Frank Hoar

Dr. Harold Frank Hoar (13th September, 1907-3rd October 1976), was an architect, artist, academic and architectural historian who designed the first Gatwick Airport at the age of twenty-five and was later well known as the cartoonist Acanthus in Punch, the Sunday Telegraph and The Builder magazine; and as Hope in the Sunday Express.

Background

Hoar was born in Burma, then a part of the Indian Empire, to Harold Hoar and Frances (nee) Harry. His father, an engineer engaged in the design of bridges, was a cousin of Prof Sir James Jeans, OM, the famous physicist. He was also distantly related to the New England branch of the family, a notable legal dynasty (see Baldwin, Hoar & Sherman family).

On the family's return to England, they settled in Devon, where Hoar was educated at Plymouth College. He won a scholarship to the Bartlett School of Building at University College London, with which he was to be associated for the best part of his life, at the age of 15. Studying under Sir Albert Richardson, PRA, Hoar qualified as an ARIBA in 1931 and was awarded a diploma in Town Planning, having been named Owen Jones Student by the RIBA whilst an undergraduate.

Gatwick & Architectural Practice

Hoar first came to public prominence when he won the competition for the design of the first Gatwick Airport in 1935. Morris Jackaman had had the idea of a circular terminal, which was well suited to the developing air traffic needs of the time, allowing sufficient aircraft to be positioned in close proximity to the terminal building. Hoar's design catered for these needs by surrounding the round terminal with five ramps, each of which connected to aircraft. The terminal was entered by a tunnel subway connected, in turn, to the railway station. The building is still in use as a helicopter terminal, affectionately known as 'the Beehive'; and a model of Hoar's design was included in the gallery of architectural history at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2004.

Following this success, Hoar built an architectural practice in which he was often engaged to design civic buildings, especially in the 1940s and '50s. He served with the Royal Engineers in Egypt and North Africa during the Second World War where, like his father, he designed bridges.

After the War, Hoar combined his architectural and town planning practice with academic positions at UCL, where he was a senior lecturer at the Bartlett School. In a time of architectural asperity, he was well known for his lectures on the Bavarian Baroque - a subject far out of favour with the modernism of the age. Hoar's doctorate was awarded on this subject and a number of his watercolours of the interiors of Bavarian churches were exhibited at the Royal Academy; as were watercoulours of St Peter's, Rome, a particular favourite. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects in the 1950s.

Acanthus & Hope

Hoar was perhaps best known for his cartoons, as Hope in the Sunday Express and as Acanthus in Punch. This part of his career started with political cartoons in the Express, during the War years. Hoar found his metier, however, with his amusing social commentry as Acanthus, almost always with an architectural theme or background. The early cartoons provide a great insight into the Home Front during the Second World War, often with a focus on the straightened circumstances of those who had the millstone of maintaining a country house - which enabled his architectural skills to be used to their best advantage. They are also of some historical interest, reflecting as they do the social mores of the day. Hoar's work was later published in The Builder, an architectural and building magazine. In the Sunday Telegraph he published pocket cartoons in his later years.

Practicing for his entire career in the age of architectural modernism (which he did not entirely spurn, his buildings being as influenced by the age as those of most architects of his generation), Hoar was fond of using his cartoons to lampoon what he saw as its excesses - especially where they threatened architectural heritage. In doing so, the breadth of his historical architectural knowledge was used to good effect. An example was his skit on a proposal by Frank Lloyd Wright for a new building on Canale Grande in Venice, published in Punch in 1954, in which Hoar suggests a medley of architectural styles. Hoar would later write two books on the architectural history of England and Europe, which he illustrated with plans and drawings..

Books

• Pen and Ink Drawings (The Studio Publications, 1955)
• A History of English Architecture (Evans Brothers, 1963)
• European Architecture, From Earliest Times to the Present Day (Evans Bros, 1967)

In addition, he illustrated a number of books.

Family

Hoar married, in 1940, Rosamand Leonard (1909-1983), the daughter of Patrick Leonard, a landowner, former chairman of the Chamber of Commerce of Dublin and a member of the Irish Dail, and grand-daughter of Simon Mangan of Dunboyne Castle, HM Lieutenant for County Meath. Rosamand was a concert pianist who trained at the Paris Conservatoire and was well known for her performances on Radio Eireann in its earliest years.

They had four children:

• Peter Frank (b 1941), married Julia. Two children: Christopher and Tamara;
• Valerie (b 1946), married Adrian Beatty. Four children: Jonathan, Caroline, Gerald and Sarah;
• John Leonard (b 1947), married Jacqueline Tindal, d of Grp Capt Nicolas Tindal-Carill-Worsley (see Darwin-Wedgwood family, 6th generation). Seven children: Francis, Thomas, Edmund, William, Jack, Nicolas and Joseph;
• Diana (b 1950), married Harry Russell. Four children: Julian, Anthony, Emily and Dominic.

Sources

• Obituary in the The Times, 7th October, 1976;
• Perspective in Perspective, by Lawrence Wright (1983)
• Transport Terminals and Modal Interchanges: Planning and Design, by Christopher Blow (2005)
• Punch, 1942-1976;
• Sunday Express
• Sunday Telegraph
• The Builder magazine

External links

• Hoar's design of Gatwick
• Picture in Gov Art Collection 'The Procession in Broad Sanctuary and the Colonial Office Stand'