- Oh wow! This place is incredible…I love houses like these!
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Roller coaster of an article.
Happy that the artist could express himself where he lived.
Sad that he didn’t have more support and died in squalid conditions.
Happy that people who appreciate his work might get to see it.
Sad that his sister wasn’t very kind to him.
Happy that people will be funding his art to be seen
Sad that others might profit from it when he didn’t.
Also sad that his (likely) autism wasn’t treated better or respected.
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My goodness, Butterscotch, that is heartfelt!
I am so glad there are people like this in the world. He did his own thing and lived his own life without being retrained by the societal ideals. His work is amazing and uniquely him. However, behind it is sadness I think. I wonder if he kept journals…
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They talk about his writings that was evidence of his time in the secret service. I wonder if that was real or imaginary. Both are poignant. One because people didn’t believe him. The other because of how much his imagination played a part in his life.
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I am amazed he got away with doing all that in a rented house .
The fireplaces are fantastic the rest is just awful .
A talented but disturbed man .
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Not disturbed at all. His sister said he had been creative all his life, and got into trouble at school due to his inattentiveness and possible boredom. She noted he may have been diagnosed as being on the autistic spectrum if such things had been around then. I don’t know about any of that, but I just think his outside-the-box thinking is to be celebrated. There is no such thing as normal 
I think anyone who lives i such a way is disturbed or eccentric if you like .
There is a man like that near us . He is an incredibly talented sculptor and also plays the piano beautifully .
He lives in a house that is not really habitable in appalling squalor It is terrible and how he survives I don’t know one day they will find him dead amidst the debris.
It’s the way he wants to live .
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Therein lies the difference…if he’s happy, it’s his own little normal world. It may not be how we would live, but then he (or the guy in this article) would likely scorn us for living as we do, thinking it boring or too restrained 
They both make great art, and this is the important thing they leave the world!
I actually don’t think he notices .
He invited us in oblivious to anything being unusual .
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Crikey, never seen a fireplace like that in my life.
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Its great, isn’t it…I wonder how long it took him to make.
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I wonder what inspired him to build it?
It’s not something I would want in my sitting, for a start it would take all the room up, he must have had a huge flat, …I must read the full story, thanks for sharing, you do post some really interesting topics,
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Aww thanks Pauline 
The fact is, his flat was rented and his landlord was beginning to chuck everything out. The public did a go fund me thing to raise money so his rent could continue to be paid.
I doubt my Housing Association would be understanding of me if I installed a gigantic lions mouth fireplace either 
But I hope it does get saved and not painted over.
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It would give anyone the heebie geebies to be looking down that maw every day 
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Makes me sad to see his thwarted talent. Reminds me of a friend’s cousin who was mentally ill and also a talented artist. But his illness held him back and in the end he was a tortured soul who lived alone and died too young. Fascinating individual and highly intelligent but unable to live in our world.
Being a housing association place surely eventually they will want to re let the property at some time so all will be ripped out and destroyed , crowd funding won’t last forever , how will she keep it up alone .
It is amazing though . I think of him and wonder if he was cold as no heating, no comforts like a warm soft bed , cooking on a camping stove .
It’s strange how some extremely clever artistic people are what we call not normal or a bit odd , yet such talent . I wonder if he was lonely. Also hoarding seems to be a thing.
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So many artists are .
Look at Vincent Van Gogh .
Great talent seems to come sometimes with great suffering .
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Hoarding seems to come from a place of trauma and loss, in most cases. I bet he had a life story to tell. Even his art looks a bit tormented.
well, thats my psychological profiling done, time for tea