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Margaret MacDonald Troup registry record

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Focus Shift: Women, Interiors, Crafts, and Materials 

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Focus Shift: Women, Interiors, Crafts, and Materials 

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Margaret's interior/product design practice is heavily varied in terms of media; through collaboration, we see her working with glass (Chance glass) textiles (I.E. and Steele Carpets) and concrete (Terrazzo table in Sr. Common Room). Regardless of material, and regardless of whether Margaret participated in the physical make-ing of these objects, these designs have an inherent relation to technical hand-crafts: concrete pouring, glass-blowing, and carpet-weaving. Through my research, I'm beginning to understand that Margaret's practice is connected to feminist, craft-based traditions in interior design. The question of how, where, and why Margaret is connected to these feminist traditions is where my research is heading.

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Via 'A View from the Interior, Women and Design' by Judy Attfield and Pat Kirkham:

On Pottery in the 1920s : “This type of designing was considered appropriate for young ladies because it was clean and it took place in the respectable surroundings of small studios detached from the main manufacturing processes” (71-72)

in the 20s -30s in britain, small crafts such as pottery became a means of liberation for women, an opportunity to earn a wage in a “respectable” manner. The relegation of women to “respectable”, small-scale, safe, quiet, clean handicrafts was on the one hand exclusionary and infantilizing, but on the other hand, became a covert means to earn a wage and a living without competing with men for hard-hat, larger scale careers.

Interior design, handcrafts, and the surface provided a world for women to thrive in-- hence, the only designs we see attributed to Margaret alone, without her husband, are the small scale, the crafted, and the surface-level.

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https://contentstore.cla.co.uk/secure/link?id=dc1b61de-2e3b-ed11-bd6e-0050f2f06092

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I. & C. Steele and Tomkinsons

Limited.

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table in sr common room -
terrazzo tables in general?

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Margaret Casson's photo sent by her daughter (1)

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Margaret Casson's photo sent by her daughter (2)

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Magaret Casson at victoria road. Photo by Leon levson (3)

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Framed size 72cm x 85cm

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Framed size 87cm x 70 cm

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Framed size 43cm x 53.5 cm

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Framed size 43cm x 55.5 cm

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Framed size 63.5cm x 53.5 cm

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Framed size 54.5cm x 44.5 cm

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Framed size 54.5cm x 44 cm

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Framed size 58.5cm x 47.5 cm

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Framed size 64cm x 53.5 cm

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Framed size 63.5cm x 53.5 cm

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Framed size 63.5cm x 53.5 cm

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Framed size 48.5cm x 57.5 cm

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Framed size 49.5cm x58.5 cm

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Framed size 64cm x 53.5 cm

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Windmill Street, Gravesend, Kent DA12 1AU England

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Some references abou Gravesend Civic Centre

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Some references abou Gravesend Civic Centre

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Concrete proposals | Gravesham Civic Centre (theguardian.com)

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Some references about Lecture theatre University of Essex (1965-67)

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Some references about Lecture theatre University of Essex (1965-67)

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埃塞克斯大学 – 技术有限公司 (techniker.co.uk)

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https://centerforthelivingcity.org/upcoming-events/2022/expanding-field-of-architecture-women-in-practice-across-the-globe

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MARCIA FEUERSTEIN

Marcia Feuerstein is an architect and professor, exploring architecture through the body, embodiment, performance, theater and reuse by investigating these links within theory and practice through books, essays, installations and design projects. She has practiced architecture in New York City, Buffalo, Philadelphia and the DC area. Feuerstein's publications include contributions to journals and edited volumes: Routledge Companion to Drawings and Models (in press); Ceilings and Dreams; Body and Building; Architecture as a Performing Art; and Changing Places. An Associate Professor at Virginia Tech's School of Architecture + Design at the Washington Alexandria Architecture Center, she received a PhD and MS in Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania, a Master of Architecture from the University at Buffalo, and a Bachelor of Science from Tufts University.

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Jane Jacobs Lecture | Expanding Field of Architecture: Women in Practice Across the Globe - The Center for the Living City

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Join the Center for the Living City for a 2022 Jane Jacobs Lecture with Marcia Feuerstein, Jodi La Coe, and Paola Zellner Bassett, co-authors of a forthcoming book Expanding Field of Architecture: Women in Practice Across the Globe in which they portray forty, beautiful and diverse architectural p

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It seems likely the doodler was one of the interim owners.

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https://www.franciswilliamgroup.co.uk/

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Specialising in quality supply, design & installation in the West Midlands - Francis William Kitchen Showroom

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We have over 20 years experience in the supply, design and installation of quality Kitchens & Wardrobes

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https://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/2401

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Erection date: 2000
Inscription

Golden-Barked Ash, Fraxinus excelsior Aurea. Planted in memory of Hugh & Margaret Casson, 2000.
Site: Hugh & Margaret Casson (1 memorial)

W8, Holland Park

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Find family history information in a whole new way

Create a free family tree for yourself or for Margaret Casson and we'll search for valuable new information for you.

Order the MyHeritage DNA test

84 MyHeritage DNA test takers are descendants of a Casson. Discover if you're related!

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Find family history information in a whole new way Create a free family tree for yourself or for Margaret Casson and we'll search for valuable new information for you. Order the MyHeritage DNA test 84 MyHeritage DNA test takers are descendants of a Casson. Discover if you're related!

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Victoria and Albert Museum, Online Museum, Web Team, webmastervam.ac.uk

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Archives of Sir Hugh Casson and Margaret Macdonald Casson - Victoria and Albert Museum

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Ernő Goldfinger- Balfron Tower, built 1972

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Ernő Goldfinger- Balfron Tower, built 1972

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"There are good and bad architects. I'm a good architect" - Erno Goldfinger

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"There are good and bad architects. I'm a good architect" - Erno Goldfinger

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‘The Towers of Terror’: A Critical Analysis of Ernő Goldfinger’s Balfron and Trellick Towers , by Braghieri, Nicola

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‘The Towers of Terror’: A Critical Analysis of Ernő Goldfinger’s Balfron and Trellick Towers , by Braghieri, Nicola

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Abstract

Read online

When J. G. Ballard published his masterpiece High-Rise in 1975, many readers in London automatically identified the apartment building that is the protagonist of the dystopian novel as the infamous Trellick Tower at Kensal Town, certainly one of the most controversial and ambiguous figures of British architecture after World War II. Designed by Ernő Goldfinger, the tower, which had recently been completed, was already considered a symbol of the brutality of contemporary architecture, to the point of gaining the nickname 'Tower of Terror' coined by its own inhabitants. Actually, in public opinion the nearly twin sister of the earlier Balfron Tower at Poplar embodied all the ills of urban planning and of the housing policies of the post-war reconstruction. The large size of the project, the uniformity of its facades, the presence of bulky stairwells separated from the main volume, connected by elevated bridges and brandishing the big chimneys of the heating system, the complex apartment layouts on multiple levels, and the intensive use of fair-face reinforced concrete are the factors that shape the extraordinary character of this work of architecture, examined in a relatively small quantity of critical writings, despite the building's widespread notoriety. The Balfron Tower, commissioned in 1963, and the Trellick Tower commissioned in 1966 have become, for better or worse, icons of British public housing policy, and today they are inseparable parts of the London cityscape. Critical analysis of the original project documents reveals how the typological and constructive reflections at the end of the 1960s had reached a level of extreme sophistication and quality, also in the development of large social housing complexes created for the urban proletariat. Thanks to their outstanding constructed quality and the efficacy of their residential typologies, the towers have stood up to the destructive fury of the last few decades, even becoming Grade II* listed buildings. In recent years, they have gone through a remarkable process of social and generational turnover, coveted as investment properties and involved in processes of real estate speculation.

Keywords

Published in Urban Planning

ISSN

2183-7635 (Online)

Publisher

Cogitatio

Country of publisher

Portugal

LCC subjects

Social Sciences: Communities. Classes. Races: Urban groups. The city. Urban sociology: City planning

Website

http://www.cogitatiopress.com/urbanplanning

About the journal

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Read online When J. G. Ballard published his masterpiece High-Rise in 1975, many readers in London automatically identified the apartment building that is the protagonist of the dystopian novel as the infamous Trellick Tower at Kensal Town, certainly one of the most controversial and ambiguous figures of British architecture after World War II.

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When J. G. Ballard published his masterpiece High-Rise in 1975, many readers in London automatically identified the apartment building that is the protagonist of the dystopian novel as the infamous Trellick Tower at Kensal Town, certainly one of the most controversial and ambiguous figures of British architecture after World War II. Designed by Ernő Goldfinger, the tower, which had recently been completed, was already considered a symbol of the brutality of contemporary architecture, to the point of gaining the nickname ‘Tower of Terror’ coined by its own inhabitants

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When J. G. Ballard published his masterpiece High-Rise in 1975, many readers in London automatically identified the apartment building that is the protagonist of the dystopian novel as the infamous Trellick Tower at Kensal Town, certainly one of the most controversial and ambiguous figures of British architecture after World War II. Designed by Ernő Goldfinger, the tower, which had recently been completed, was already considered a symbol of the brutality of contemporary architecture, to the point of gaining the nickname ‘Tower of Terror’ coined by its own inhabitants

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A video documented the abandoned Suffolk house which H.T. (Jim) Cadbury Brown’s that he and his wife Betty Dale designed and built in 1962

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A video documented the abandoned Suffolk house which H.T. (Jim) Cadbury Brown’s that he and his wife Betty Dale designed and built in 1962

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International Women in Science: A Biographical Dictionary to 1950 （P58）

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International Women in Science: A Biographical Dictionary to 1950 （P58）

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A comprehensive biographical guide to the scientific achievements, personal lives, and struggles of women scientists from around the globe.

International Women in Science: A Bibliographical Dictionary to 1950 presents the enormous contributions of women outside North America in fields ranging from aviation to computer science to zoology. It provides fascinating profiles of nearly 400 women scientists, both renowned figures like Florence Nightingale and Marie Curie and women we should know better, like Rosalind Franklin, who, along with James Watson and Francis Crick, uncovered the structure of DNA.

Students and researchers will see how the lives of these remarkable women unfolded, and how they made their place in fields often stubbornly guarded by men, overcoming everything from limited education and professional opportunities, to indifference, ridicule, and cultural prejudice, to outright hostility and discrimination. Included are a number of living scientists, many of whom provide insights into their lives and scientific times. Those contributions, plus additional previously unavailable material, make this a volume of unprecedented scope and richness.

A-Z entries from Madge Gertrude Adam to Audrey Wood, covering disciplines such as psychology, astronomy, physics, medicine, agriculture, paleontology, and more

Contributions from a number of women scientists practicing today

Photographs of scientists such as Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and Maria Montessori

Full, end-of-entry bibliographies, a list of women scientists by specialty, and a comprehensive index

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A comprehensive biographical guide to the scientific achievements, personal lives, and struggles of women scientists from around the globe.International Women in Science: A Bibliographical Dictionary to 1950 presents the enormous contributions of women outside North America in fields ranging from aviation to computer science to zoology.

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Sir Hugh Casson Interviewed by Cathy Courtney" (PDF)

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Sir Hugh Casson Interviewed by Cathy Courtney" (PDF)

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July 2021 - Gulbenkian Centre, University of Hull
Peter Moro & Partners, 1969
The University of Hull's Gulbenkian Centre opened in 1969. It was the first completely new building for the teaching of drama at a British university, reflecting not only the growth of this subject within post-war Higher Education but a wider boom in construction of major new buildings for the performing arts which was then taking place across Britain. The Gulbenkian Centre was designed by Peter Moro and Partners, who were rapidly carving out a reputation for themselves as well-regarded specialists in theatre design.

Planning for the Gulbenkian Centre began in the early 1960s, following the creation of Hull's drama department and the appointment of Donald Roy as its first member of academic staff. Hull was inspired by the University of Bristol, whose pioneering drama department had been set up in the late 1940s. The aim (in Hull, as in Bristol before) was not so much to train actors as to complement the study of languages, literature, and history. Drama would 'provide a well-balanced enrichment of the disciplines in the Faculty of Arts', it was suggested, with Donald Roy noting that he was not aiming 'to manufacture [Laurence] Oliviers and Peter Halls'. The requirement was a building with a flexible auditorium and associated technical spaces. Space was also to be provided for the production of audio-visual teaching aids, an enthusiasm of Brynmor Jones, then the university's vice-chancellor. Funding was secured from the Gulbenkian Foundation, a philanthropic body with particular interests in the arts who supported several cultural projects in Britain at this time.

Peter Moro and Partners were appointed in the summer of 1963; the project architect was Michael Heard, a member of Moro's team with a particular interest in theatre. Peter Moro had come to Britain in 1936, having studied in Germany and Switzerland. After a brief but formative spell working with Berthold Lubetkin's practice, Tecton, on projects including the Highpoint II flats in north London, Moro went into partnership with Richard Llewelyn Davies, designing a well-received house at Birdham on the Sussex coast (1938-40). During the 1940s, he taught at Regent Street Polytechnic and also undertook a significant number of exhibition designs, often working with the designer Robin Day, before being head-hunted by Leslie Martin in 1948 to lead the detailed design of the Royal Festival Hall on London's South Bank. After the completion of the Festival Hall in 1951, Moro went into independent practice, taking on a range of commissions. There were several schools, and also a significant amount of local-authority housing in south London, much of which deserves to be better known.

Theatres, however, were the type of building for which Moro and his colleagues became best known. The experience of the Festival Hall meant that Moro was well-placed when the easing of austerity in the mid-1950s allowed Britain's newly subsidised regional theatres to think about the construction of new buildings. A theatre-building boom followed, lasting until the early 1980s. Moro's Nottingham Playhouse, designed after 1956 and completed in 1963, was particularly well-received and led to numerous other arts projects. Nottingham Playhouse was certainly known in Hull. Also significant was the fact that Leslie Martin was now Hull's consultant planner, and had put Moro's name forward.

From Lubetkin, Moro took on the idea that architecture was an art. His approach was nonetheless rigorous in its analysis of function: there was little time for whimsy. Moro and his colleagues adopted a highly controlled approach to layout, elevations, and details, using a limited range of pure forms, geometries, materials, and colours: the results are clearly (and often boldly) massed, with bespoke plans that are carefully and logically organised. By the early 1960s, octagons were much in evidence in the practice's work, and the Gulbenkian Centre was no exception. The design has an eight-sided plan, with Moro suggesting that chamfering the corners increased the sense of space around the building by leading the eye around the design. At its heart is the studio theatre, with a television studio (now a second theatre) alongside. Workshops, dressing rooms, offices, and further audio-visual facilities are located around the perimeter of the building.

An early scheme was published in the Architectural Review in 1965, with a simpler appearance than the executed design. As built, the Gulbenkian Centre is decidedly chunky. The elevations are asymmetric in their composition, with areas of brick and glass below a wide band of board-marked concrete that appears to hover (almost improbably) above large windows. Eight-sided windows echo the plan of the building. Above, the roof is copper-clad, with a broken rake that reduces its bulk. The tall fly tower (used to 'fly' scenery and props above the studio theatre) nonetheless suggests the significance of the building on campus.

Inside, a small foyer leads to the studio theatre, which was engineered with input from Theatre Projects Consultants. It was required only to have limited facilities for public performance: 'only so much audience as is required to give to the actors the vital sense of audience response'. Its plan is 57ft (17.4m) square with no inbuilt bias or direction which might restrict flexibility. Removable sections in the floor allow openings to be made almost anywhere, and flexibility is further promoted by a full flying and lighting grid. Using rostra and platforms, it is possible to create transverse stage, thrust stage, or theatre in the round layouts, seating c. 200, while a fixed rake of seats at one end also allows a proscenium-arch arrangement to be formed.

The centre was well-received. The Gulbenkian Foundation's Alexander Dunbar wrote in 1970 that 'the building is one of which any university could be proud'. It was, he said, better than some professional theatres. The architects went on to explore similar ideas in their next project, the reconstruction of Bristol's Theatre Royal (1963-73; dem. 2016). Moro, meanwhile, remembered the Gulbenkian Centre as one of his favourite works, choosing an image of it when asked to select one of the practice's designs for an anthology of modern architecture. Listed at Grade II in 2015, it demonstrates well Moro's belief in architecture as a functional art, and the significant contributions he and his colleagues made to post-war theatre in Britain.
Dr. Alistair Fair is Reader in Architectural History at the University of Edinburgh. His new book, The Building of the Month feature is edited by Dr. Joshua Mardell. With special thanks to Jonathan Makepeace (RIBA) and John East. Peter Moro and Partners, is published in September 2021. Modern Playhouses: an Architectural History of Britain's New Theatres, 1945-1985, is now available in reasonably priced paperback.
Building of the month archive

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Gulbenkian Centre, University of Hull - The Twentieth Century Society

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July 2021 - Gulbenkian Centre, University of Hull Peter Moro & Partners, 1969 The University of Hull's Gulbenkian Centre opened in 1969. It was the first completely new building for the teaching of drama at a British university, reflecting not only the growth of this subject within post-war Higher Education but a wider boom in construction of major new buildings for the performing arts which was then taking place across Britain.

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The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation has three auditoriums and four rooms of different dimensions where conferences, activities and shows take place.

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In July 1997 the architectural writer Jill Lever recorded over five hours of interviews with Jim at his home in Aldeburgh for the English Heritage listing summaries detail references to published articles on the building in question. Between an article in 1966 (two years after the build's completion) and then in '77 there had been no coverage of the house until twenty years later when, only three months after Lever's interview took place, British Library's National Life Stories: Architects' Lives archive . Discussing the house, Lever tells Jim it should be listed. "How would you feel about that?" she asks. "I would feel fine," Jim acquiesces, "Big deal!"
Country Life magazine ran an article on it by the architectural writer and historian Alan Powers. The following year, in 1998, Perspectives on Architecture ran a piece by Neil Bingham called "Out in the Garden." "3, Church Walk, Aldeburgh, Suffolk: The Home of Prof and Mrs H.T. Cadbury-Brown" ran the title of Powers's article for Country Life. The subhead reads: "Designed for a site once set aside by Benjamin Britten for an opera house, this beautiful but little-known house demonstrates the remarkable creativity of British domestic design in the early 1960s." Powers's article was, and remains, the single most comprehensive piece on a house that otherwise had received no coverage in the architecture and design press.

Following the Country Life article, three years later, on 4 December 2000, number 3 Church Walk and attached north, east and south walls, including the garage, received Grade II listing for its "special architectural or historic interest." More precisely, English Heritage's List Entry characterises 3 Church Walk as "a fine example of a courtyard house with fine detailing and an interesting and effective plan, and as a good example of a good architect's own house." (To see the List Entry go ) In England post-1945 buildings amount to a mere 0.2 percent of total listed buildings. The majority - 32 percent of this total - date from the nineteenth century, followed by 31 percent from the eighteenth century. According to the Principles of Selection for Listing Buildings , issued by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in March 2010, buildings of less than 30 years old are normally listed only if they are of "outstanding quality and under threat." "Particularly careful selection is required," the document continues, "for buildings from the period after 1945." Listings of this period are often highly contentious: modern architecture, stuff apparently not yet historical, elicits particularly strong views. Between 1987, when it was first established post-war buildings could be listed, and 1995, some 189 separate buildings were listed. Today private domestic housing makes up a majority 14 percent of total post-war listings. Then, twelve years ago, 3 Church Walk was one of only eight other house listings announced by the arts minister Alan Howarth.

As a researcher, writer, and campaigner/lobbyist for modern architecture, Alan Powers was certainly instrumental in the listing of 3 Church Walk. In 1981 Powers was the first caseworker of and Senior Architectural Investigator for English Heritage Elain Harwood, in 2007 Powers curated "A commonly held view of modern architecture as wrong-headed," wrote architect-critic Stephen Gardiner of this exhibition in AP: Jim's Festival of Britain was, in some way, the first main thing he did after the war. He knew Hugh Casson quite well, and certainly fitted into that group of architects. At the Festival Jim was not so much responsible for buildings, but hard landscaping and fountains. He did the entrance pavilions to a pair of exhibitions, these were rather amazing cable-hung cut away cones: one red on the inside and one blue with a mast up the middle. One of them led into the Land of Britain exhibition and the other one led into the People of Britain. The People of Britain, which went into the railway arches, was Jim's architectural design as well; it was very cool and straightforward with a sculpture in a pool - a nice detail. Then there was the concourse which he laid out - he was really proud of that, and rightly so. They wanted to be able to light up the concourse at ground level at night. They could have used cats' eyes from roads but they do not actually contain a light source. In the end Jim wired it for electric bulbs and used jam jars as covers, which seem to have worked perfectly well. For the fountains, he had the concept that they should be towards the river. At that point you had to raise the level to get up to the embankment. There were two or three steps going up and there was this very long rectangular fountain basin with jets ranked within it so the back ones were the tallest. It made a screen and over the top of it you could see the buildings on the far side. The idea was it made you go further to see what was on the other side - like a landscape garden feature. Jim got very interested in hydraulics and went to Versaille - he loved telling this story - to see the water wheel that was installed by Louis XIV to raise the water to feed the gardens. The other thing he wanted was for the fountains to light up at night with gas lights. Originally his idea was that the gas jets would be underwater but he was told this would be highly dangerous. So they were actually just above water level. There is a film called AP: Yes. There was a phrase "As Found", which was a slogan of early New Brutalism and, although Jim was not quite of that generation, I think he adopted those principles. I remember him telling me about a conversation he had with Benjamin Britten, for whom he did some design work, about what was going on in architecture compared with what was going on in music - this would probably have been the late-1950s, early 60s. They talked about New Brutalism and Britten said "Oh, well I think that is what I find myself doing in my music." At that stage he was innovating new percussion instruments. For the sound of raindrops in
The Twentieth Century Society, an organisation that safeguards the heritage of architecture and design in Britain from 1914 onwards. Today he continues to jointly edit the society's journal and is chairman of Elegant Variation: the architecture of H.T. Cadbury-Brown RA, a retrospective of Jim's career hosted by the Royal Academy, London. The Times on 6 October 2006, "is dismissed by this inspiring display of work." As a special one-off Architectural Research Quarterly (ARQ) produced a supplement to act as the exhibition catalogue. This issue, with contributions by Powers, Dunnett and Harwood, remains the most comprehensive appraisal of the modern architect H.T. Cadbury-Brown - one of many of an overlooked generation. When Emily and I met with Alan at his Judd Street home in September this year I began by asking when it was he first met Jim, and was surprised to learn just how far back their association stretched. Pollock's Toy Museum in central London. In 1994 he was employed as a consultant by English Heritage to survey post-war houses for listing. Powers is author of many books on aspects of British modernism, including Serge Chermayeff: Designer, Architect, Teacher (2001), Modern: The Modern Movement in Britain (2007) and Eric Ravilious: Imagined Realities (2012). With the architect James Dunnett (who, like Cadbury-Brown had worked in Ernő Goldfinger's office)
Alan Powers: I am pretty certain it was Easter 1965. I was ten years old and my family were staying at our holiday cottage near Aldeburgh. We met Jim and his wife Betty in the town mid-morning, they had just moved into their house, and they said "do come up have coffee," so we did. The house became a byword in our family for a very aesthetic interior, where it was clear you could not have small children because things would be knocked over, fall down steps and that kind of thing. I do remember being incredibly struck by it because at that time there were not very many things in it, unlike later. I remember the engraved inscriptions he had that were done by sculpture students at the Royal College of Art, some pine cones and sort of dried grasses - I remember how nice they were. So that was my first encounter. Then there was a very long gap when I think I started to meet Jim and Betty partly in an Aldeburgh context and then in London in the 1990s.
Jonathan P Watts: Was your father friends with Jim and Betty?
AP: Yes. I do not think he knew them particularly well. There was a two years difference. They both studied at the Architectural Association in London, but Jim was definitely a figure in the Modern architecture world. He had this distinction of having built a project before the war; you had to get in quite young to have done that. Brief City which shows the lights coming on in the fountains: it obviously was quite a magical effect.

JPW: Could you describe Jim's work on the Festival of Britain after the war?
Noye's Fludde he used teacups hung on a string which are hit. When doing The Burning Fiery Furnace he wanted a particular metallic percussion sound and so rooted around the garage at Orford, near the church of its premier performance, and found old Rolls Royce springs discarded in the corner somewhere. They tried those out and they made exactly the right noise. Jim loved telling that story.
Emily Richardson: The use of jam jars to create an aesthetic, a particular look, is quite interesting. There are elements of 3 Church Walk that had been made in a very DIY way, but in each case to achieve the right aesthetic. That seemed to have been very much part of his way.

JPW: I've seen a photograph of Britten and children standing by an A-frame strung with tea cups. To return to Emily's point, what we struck by in the house, for instance, is that Jim had cut the back of the cooker off to achieve the right look. There were several other items of furniture, present and absent at the time of our visit, Natalie pointed out were bought, irrespective of material qualities, for the correct look.
AP: I would not say that is absolutely true...
JPW: Not the build of the house, interior details.
AP: ...Partly because the person who fixed things was Betty. Jim was quite funny about that. He said" "She can do everything with a screwdriver, can mend everything. I just arrange the flowers."
JPW: Jim describes encountering Le Corbusier for the first time as a revelation. Later he became friends with, and worked for, Ern ő Goldfinger. If you could characterise what did he learn from these luminaries?
AP: What did Jim learn from Le Corbusier? Well everybody learns from Le Corbusier. I would not say Jim's buildings are very directly linked. I think there was a sense of excitement, a sense of improvisation, invention. Maybe he responded to Le Corbusier's overlooked sense of place, where you design in relation to where you are: landscape, some of the surrounding buildings, perhaps. Jim certainly had that quite strongly. In relation to Ern ő Goldfinger some of the same things definitely apply. Goldfinger had a very developed sense of materials and Jim appreciated the way he would mix marble and concrete, for example, and that there was a logical background to the design decisions but they were not boring either.

JPW: That response to place is felt quite strongly at 3 Church Walk. The bricks, for example, are local, and in the 1962 mortgage application Jim notes "many good trees on the site" such as Scotch pine, chestnut, ilex, apple and pear. What do you think is the relation between Jim's public and civic projects - the Royal College of Art Kensington campus and Gravesend Civic Centre - and 3 Church Walk? AP: To understand Jim's architectural motivation what I have found very useful is the one worked out theoretical statement he produced, which was his Architectural Association presidential speech in 1959 called JPW: I read, I think in your
The Dance of Life. The title is taken from Havelock Ellis, who Jim used to refer to on the primacy of dance, of it being a fundamental form of artistic expression - you would think architects would pick up on that more. The way Jim interpreted it was that all buildings contain people and people are moving: that is one of the aspects from which the design can develop, the movement paths. He is not alone in that idea but he had an interesting way of seeing it as a link between the social aspect of the building and its formal expression. So that, for example, at the Royal College of Art, he looked at the lunch queue and realised that was the place where people met and talked and therefore to make lunch serving more efficient and faster was the wrong thing to do. In at 3 Church Walk the fact there is a circuit you can take to go around the house and also see the long vistas through it, in what is actually quite a small building, is definitely signifiant. Most architects would not have done that. It is not really a sacrifice of privacy as such. The idea of openness was important to him; standing furniture away from the walls so you can feel the space going down the back; His and Betty's absolute delight in the fact there were no skirting boards, and their explanation of how difficult it was to get a builder to do that. They were very lucky: they had a plasterer working for the building firm who was good enough to do that, to bring the plaster right down to the floor with a tiny recessed joint at the bottom. Also, the fact that the doors go right up to the ceiling with no moldings or anything around them, that was fundamental. I remember him saying to me that he got the same pleasure from Norman Foster's Willis Faber building in Ipswich where the glass comes right down just below the pavement level surrounding it into a little lowered gutter. "Alan," he said to me "you're not an architect so you would not understand."
JPW: The English Heritage listing of 3 Church Walk describes it as a "good example of a good architect's home." Do you feel it is an outstanding example of domestic Modernism?
AP: I think the house is perfectly realised in its own terms. Having done research for English Heritage listing that, in a way, became my criteria. It is not that it conforms to a stylistic model and that one model is better than another, but that everything within it is worked out and coherent. I think it fits that prescription extremely well. It uses devices others have used before. Its very subtle use of internal and external space... The fact that the outside is almost unphotographable - I mean, you can see it, but there were periods when it was covered in a huge growth of ivy which made it more difficult to see. Everything is happening from the inside towards the outside. Then I think the way he partially screened the garden with brick walls and created the entry where you squeeze through a rather narrow passage by the garage and come out into a little courtyard. Your mind has already moved away from Aldeburgh and you are ready for a new experience, which is what you have going into the house and garden. There is the use of levels. Although fairly straightforward, there is just one level change going down into what Betty liked to call the "passion pit." This sunken area of the living room is very effective at effecting space: you see space better closer to the ground. The passion pit gives you that in a very straightforward way.

AP: Yes, it is curious because historians rely on print. The fact that when it was a new house it was not published - I do not know quite why, at that period architects were not obsessed by publicity, strange in relation to today - so after that moment passed it was only known to people who visited. I wrote the first article on it. Country Life article on the house, that Jim found no photographer could ever do justice to the sense of space in the house.
JPW: That article was published in 1997. It was the first systematic piece of writing on the house?
AP: Yes. I think the objects in the house helped to do an article for a more general magazine, plus the interesting story about it.
JPW: There is a striking resemblance between 3 Church Walk and some of the Suffolk architect John Penn's houses. Emily recently visited the house on Single Street in Suffolk and was struck by the similarity. Was Penn aware of Jim? Are the similarities a basis for a period regional style?
AP: Hmm. Jim Cadbury-Brown and John Penn, another Suffolk architect, both of whom I met, had some similarities. I never heard that they met each other. John was quite a private person. Jim went to Aldeburgh on holiday and knew a few architects in and around the town. John Penn's houses have a very consistent theme about symmetry and formalism. Although they are modern, very often one storey, brick, flat roof - those are the similarities, but what he does is rather different. They make a fascinating pairing actually, because Jim is not about symmetry. Indeed, it is rather hard to see how you could put a very symmetrical house on the Aldeburgh site effectively because there is not an axial-frontal approach to it. Penn's houses are mainly on open sites, where the nature of the site with views all around rather demands a more formal approach.

ER: Do you think Jim was aware of John Penn and his work?
AP: I have no way of knowing. I would imagine so. In what context they would have met, well there are probably enough people still around who would have the answer to that.
JPW: In an earlier email correspondence you suggested you had an instrumental role in the house's listing. Could you describe that role? Was it a controversial listing in any way?
AP: This is a bit of a farcical footnote actually, although luckily not totally. I was employed as a consultant by English Heritage in 1994 to survey post-war houses for listing. I drew up a long list, which went to a committee and then another committee to be sifted down. I had Jim's house on the list. It did not make the final cut partly, I was told, because they had not got a plan. Well the plan was not published, it is true. Jim had given me a plan and I had put it in a folder of information for the person who was presenting it and they had not realised what it was! Therefore it missed the bus, which could have been quite serious if the house was under threat. Luckily everything carried on as normal up to the point where it was possible to put it through at a later point. At that stage Elain Harwood was managing the submissions from inside English Heritage and she had been there quite a lot and got to know Jim. She made sure there were not any slip ups like that again. Luckily it was not controversial in any way: there he was living in it and it is almost invisible from anywhere.

JPW: How did Jim feel about the listing?
AP: Oh he was definitely pleased about it. He did come to feel, because he did not have children, that the house was his legacy. He was concerned somebody should have it who would appreciate it.
JPW: When Emily and I visited there were various objects still in the house, lamps, chairs and furniture, that Natalie told us he stipulated be left. What is the significance of these objects?
AP: Jim had a very personal attitude to interior decorating and objects. I was very struck by it. Everything was carefully chosen, well you expect that from architects. Some things were quite surprising, they were not all modern, they tended towards monochrome with colour accents. That was very typical of the way the black leather sofa had one cushion lemon yellow and one that was mauve - a colour combination he used in his clothes quite a lot. Just very stylish. I do not know which pieces were left but I would imagine they are a hint towards the right way of living there.
ER: There is the William Morris bench seat, Eames chairs, Anglepoise lamps and that sofa.
AP: He was very interested in the Arts and Crafts period, and had some slightly Art Noveau candle sticks that had been family items, and the Morris seat. Like a number of architects of his generation that was his parents' and grandparents' era. The fact that his grandfather was in the property business and had a house in Hampstead near where C.F.A Voysey built a house for his father. I think all that sank in and he had this sense of the previous generation also in Aldbeburgh, where there are Arts and Crafts houses, as being a valid ancestry for what he was doing.
JPW: Originally the site in Aldeburgh was supposed to have four houses. Obviously there is the house built for Imogen Holst, but what do you know about the acquisition of land? And the building of Holst's house? Was there ever a question of that place being listed too?
AP: The acquisition of the site is quite a curious story involving a project for an opera house for the Aldeburgh Festival. It was actually the second opera house project Jim had worked on. In the process there was a committee set up which, I think, bought the land, or at least bought an option on it. While he looked at the design they looked at fund raising. Eventually it was dropped in about 1960. It was probably a good thing: the site was not big enough for what they wanted to do. That was the point when he made an offer on the land and built his house, and the smaller one for Imogen Holst who was very much linked with the Festival. On the issue about there being four houses, he never wanted or expected to build four houses; in planning terms it was designated as a site that could be used for four houses.
ER: It was not that he had a group of people in mind?
AP: So far as I am aware I never heard anything about it and he had the luxury of a rather nice big garden.
JPW: Were they close friends with Imogen Holst?
AP: I do not think they were close friends. She was a very nice person. I used to see her around in Aldeburgh. I never knew her but I've read and heard a lot about her. She was a character. They enjoyed her character. When they were designing the house she said she wanted a completely soundproof room and they realised she would suffocate in there because it would have to be so tightly sealed.
JPW: Was there ever a question of listing them as a pair?
AP: I cannot remember the circumstances around that, but Jim's house is architecturally superior. One could quite legitimately add her house for historical as well as architectural interest and for "group value," which is one of the phrases used in listing. Indeed that might be a worthwhile thing to consider. The history of listing in the past few years has really been so depressing because the ministers who have to approve post-war listings seem to have been against them on principle, with only a few exceptions, for a very long time so one feels it is better not to try until the climate improves... Or until you get a threat. In fact they do not want random suggestions coming in unless they are under threat. So while that situation remains I think it will be left as it is.

JPW: Your exhibition AP: Well the exhibition I put on with James Dunnett and Elain Harwood at the Royal Academy in Autumn of 2006 called Elegant Variation, what did it mean for you to be able to do that? Cadbury-Brown is not known as a significant British Modern architect. Was it an attempt to right that?
Elegant Variation: The Architecture of H.T. Cadbury-Brown RA I was really pleased that was able to happen. The motivation began with a listed building dispute over the Royal College of Art about making an addition on the side towards the Albert Hall. That was very touch and go for a long time as to whether that would get permission, which really would have compromised the building and seemed to me not a good project in terms of its brief. It was supposed to be the painting school but it seemed fairly obvious it was not big enough to be the painting school. It was more of a prestige operation. It was really bad idea. Jim did not like it either. Luckily the proposal was withdrawn.

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In July 1997 the architectural writer Jill Lever recorded over five hours of interviews with Jim at his home in Aldeburgh for the English Heritage listing summaries detail references to published articles on the building in question.

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http://sami.bl.uk/uhtbin/cgisirsi/?ps=uOECtHpvdG/WORKS-FILE/198930097/18/X246/XTITLE/Jim+and+Betty+Cadbury-Brown

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Margaret Casson interviewed by Jennifer Wingate - Part 1    Casson, Margaret,(Lady) 1913-1999 (speaker, female; interviewee)

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Margaret Casson interviewed by Jennifer Wingate - Part 1    Casson, Margaret,(Lady) 1913-1999 (speaker, female; interviewee)

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http://sami.bl.uk/uhtbin/cgisirsi/?ps=wKnomkA439/WORKS-FILE/1730089/9

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Hugh Casson Interviewed by Cathy Courtney

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Hugh Casson Interviewed by Cathy Courtney

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Margaret Macdonald Casson (nee Troup) 1913 - 1999 Architect .... Designer.... Photographer

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University Of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester CO4 3 

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https://www.chiswickauctions.co.uk/auction/lot/446-lady-margaret-casson-margaret-macdonald/?lot=35826&sd=1

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Lot 446 - LADY MARGARET CASSON (MARGARET MACDONALD)

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Lot 446 - LADY MARGARET CASSON (MARGARET MACDONALD) - Estimate 100-150 GBP

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https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4647703-japan-observed

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Japan Observed book. Read reviews from world's largest community for readers. Published on the occasion of the centenary of the Japan Society.

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https://www.ribapix.com/sketch-design-for-decoration-of-reception-room-royal-institute-of-british-architects-66-portland-place-london_riba127217

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Sketch design for decoration of reception room, Royal Institute of British Architects, 66 Portland Place, London

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Buy Sketch design for decoration of reception room, Royal Institute of British Architects, 66 Portland Place, London by Casson, Margaret Macdonald, Lady Casson (1913-1999) from the RIBApix online shop. Ref RIBA127217

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https://www.ribapix.com/Royal-Lancaster-Hotel-Hyde-Park-London-the-private-function-room_RIBA79285?ribasearch=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Royal Lancaster Hotel, Hyde Park, London: the private function room

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Buy Royal Lancaster Hotel, Hyde Park, London: the private function room by Casson, Margaret Macdonald, Lady Casson (1913-1999) from the RIBApix online shop. Ref RIBA79285

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https://www.ribapix.com/Darwin-Building-Royal-College-of-Art-Kensington-Gore-London-the-senior-common-room_RIBA100560

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Darwin Building, Royal College of Art, Kensington Gore, London: the senior common room

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ribapix - the uk's largest architecture image library - architectural images & drawings

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Royal Lancaster Hotel, Hyde Park, London: the private function room

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Buy Royal Lancaster Hotel, Hyde Park, London: the private function room by Casson, Margaret Macdonald, Lady Casson (1913-1999) from the RIBApix online shop. Ref RIBA79287

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Cadbury-Brown, Betty (1 of 1)

The British Library Board acknowledges the intellectual property rights of those named as contributors to this recording and the rights of those not identified.
Legal and ethical usage "

Subjects

Architecture

Recording date

1999-08-25

Interviewees

Cadbury-Brown, Betty, 1922-2002 (speaker, female)

Interviewers

Powers, Alan (speaker, male)

Abstract

Part 1: In 1948 BCB worked in Erno Goldfinger's office for six weeks. Introduced by Helena Rubenstein's cousin in US, a sculptor. Told by RIBA that no jobs available in architectural practice for Americans so offered to work for him free. Those six weeks changed her life. EG very rational and yet emotional, tremendously glamourous from his European connections. A wonderful teacher as well as employer, not the tyrant he appeared. Worked on school in East End and learned a great deal. Taught the scientific way to sharpen pencils and cut tracing paper. She went on to work in Jim Cadbury Brown.'s office and later married him. Both always welcome at Goldfinger house in Willow Road. Ursula's contribution to EG's career, her sympathetically arranged house. EG's meeting with Ursula and his sophisticated attraction. Their retun to England in 1932. Only one other person in the office as little work available, mainly shops and schools. Very stimulating atmosphere. Husband had also had one year apprenticeship with EG. Her most admired building was the Balfron Tower, so strong and imposing. Also early house at Broxstead (admired by interviewer) and Willow Road though B C-B thought outside somewhat inhibited by Hampstead milieu. EG very good at detail and furniture design eg. French Tourist Office. His stacking chairs. EG and Ursula were a perfect couple although she completely gave up her painting. Little change in the house until he died. His wonderful collection of paintings and his glamour. Their wide range of friends including scientists. Visual arts and history but no music. B C-B had studied at Columbia, jealous of reputation of Harvard professors of architecture. EG not part of other architects' club and given no part in Festival of Britain. His visits to C-B house. His deep feeling for Ursula despite him being a flirt and party-goer. EG 's children and his mother. His love of history and liberal theories of democracy. Left wing but not fitted for a totaliterian system. Well-educated at 'school for little princes'. His Hungarian connection. Daily Worker building - B C-B nervous about entering this in McCarthy period. They were all left-wing and hopeful.

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Part 1: In 1948 BCB worked in Erno Goldfinger's office for six weeks. Introduced by Helena Rubenstein's cousin in US, a sculptor. Told by RIBA that no jobs available in architectural practice for Americans so offered to work for him free. Those six weeks changed her life.

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Lecture Theatre Building | AccessAble

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Henry ‘Jim’ Cadbury-Brown, ‘Planning’ by The British Library

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Jim Cadbury-Brown describes his aims in the design of the Royal College of Art in Kensington Gore, ‘to act as a background to art, and not to assert itself as an art-thing’.

Interview with Henry Cadbury-Brown by Jill Lever in 1997, Architects’ Lives C467/16 

Track 9 [00:03:34 – 00:10:50] 
Copyright British Library.

Full interview available at  https://sounds.bl.uk/Oral-history/Architects-Lives/021M-C0467X0016XX-0100V0

This clip can be listened to at Drawing Matter, https://www.drawingmatter.org/

Drawing Matter is an archive of architectural drawings established by Niall Hobhouse in order to actively promote new ways of thinking about architecture through the process of drawing.  The collection contains many thousands of drawings and spans the period from the sixteenth to the twentieth century.

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https://drawingmatter.org/take-one-henry-jim-cadbury-brown-and-richard-wentworth-on-the-royal-college-of-art/

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Henry ‘Jim’ Cadbury-Brown, ‘Students’ by The British Library

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Jim Cadbury-Brown explains how he encouraged the students to walk around the Royal College of Art so as to see each other’s work and to socialise. 

Interview with Henry Cadbury-Brown by Jill Lever in 1997, Architects’ Lives C467/16 

Track 9 [00:13:23-16:20] 
Copyright British Library. 

Full interview available at https://sounds.bl.uk/Oral-history/Architects-Lives/021M-C0467X0016XX-0100V0

This clip can be listened to at Drawing Matter, https://www.drawingmatter.org/

Drawing Matter is an archive of architectural drawings established by Niall Hobhouse in order to actively promote new ways of thinking about architecture through the process of drawing.  The collection contains many thousands of drawings and spans the period from the sixteenth to the twentieth century.

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Henry ‘Jim’ Cadbury-Brown, ‘Birds’ by The British Library

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Jim Cadbury-Brown talks about several departments at the Royal College of Art, particularly stained glass and the greenhouse with birds for the textiles department.

Interview with Henry Cadbury-Brown by Jill Lever in 1997, Architects’ Lives C467/16 

Track 9 [00:10:59-00:13:18] 
Copyright British Library. 

Full interview available at https://sounds.bl.uk/Oral-history/Architects-Lives/021M-C0467X0016XX-0100V0

This clip can be listened to at Drawing Matter, https://www.drawingmatter.org/

Drawing Matter is an archive of architectural drawings established by Niall Hobhouse in order to actively promote new ways of thinking about architecture through the process of drawing.  The collection contains many thousands of drawings and spans the period from the sixteenth to the twentieth century.

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Richard Wentworth, ‘Black Drum’ by The British Library

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Richard Wentworth, ‘Black Drum’ by The British Library

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Richard Wentworth describes the Royal College of Art when he was a student in the 1960s.

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Richard Wentworth, ‘Black Drum’ by The British Library

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Richard Wentworth describes the Royal College of Art when he was a student in the 1960s.  

Ongoing interview with Richard Wentworth by Cathy Courtney in 2019, Artists Lives, C466/282 

Track 47 [01:26:59 – 01:31:20] 
Copyright Richard Wentworth. 

This clip can be listened to at Drawing Matter, https://www.drawingmatter.org/

Drawing Matter is an archive of architectural drawings established by Niall Hobhouse in order to actively promote new ways of thinking about architecture through the process of drawing.  The collection contains many thousands of drawings and spans the period from the sixteenth to the twentieth century.

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H T Cadbury-Brown, with Sir Hugh Casson & Robert Gooden, 1960-63, Listed grade II

The Royal College of Art sits strikingly amongst the many Georgian white stuccoed terraces and red Victorian mansions of Kensington. It was a brave move on Westminster's part to give the building the go-ahead in the late fifties, given its context - it sits right next to the Royal Albert Hall, the Royal College of Organists and the Albert Memorial. It resides on one of the most hallowed areas of arts ground, Albertopolis, reaching from the Victoria and Albert Museum and Natural History Museum up to Kensington Gardens, and including two other renowned institutions, the Royal College of Music and Imperial College.

It is a fitting place for the Royal College of Art. Although it began its life at Somerset House in 1837, by 1863 it was housed at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and has since enjoyed a long history in this area. The present college buildings were designed in 1956-59, on an excellent site allocated to the Ministry of Education for that exact purpose, facing the park and between the Albert Hall and Queen's Gate, and enabled by a government grant. This meant that all the departments and the administration could at last be brought together on one site for the first time.

The buildings' austere appearance is perhaps explained by the extremely tight budget, which led to the use of the simplest materials. The building was planned as three blocks. The workshop block, now named the Darwin Building after the Rector at that time, ran along the northern boundary of the site, where height was not restricted. The Gulbenkian wing runs along the east of the site and was made possible by a generous donation from the Trustees of the Gulbenkian Foundation, as the government was unable or unwilling to fund this block. This gave the college a much-needed hall and exhibition space. A common room block was planned for the south-west corner of the site, which was to link to the teaching block by a bridge, and to the Gulbenkian Hall by a library and lecture theatre.

The college chose to use its own staff to design the building: H T Cadbury-Brown who taught in the sculpture department, in association with Sir Hugh Casson, then Professor of Interior Design, and Robert Gooden, Professor of Silversmithing and Jewellery. As staff, not only were they in a unique position to understand the needs of the college, but also their authorship firmly ties the design to the institution, which is most unusual and adds to the historical significance of the buildings.

The design paid careful attention to its prestigious site. The Darwin Building has been limited in height to balance Norman Shaw's Albert Hall Mansions, which flank the opposite side of the Albert Hall. The brick cladding chosen is dark in colour in order to mirror the then uncleaned red brick of the Shaw buildings, and the regular but broken skyline clearly responds to the gables of Shaw's block. The design is confident and stands up well to its neighbours. The entrance block, the Gulbenkian wing, was deliberately kept low to allow striking views of the Albert Hall from the college, and the main college entrance was specifically placed to facilitate a fantastic view through the portico of the Albert Hall and on down Kensington Gore. The relationship between this core group of three buildings was of utmost importance to the design, and Cadbury-Brown was keenly aware that they should play together to obtain a total effect ('Royal College of Art, Kensington' The Architect & Building News,9 June 1965, p 1084). The open space was seen as an important and impressive part of the setting.

At the time that these college buildings were commissioned, it was envisaged that the college would be able to expand onto the site further to the west, fronting onto Queen's Gate, once the lease expired in 1973. Provision of accommodation for the Schools of Painting, Sculpture and Graphic Design would then be made. However, planning permission was turned down for this building, again designed by Cadbury-Brown and team, as it required the demolition of a number of buildings at the top end of Queen's Gate, which would result in the proposed new building abutting Norman Shaw's last remaining house on this road, following the demolition of two others during the expansion of Imperial College. An article in The Architectural Review in July 1973 makes many interesting comments about Westminster's decision not to grant planning permission. It points out that as it granted permission for the RCA to establish itself in a new main building, should it not also recognise the need for the institution to develop? The council zoned most of this area in 1958 for educational purposes, thereby firmly recognising the legacy of the 1851 Great Exhibition. Yet the reviewer claims that under rising pressure to protect buildings of any character whatsoever, Nos 197-200 Queen's Gate were listed Grade 3 in 1970, meaning that the RCA would have to use these buildings for non-technical education as they were unsuitable to convert to large studios. In the event, what happened is that an extension was built at the back of these buildings to house the remaining departments, entered from Jays Mews.

The points raised in the article are interesting, as well as being current. Should Westminster have granted planning permission? Were they short-sighted in not doing so? Allowing the development would have created buildings better suited for use by the arts college, rather than the odd conversions that have resulted. But this issue is raised frequently; not least when the Society is instrumental in listing a building it feels to be of special architectural interest, but which may affect future development. The Royal College of Art was listed in 2001 at Grade II, which recognised the college as a particularly fine example of a high-quality cultural institution of the 1960s. The college is still desperate for space, and its on site options are limited. The second phase of Cadbury-Brown building, had it been permitted, would probably have provided more accommodation than presently on this north-east corner site of Queen's Gate and Kensington Gore, but even so it is doubtful whether it would have solved the problem. At present the sculpture school and half the painting school are off-site. Obviously, it would be ideal to re-unite all the departments together on one site, but the resulting proposal is a scheme to which to Society is wholly opposed.

Nicholas Grimshaw and Partners are working on a design which would see the complete removal of the Gulbenkian wing and its replacement with what has been nicknamed at the college 'The Ellipse' - a glass building oval in shape, which rests in plan form at a slight diagonal to the main Darwin Building, and which reaches up in height to the main building's double-height spaces at sixth floor level. The Society views the entrance block as an intrinsic part of the design, and believes that it balances against the austere bulk of the taller buildings and forms an entrance that is clearly expressed and which is human in scale. Cadbury-Brown intended the entrance to be on the east side of the college and to relate to the Albert Hall, but with the Grimshaw design the entrance moves to the north. The proposed new building would also block the views of the Albert Hall, which formed a large part of the rationale behind the original design. The Society finds that the proposed scheme has no regard for the listed structure, and destroys the sensitive balance Cadbury-Brown clearly intended in the buildings' juxtaposition. The scheme also shows no respect for the setting of the college and its considered relationship to the Albert Hall and Albert Hall Mansions discussed earlier. Clearly, this site is the only choice open to the Royal College of Art in terms of increasing their space provision, and unfortunately the sole option for them is to build upwards. Yet it is quite remarkable that a school of art and design of such repute and international standing has such a lack of regard for its own outstanding buildings.

Westminster has been accused once already of being short-sighted and they seem set to put the record straight. Although the Society has viewed the scheme, it has not yet gone to planning. It was due to go by the end of July, and although we saw the scheme recently we may not have seen the final submission. Westminster has been involved in informal discussions on the proposals over the past year and the scheme had reached a virtually final stage before we were invited to view it. While the need for space at the college is pressing, surely it cannot justify the destruction of the integrity of these marvellous purpose-built art college buildings, as well as their relationship to the Albert Hall and Albert Hall Mansions by altering so significantly the spatial relationship they have to each other. It seems like a case of déjà-vu, and while the Society does want the building to function successfully and for the purpose for which it was intended, it cannot endorse these current proposals.
Claire Barrett

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H T Cadbury-Brown, with Sir Hugh Casson & Robert Gooden, 1960-63, Listed grade II The Royal College of Art sits strikingly amongst the many Georgian white stuccoed terraces and red Victorian mansions of Kensington.

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Henry Thomas Cadbury-Brown (1913–2009), Royal College of Art extension, London, 1972. Mixed media, 950 × 1200 mm. DMC 1296.1.

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Henry Thomas Cadbury-Brown (1913–2009), Royal College of Art extension, London, 1972. Mixed media, 950 × 1200 mm. DMC 1296.1.

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Henry Thomas Cadbury-Brown (1913–2009), Royal College of Art extension, London, 1972. Mixed media, 950 × 1200 mm. DMC 1296.1.

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https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/name/h-t-cadbury-brown-ra

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https://www.ribapix.com/search?adv=false&cid=0&mid=0&vid=0&q=cadbury%20brown&sid=false&isc=true&orderBy=0

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ribapix - the uk's largest architecture image library - architectural images & drawings

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RIBApix - The UK's Largest Architecture Image Library - Architectural Images & Drawings

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University of Essex Lecture TheatreLocation: Ivor Crewe Lecture Theatre, University of Essex, Colchester, EssexDate built: 2006Design: Patel Taylor Architect

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Images from ArcelorMittal

Main building cladding material: Ugibright, by ArcelorMittal

Elliptical drum clad in stainless steel criticsed by The Prince of Wales in Feb 2008 as looking like a “dustbin”.

Approximate building construction cost: £6m

The building was nominated for a Civic Trust Award in 2008.

Ivor Crewe was appointed Knight Bachelor in the 2006 New Year Honours.

In July 2008, Crewe succeeded Lord Butler of Brockwell as Master of University College, Oxford. In 2013 Crewe and King published The Blunders of our Governments, a study of major failures of public policy in modern Britain.

Named in his honour this lecture hall at the University of Essex, was completed in 2006.

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ribapix - the uk's largest architecture image library - architectural images & drawings

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Working drawing of sill details for Rowlett Street housing, Poplar, London

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Buy Working drawing of sill details for Rowlett Street housing, Poplar, London by Goldfinger, Erno (1902-1987) from the RIBApix online shop. Ref RIBA13278

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ribapix - the uk's largest architecture image library - architectural images & drawings

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Design for the first floor kitchen of 2 Willow Road, Hampstead, London: plan and elevation, including a detail of a 'Westing House' built-in oven

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RIBApix - The UK's Largest Architecture Image Library - Architectural Images & Drawings

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Designs for an unexecuted office building, Moorgate, City of London: elevations (shaded)

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NOTES: These drawings are designs for a 27-storey block tower at Moorgate, City of London. The project was carried out as a design exercise to familiarise the architects with the technology of tall office buildings.

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Designs for an unexecuted office building, Moorgate, City of London: detail of facade

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NOTES: These drawings are designs for a 27-storey block tower at Moorgate, City of London. The project was carried out as a design exercise to familiarise the architects with the technology of tall office buildings.

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Designs for 3 Church Walk, Aldeburgh, Suffolk: roof dormers and gates

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Buy Designs for 3 Church Walk, Aldeburgh, Suffolk: roof dormers and gates by Cadbury-Brown, Elizabeth Romeyn (1922-2002) from the RIBApix online shop. Ref RIBA85401

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Designs for 3 Church Walk, Aldeburgh, Suffolk: electrical plan

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Buy Designs for 3 Church Walk, Aldeburgh, Suffolk: electrical plan by Cadbury-Brown, Elizabeth Romeyn (1922-2002) from the RIBApix online shop. Ref RIBA85406