What did Gerald Kelly blue plaque do at 117 Gloucester Place?

The Story

# 117 Gloucester Place: Gerald Kelly's Studio and Sanctuary For fifty-six years, from 1916 until his death in 1972, Sir Gerald Kelly transformed 117 Gloucester Place into one of London's most important portrait studios, where he captured the likenesses of British society's most prominent figures during the twentieth century's defining decades. Standing at this elegant Westminster townhouse, you're looking at the physical heart of Kelly's artistic life—not merely a residence but a working studio where he developed the technical mastery and distinctive style that would earn him election as President of the Royal Academy in 1949. Within these walls, he painted presidents, politicians, and cultural luminaries, while also maintaining a deeply personal artistic practice that evolved across six decades of extraordinary productivity. The longevity of his occupation here is itself remarkable; this address became so integral to Kelly's identity that his blue plaque commemorates it as the defining location of his life, a testament to how a single London building can become synonymous with an entire artistic legacy.