Ayrshire-born artists Robert MacBryde and Robert Colquhoun were known as the Darlings of Bond Street during their London heyday, with a series of successful and well-received shows at the Lefevre and then the Redfern Galleries during the 1940s. Their shared studio in Bedford Gardens, Kensington was a celebrated gathering place for major figures including John Minton (who lodged with them), Bacon, Freud, Ayrton, Clough, Finlay, Hugh MacDiarmid and Dylan Thomas.

Close neighbours Jankel Adler, an old friend from Glasgow with direct experience of avant garde advances on the Continent, and Wyndham Lewis offered invaluable encouragement and guidance to the Roberts during this period. When they were eventually evicted ...