Case Study – Historical Research

Brief: this client had carried out extensive research on the life of his grandparents who had been servants for a civil servant in Crystal Palace (London). The house had long been replaced by council housing so I was asked to reproduce what the house might have originally looked like. I based my research on similar nearby properties and on the information handed by the client (sales particulars from 1898 gave me the size and the number/distribution of rooms and an Ordnance Map from that time gave me an idea of the house footprint). These illustrations were never meant to be displayed or framed, they were simply going to use to complete the client’s historical documents on his family. He instructed me to make them more lively by adding Victorian figures and adding details like the perimetre fence, a garden layout, etc.