This period of Gracie’s life is still shrouded in mystery. We have evidence of her living here, and also 28 Mallord Street also in St John’s Wood. Queens Road is believed to be Flanagan’s studio. So what is written below could apply to either address. If you know more, please let us know.
(They could even be the same place !)
Gracie in 1932 around the time she left ‘Tower’ and Archie.
After Gracie moved out of ‘Tower’ she looked for somewhere ‘small and homely’ in London to live, and this came in the shape of a little studio in St John’s Wood.
Built on the back of a four storey house the place had a stone floor, a bath which doubled as a dining table and a cooker. Upstairs, it had a tiny attic room where Auntie Margaret lived. Gracie bought a carpet and a Bechstein piano for the apartment, and said that ‘it felt like home.’
It was during this time Gracie was having a relationship with John Flanagan.
Not much else is known about the garret, (we haven’t even been able to find the location) only that Bert Aza didn’t like the house, and was appalled that the magnificent Gracie Fields was living in a house with a stone floor…. It appears Gracie downsized massively to get away from the ridiculous opulence of ‘Tower’.
A tantalising shot, that we would like to believe was taken in Flanagan’s studio.