Townshend & Howson: Home and Studio
This house was the shared home and studio of stained-glass artists Caroline Townshend (1878–1944) and Joan Howson (1885–1964), whose long partnership and artistic collaboration place them among the most accomplished women working within the Arts and Crafts movement in early 20th-century Britain. While relationships between women were rarely named publicly at the time, Townshend and Howson lived and worked together for many years, sharing both domestic and professional lives.
Townshend trained at the Slade School of Fine Art and the Central School of Arts and Crafts, and was associated with leading Arts and Crafts figures such as Christopher Whall, a key influence on modern stained glass. Howson began as Townshend’s student and apprentice, and in 1920 they formally established the firm Townshend & Howson. Their studio produced stained glass for major churches and cathedrals across Britain, including Canterbury Cathedral and St Martin-in-the-Fields, placing them firmly within the mainstream of British decorative arts.
Their Putney house functioned as both home and workplace, blurring the boundary between creative and domestic life. When Caroline Townshend died in 1944, she left just over £30,000 to Joan Howson — a substantial sum at the time and a powerful indication of care and commitment in an era when same-sex relationships had no legal recognition. Howson continued their work after Townshend’s death, sustaining their shared artistic legacy.
This address is included on the map not because queer history happened publicly here, but because the building itself is bound up with the life of a queer woman whose professional success and personal partnership were lived out within its walls. Alongside other stories of women artists in Putney, it shows how creative work, shared households and long-term commitment could exist quietly within respectable residential streets.
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