting moral and social landscape of the 1950s. Their friends included the poet George Barker and the aforementioned Two Roberts.

Pictured 1. Family and friends of Vanessa Bell in the walled garden at Charleston farmhouse, Tate images 2. Bedford Gardens today, photographed by Natasha Zinoveva

In 1958, Tristram Hull co-founded Hull Traders, a textile company that became known for its collaborations with leading artists and designers of the period. The firm produced hand screen-printed fabrics that brought elements of modern art into domestic design. Under the direction of Shirley Craven, Hull Traders worked with artists including Eduardo Paolozzi, Nigel Henderson and Althea McNish, creating textiles that combined bold colour, abstraction and a distinct sense of craftsmanship. Its designs were sold through Heal’s and the Design Centre in London and were exhibited internationally as part of a new wave of British modernism.

Hull Traders reflected a broader mid-century shift towards integrating art and design within the domestic sphere. Its textiles, with their layered forms and painterly energy, translated the language of the studio into the scale of everyday life. In that sense, the company’s ethos shared something with the artistic environments that came before it. At Charleston, the Bloomsbury Group created a fully lived expression of art and craft, its painted rooms, furnishings and prints the result of collaboration between Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant and their circle. At Bedford Gardens, the Two Roberts had done something similar, their studio a lived-in extension of their art.

Pictured 1. Althea McNish in her studio in 1966. Photograph: Hodder/ANL/Shutterstock. 2. Humphrey’s Homestead, West Sussex

Thirty miles west of Charleston Farmhouse lies Humphrey’s Homestead, a rambling estate in the South Downs that has been in Thirzie’s family for over a century. The house was home to her ancestors Alice and Wilfrid Meynell from around 1911 onwards. Alice, an acclaimed poet and essayist who was twice considered for the position of Poet Laureate, brought a literary circle to the house, and together the Meynells conceived it as a rural retreat outside London, much like the nearby Charleston.

Its bohemian interiors, shaped by generations of artists and writers, reflect the same creative spirit as Charleston’s painted rooms. Among their guests was D. H. Lawrence, who stayed in 1915 and found inspiration there for his story England, My England. Today, more than a century later, Humphrey’s remains within the family and continues to host occasional writers’ retreats.

Thirzie’s cultural background and artistic lineage has inspired the multidisciplinary nature of the agency’s work. Many of the homes within its portfolio share the same qualities that define this tradition: spaces designed or once inhabited by artists, writers and designers, where light, proportion and materiality foster creativity.

Pictured 1. Charleston farmhouse, Firle 2. Still Life, Robert MacBryde, Glasgow Life Museums

Bedford Gardens Studios, once home to the Two Roberts, now sits within the agency’s eclectic property portfolio, its history as a working studio carried forward by a new generation of residents. Mario Manenti designed Chelsea Studios around his foundry, which he took over from Frederick Mancini in 1921. There he cast several notable works, including World War I memorials, before expanding the site into an art-studio complex for a close-knit community of artists. Modelled on his estate in Florence, the courtyard became known as “the Italian Village,” home to painters, sculptors and designers who helped shape London’s art and fashion scenes. In North and East London, former warehouses, townhouses and workshops now house designers, photographers and musicians whose work continues the same relationship between creativity and domestic life.

The thread that runs through these places is both cultural and personal. The histories of Charleston, Bedford Gardens and Humphrey’s reveal how creativity shapes domestic life, but they also form part of the same story that informs the agency’s work. The understanding of artist-built and artist-inhabited homes comes not from distance but from familiarity, through a family history intertwined with the literary and design circles that defined mid-century Britain. That perspective continues to guide how each property is approached as a living space with creative integrity, and as part of an ongoing story of art and home.

The exhibition Robert MacBryde & Robert Colquhoun: Artists, Lovers, Outsiders runs at Charleston in Lewes until April 2026. Visitors can also explore Charleston Farmhouse in nearby Firle, home to the Bloomsbury Group and a continuing centre for art and ideas. Further details about Humphrey’s, its history and current programme, can be found at humphreysgreatham.co.uk. The Bedford Gardens Penthouse, part of the original Bedford Gardens Studios once shared by the Two Roberts is now part of our portfolio.

Pictured 1. Bedford Gardens today, photographed by Natasha Zinoveva 2. Chelsea Studios, photographed by Marcus Quigley for Thirzie Hull