The first floor is for living; the ground floor is Hughes’s studio, which looks out onto the street. Here, passers-by can see Hughes working on his successful “reverspective” paintings, three-dimensional artworks that appear to “move” before your eyes. In the basement-turned-showroom, his gallerist, Angela Flowers, brings in buyers from across the world.
Hughes, 66, and Atkinson, 51, moved to Shoreditch in 1995. “It was pretty bleak,” says Atkinson. “There was just one sandwich bar.”
“And Expectations, our gay S&M shop,” interrupts her husband. “Great Expectations! We love it. We spend a lot of time watching clergymen and old ladies go in.” He goes off into a gale of laughter.
“Previously, Hackney council wouldn’t allow people to live and work on the premises,” says Atkinson. “They had this idea that it should return to how it was before the war, with purely industrial units. The area just got more and more derelict, until they changed the planning laws in the early 1990s.”
They acquired the original 4,500sq ft for £205,000, and spent £50,000 on the refit. “Stirling Ackroyd sold us the ground and first floors, and actually gave us the basement. We were the first people they had on their books, so in a way we were pioneers,” says Hughes.
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“This was a factory,” he continues. “Factories are tall, light buildings on main roads.” By the window, the ceiling is cleverly angled up. “You see, I’m pinching the light from him upstairs. And the next floor down, my studio, is pinching the light from me. Each floor has another two or three feet of light from the storey above.
“The light is very good to paint in. And the best thing about painting on the ground floor is that you can look up from your work and see people looking at you. Which is fine. Because we spend all our time looking at them, don’t we?” The factory originally manufactured paint and varnish. After the war, it eventually became a rather grim set of offices. “When we arrived, it was a warren with carpet tiles, suspended ceilings and little rooms, each one nastier than the next,” says the glamorous Atkinson. “When we stripped it out, there emerged perfect wooden floors, high ceilings and lovely pillars that hold the building up.” They painted the floors gloss white, kept the mahogany panelling in the boardroom and brought in style: Matthew Hilton “Balzac” chairs, Arts and Crafts settles, and plenty of Hughes paintings.
Atkinson said it was a bit like living in a showroom at first, but their quirky nature was not suppressed for long. “This is our collection of acrylic friends,” she says, revealing a wild assortment of stuffed toys, including a Patrick doll hugging a Diane doll.
The bathroom is a white-and-red wonder featuring Atkinson’s 40-piece collection of ruby-red Whitefriars glass, and Philippe Starck sanitary ware, including a pissoir. “Oh, I use it every day,” attests Hughes, stoutly. “So do my friends. The male ones that is. Not many women can get up that far.”
About five years ago, they bought 1,200sq ft next door for £180,000 and knocked through to build a master bedroom and the bathroom. Hughes says the building’s top floor was recently sold for £670,000, and modestly estimates each of his floors might be worth about £500,000. “We love it. My gallery is round the corner; we get all our theatre and music from the Barbican. Artists and friends pop in. The only change we have made is to create a special room for the grandchildren,” says Hughes, who has three children from his first marriage.
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Hughes has never had it so good: his work fetches up to £65,000 a piece and is in demand from Korea to LA; a painting appears in Woody Allen’s latest film. He has just come back from showing in New York, where he did the Emerald run across Central Park on New Year’s Eve. Here, in the middle of London, he is as inventive. “We go running around a nearby graveyard, on Sundays. Round and round the graves, about 30 times. Although sometimes I change to running around the other way, so I don’t get a list.” He laughs, a lot.
Patrick Hughes’s exhibition, Permanentspective, is at Flowers East until February 19, 020 7920 7777, www.flowerseast.com