1 Palace Green

1 Palace Green is a Grade II* listed house on Palace Green, Kensington, London. It was built by Arts and Crafts architect Philip Webb, completed in 1870 with additions in 1874, and decorated by Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Company.

Webb designed the house over 1867–68 as a studio house for George Howard, a painter and the future 9th Earl of Carlisle, and his wife Rosalind Howard. The couple were associated with the Holland Park Circle of artists, and close friends of the artist Edward Burne-Jones.

Webb saw his design as a return to London building traditions. His use of plain red brick, sash windows and a large gable on the street front provoked opposition from James Pennethorne, the surveyor for the Commissioners of Woods, Forests and Land Revenues, whose approval was needed as the site was leased from the Crown Estate. Pennethorne could not understand the Arts and Crafts architect's nonconformance to any traditional style or period of architecture, and thought the design vulgar compared to those of neighbouring developments, which Webb in turn despised. After a long dispute which grew to include other prominent architects, Webb agreed to add some more Portland stone dressings and redesign the gable. The house was constructed over 1868–70.

The L-plan house was tall compared to the neighbouring properties, having a kitchen basement level and three residential levels, with gables above. On the front elevation there is a two-storey bay window, projecting over the ground storey, surmounted by a parapet and the large, stone-faced gable. The porch incorporates a pointed arch. Webb positioned Howard's studio on the north side of the top residential storey, with its own staircase which led down to the garden, opening into a two-storey pointed-arch recess. In 1873–74 Webb returned to add a schoolroom next to the studio, over another tall pointed-arch recess, in the south elevation.

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