A House in Hampstead.
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OLTON
HOUSE looks out onto Windmill Hill where it meets Hollybush Hill near a
tiny green. It is in a group of early C18 tall houses, brown brick with
red brick dressings. It has a Brown plaque which says that Joanna Baillie
lived in this house.
Joanna Baillie was born in 1762
and moved into Bolton House with her mother in 1791. A woman of some education
she was fortunate enough to come into a small legacy at aged 21 which enabled
her to remain independent and to develop a talent for writing. Becoming
a copious and successful writer of both fiction and drama noted for its
powerful themes of Love and Hate, by the end of her life she was highly
esteemed by the Victorian Literary Establishment. She was visited frequently
at Bolton House by Wordsworth, Byron and Scott and women visitors included
the Irish writer Maria Edgeworth and the Scientist Mary Somerville who later
endowed and gave her name to Somerville College in Oxford.
MISS BAILLIE lived at Bolton
House until her death in 1852: she did not marry and in fact maintained
a long and close friendship with Lucy Aitken , another writer, who also
lived in Hampstead from 1822 to 1864. Where Miss Aitken lived is not known;
what is known however is that both Miss Baillie and Miss Aitken lie in the
churchyard of St John's Church in Hampstead in adjacent tombs.
OLTON
HOUSE does not then disappear from our history. Many years later in the
1920s the house became the home of Hannah Gluckstein , known as Gluck. Born
1895, painter and artist, handsome cross dresser, Gluck swirled around Hampstead
in paint splashed trousers, cloak and trilby, famous in the village for
her eccentricity. She could afford it. From a rich family she was destined
to be a musician but chose instead to paint; suffering from what her mother
called "a kink in the brain" her family protected and supported her so that
she could do just that in the comfort and security of Bolton House. Gluck
was highly talented; during her lifetime her works were sought after, in
fact her output was not high. She attracted high profile women who lived
with her from time to time in Bolton House. Sybil Cookson, a journalist
who left abruptly on finding Gluck in her studio with Annette Mills who
later became the TV personality; Constance Spry the Flower Arranger spent
half the week with Gluck in Hampstead and the other half with Mr Spry; Nesta
Obermer, wealthy writer and glittering International jet Setter of the 30s.
But in 1940 Bolton house was requisitioned by The Fire Service and Gluck
moved away. Bolton House then fell into some dilapidation and in 1945 it
was sold on, but with Gluck retaining the use of her studio in the garden.
Gluck died in 1978.
Bolton House is still private
property. There is no plaque to Gluck.
For more of Gluck's story read "Gluck,
her Biography" by Diane Souhami.
Picture of Gluck 1926 by E. A Hoppé
Photo of Bolton House by val.
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From: Old Dyke 3, August
2000
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