110 Denbigh St (updated July 2024)

 Updated 20/7/24 with more information about the use of the house and garden

110 Denbigh St in 2022
click to enlarge

110 Denbigh St (seen in the middle of the picture above with the black door) was Royale Studio's base for the whole of it's existence from 1957-1962. According to the electoral register, it was Basil Clavering's home from 1957 to 1965. 

There's good evidence that Basil set up a studio there, reputedly in the cellar, but image 2 from the Whip Duel set suggests it was just a room in the main house. The genuine cellar shots that appear in Unapproved School, Part 2 and Escape probably led to this confusion, but were too small to accommodate backdrops and props. 

It's also claimed that Basil used the garden of No 110 for his photos, but this is very unlikely

 -  see separate section below.

Royale Studio Advertisement in 'Tomorrow's Man' magazine (1958)

When Dolphin Photography (later Hussar) was split off in 1960 they set up shop elsewhere in Golden Square. It's not known if the Dolphin pub seen at the right in the picture above had anything to do with the naming of Dolphin photography. There was bomb damage here during the blitz (see below) and it's a newish replacement building but could possibly be as early as the 1960's. Apparently there was formerly a 'New Dolphin' on the same site. Dolphin Square, once described as the most notorious address in London is just round the corner.

The house is situated in the Pimlico area of London, just north of the river and about 15 minutes walk from the Houses of Parliament, Tate Gallery and Buckingham Palace. The grand houses with room for servants tell you it was an upmarket area in the 1700-1800's, but by the 1930's many of the houses were split into rented rooms. Quentin Crisp in 'The Naked Civil Servant', relates how he rented such a room in Denbigh St as his first, unshared home. By Clavering's time, the nearby area around Victoria Station was notoriously seedy and home to the (then) infamous Biograph Cinema. 

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The 'Garden' Location(s?)

Basil uses outdoor 'garden' shots in these early photo sets:

• Unapproved School (Part 2) link pending
• Navy Romeo (Part 2)
• Captivity/Escape 
• Solo sets of Tibor Urgay, David Reid, Mike Scudder.

However, a modern aerial view of the house (outlined below in red) 

doesn't show very much garden at all at the property. 

Click here to enlarge

The small garden is bounded at either side by similar, Denbigh St properties and at the end by mews houses. These would have been coach houses for the property originally and for that reason align exactly with them physically and chronologically. Most were converted into residences and sold off when carriages fell out of use but they still formed the boundary of No 110's garden in Basil's time. 

This area sustained bomb damage during the war. The map below from Bomb Sight shows that 3 fell at the front of the property and 2 in the mews behind it. 

Click to enlarge

I don't think these bombing locations can be exact but it's been reported elsewhere that bombs fell directly on the mews buildings. However the same site describes what is there today as 'original surviving' and they don't appear to be modern rebuilds, so it's likely that these bombs were responsible for the large open space seen in the lower part of the aerial picture which includes the site of the post-war built Dolphin pub two doors down from No 110. It's possible that Basil had an undeveloped bomb site on his doorstep in 1957 but it's unlikely that it could have formed the elegant garden shown below in 'Unapproved School' (Part 2) and also used in 'Captivity/Escape', let alone the mature orchard-like woodland which was the setting for 'Navy Romeo (Part 2).

Unapproved School (Part 2)

This garden looks far too manicured to be an old bomb site. It looks like a public space such as a park but the availability of a functioning hose pipe and privacy considerations seem to rule that out. 

The brochure for the Colville Exhibition says Royale pictures "were taken in the basement of Clavering's home in Chelsea". This conflicts with other accounts which specify Pimilico. Colville don't mention the garden. Interestingly, when Basil died, his address was given as Chelsea. That house does have a garden, but not a very big one and I don't know if he owned it when he was living in Denbigh St.  

Before moving to Denbigh St, Basil lived briefly in 'Riverside', a road in rural Wraysbury. I have located the specific house (which at that time had a name, 'Halcyon', not a number) and it does have a big garden. The garden setting only appears in Royale's early pictures, so it's conceivable Basil was working on his Royale project while he was living there, then moved back to London to start up the business. 

Doug Strohl by George Greenwood ca 1958

Recently I came across this photograph of Doug Strohl taken by George Greenwood who owned the publication 'Man's World'. It was taken in the grounds of Man's World headquarters at 'The Manor House' in Worcester Park, Surrey. The flowers and fence seen in the background have a passing resemblance to the garden seen in 'Unapproved School' just above, unfortunately I haven't found a better view of the fence although Greenwood took lots of pictures at this spot. The brickwork is part of some steps which are right in front of the house, so it would be feasible to rig up a hosepipe. 

click to enlarge

This is the aerial view of The Manor House today (much altered at the rear according to it's Heritage listing). You can see it's bounded by a large area of parkland and trees. Many of Greenwood's photos show models perched on fallen boughs with lawn and trees in the distance and may well have been taken here too. 

By itself this is flimsy evidence for Royale's garden images but there was also a degree of connection between Greenwood and Royale. Doug Strohl in the picture above posed for Royale as well as Greenwood and they 'shared' other models too. More significantly, Man's World' (Greenwood's 'house' magazine) was the very first publication to print any of Royale's pictures, in December 1957. They continued to print them, often several images a month, right through to mid 1961 at least. I haven't found records after this but this is suggestive of cordial relations between them. 

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Other Outside Locations

UNAP1-18

Whilst it's almost certain that the garden images were not taken at Denbigh St, it is possible, that the house itself was used to photograph the last two, outdoor images in Part 1 of  'Unapproved School' which show (above and below) the two captives trying to escape by scaling outbuildings. 

The corner arrangement above is typical of 19th century terraced housing in Britain, where an angle is formed between the main part of the house and an extension at the rear which typically housed a kitchen. It was narrower than the rest of the building to allow for a rear window in the breakfast room, such as that seen on the right here. In the aerial photo you can see extensions like this clearly on all the Denbigh St houses and the place where this picture might have been taken.

The aerial picture (earlier) seems to show that the rearward extension at 110 Denbigh St is only one story high* just like this building. However the corrugated roof in this picture suggests it was an outbuilding rather than part of a house used as a home. Basil could afford to get his roof repaired! 

The gable end and church tower (?) seen in the distance don't seem to fit with the present day topography of the Denbigh St area. Therefore it seems unlikely that this picture was taken at Denbigh St and so the preceding one probably wasn't either. There is a church with a plain square tower next door to the Worcester Park building but it's not obviously the one in this picture.

There's another suggestion for the location of these images in the comments at the foot of this post

Incidentally, if this was Basil Clavering's property the security precautions are formidable! 

That barbed wire seems to be part of the storyline for Part 2 of the storyette.

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Interior Locations

*In the Denbigh St aerial picture, there's a small first floor extension sitting on top of the kitchen, which typically would house a toilet or bathroom, maybe it's the one we see in Navy Gash.

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I am indebted to P.M., who carried out all the research into where Basil Clavering lived

Article originally published 13/07/2023