I’m honoured to have been asked to adapt some of my subverted prints of Richmond and Twickenham for the wonderful Stables Café in the grounds of Orleans House, Twickenham.
Some of these etchings and engravings are adapted from the collection of my great-grandmother, Nellie Ionides who had a home in the borough from 1928 until her death in 1962, spending her time here committed to protecting its natural beauty and heritage.
It’s a beautiful old cobble-stoned venue with original Georgian stable divides, and in a lovely coincidental local twist the café new owners had approached me having seen my work elsewhere and they were not to know from my Polish surname that it was my great grandmother who had purchased that exact building in 1928, alongside the magnificent Gibbs Octagon Room, rescuing it all last minute from destruction by the gravel merchants who had already quarried tons from the site.
Deeply enamoured by the borough having moved here almost a century ago, on her death in 1962 she left it all to the borough with the instructions that it should be used as an art gallery for the people of Twickenham, housing her now-famed collection of local etchings, paintings and prints, which was also all bequeathed to the borough. What she would make of my interpretations is another story – but I am told she had a great sense of humour…
Click here for Stables Café address and website
See or buy my subverted prints here
