575 Wandsworth Road facts for kids
Quick facts for kids 575 Wandsworth Road |
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Entrance to 575 Wandsworth Road
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| General information | |
| Type | Georgian terraced house |
| Location | Clapham London, SW8 United Kingdom |
| Coordinates | 51°28′11″N 0°08′26″W / 51.469671°N 0.140646°W |
| Owner | National Trust |
575 Wandsworth Road in London is a special house that used to belong to a talented Kenyan poet and government worker named Khadambi Asalache. He lived there until he passed away in 2006. After his death, he generously left his unique home to the National Trust. Today, the National Trust has turned it into a museum. You can visit it by booking a guided tour in advance.
Contents
The Story of 575 Wandsworth Road
How Khadambi Asalache Found His Home
Khadambi Asalache bought this Georgian terraced house on Wandsworth Road in 1981. A terraced house is one that is part of a row of similar houses joined together. This particular house was a "two-up two-down," meaning it had two rooms upstairs and two rooms downstairs. When he bought it, the house was not in good shape. It had been lived in by people without permission, and it needed a lot of work. He paid less than the asking price, which was £31,000 at the time.
Asalache's Amazing Handiwork
For 20 years, Khadambi Asalache worked tirelessly to decorate the inside of his home. He created incredible fretwork designs, which are like fancy patterns cut into wood. His designs were inspired by Moorish art, which comes from a historical style in Spain and North Africa.
He made all of these intricate wooden pieces by hand. He used old pine doors and wooden boxes that people had thrown away. He then added drawings of African wildlife and displayed his collection of beautiful 19th-century English lustreware, which is a type of pottery with a shiny, metallic glaze.
A House That Inspired Many
Asalache's unique home became famous. It was featured in magazines like World of Interiors in 1990 and the Sunday Telegraph Magazine in 2000. Tim Knox, who is the director of the Sir John Soane's Museum, described the house in Nest magazine in 2003. He said it was a very serious and carefully planned example of horror vacui. This is a Latin phrase that means "fear of empty space," and it describes art where every part of a surface is filled with details.
The artwork in the house was inspired by famous places. These include the Great Mosque of Cordoba, the Alhambra and Generalife in Granada, Spain. He also took ideas from decorated doors in Zanzibar and paneled rooms in Damascus. Even the waterside houses called yalı in Istanbul gave him ideas.
Becoming a National Trust Treasure
When Khadambi Asalache passed away, he left his house to the National Trust in his will. The National Trust is a charity that protects historic places and natural beauty in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. They agreed to take care of the house, but they needed to raise a large amount of money, between £3 million and £5 million, to help pay for its upkeep. They believed the house was very important. They called it "a great work of art and an important part of our built heritage" that should be protected for everyone to enjoy.
Visiting This Special Home
After a lot of important conservation work to make sure the house was safe and preserved, the National Trust started offering tours in 2013. These tours are guided, and you need to book them in advance because they are very popular! It's a wonderful chance to see Khadambi Asalache's amazing artistic creation up close.
Images for kids
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Entrance to 575 Wandsworth Road
