Topolski Studio

Feliks Topolski RA used the arch underneath Hungerford Bridge as his primary studio from 1951 through to his death in 1989. Much of his greatest work was painted here, it was the Chronicle’s headquarters, and from the early 70s opened its doors every Friday for Topolski’s legendary ‘Open Studio’. From world leaders and cultural or artistic icons, to soldiers, hippies, revolutionaries, vagabonds, visitors and drop-ins, the Studio was a vibrant example of a bygone cultural era.

In Topolski’s own words, the Studio provided an independence that “consolidated my animosity towards the mercantile ‘art world’ by distancing myself from the dealers’ network in a declared return to the earlier, healthier status of a craftsman who worked in the back and showed in the front.”

Whilst no longer the bohemian working studio of Topolski’s lifetime, today the space serves as an archive of Topolski’s work, with regular exhibitions, educational programmes and workshops with the artist’s principles of observation, curiosity and tolerance at its core. The charity aims to initiate an artist residency programme, giving over the space to a reportage artist to continue the spirit of Topolski’s two major projects, the Memoir of the Century, and The Chronicle.

The nearby ‘Bar Topolski’, displays some of Topolski’s Memoir in its original location.