Though hemmed in with streets, housing and a Victorian church built right over its carriage drive, the Spartalis' home in Clapham survives amid the late-nineteenth century surroundings as a substantial echo of the many Georgian mansions that once faced the Common.
Even more magnificently, the grand interior entrance hall, columns, marble floor, staircase and lantern roof have survived the conversion of the house into sixteen spacious apartments, and have been splendidly maintained, or restored. The effect is something like it must have been when Marie lived there with her parents, sister and brothers, and a large team of servants, accommodated on the attic level.
A big thankyou to the young residents who invited me in to admire the entrance hall on a sunny Saturday afternoon.
And here, just around the corner, is the house that Marie and William Stillman first inhabited after their marriage. Not small, except in relation to the Shrubbery.
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