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Charles Holden

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Charles Henry Holden
Portrait of Charles Holden by Benjamin Nelson, 1910.
Born(1875-05-12)12 May 1875
Great Lever, Bolton, Lancashire, England
Died1 May 1960(1960-05-01) (aged 84)
Harmer Green, near Welwyn, Hertfordshire, England
NationalityBritish
OccupationArchitect
AwardsRIBA London Architecture Medal for 1929 (awarded 1931)
RIBA Royal Gold Medal (1936)
Royal Designer for Industry (1943)
BuildingsLondon Underground stations
55 Broadway
Senate House
Imperial War Graves Commission

Charles Henry Holden Litt. D. FRIBA MRTPI RDI (12 May 1875–1 May 1960) was an English architect best known for designing many London Underground stations during the 1920s and 1930s and for the Underground Electric Railways Company of London's headquarters at 55 Broadway and the University of London's Senate House. He also created many war cemeteries in Belgium and northern France for the Imperial War Graves Commission.

Holden was awarded the Royal Institute of British Architects' Royal Gold Medal for architecture in 1936 and was appointed a Royal Designer for Industry in 1943. Modestly believing that architecture was a joint effort, he twice declined the offer of a Knighthood.

Early life

Charles Holden was born on 12 May 1875 at Great Lever, Bolton, Lancashire; he was the fifth and youngest child of Joseph Holden, a draper and milliner, and Ellen Holden (née Bolton). Holden's childhood was marred by his mother's death in 1883 and his father's bankruptcy in 1884.[1][2] The family moved to St Helens where his father worked as a turner and fitter and where Holden attended a number of schools.[1][3] He briefly had jobs as a laboratory assistant and a railway clerk before working for his brother-in-law, Frederick Green, a land surveyor.[3] In April 1892 he was articled to Manchester architect Everard W Leeson and, whilst training with him, also studied at the Manchester School of Art (1893–94) and Manchester Technical School (1894–96). Holden was an excellent student and was even put in charge of teaching a class. Around this time he formed friendships with artists Muirhead Bone and Francis Dodd,[3] and began submitting designs to the Building News Designing Club using the pseudonym "The Owl".[3]

Holden left Leeson's practice in 1896 and worked for Jonathan Simpson in Bolton in 1896 and 1897, before moving to London to work for Arts and Crafts designer Charles Robert Ashbee. His time with Ashbee was short and, in October 1899, he became chief assistant in H Percy Adams' practice, where he remained for the rest of his career.[1]

Family

Around 1898 Holden began living with Margaret Steadman (née Macdonald, 1865–1954). Steadman had separated from her schoolteacher husband, with whom she had a son, due to his alcoholism and abuse. Steadman and her husband were never divorced and she and Holden appear never to have married. They lived in Norbiton, Surrey (now Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames) until 1902, when they moved to Codicote in Hertfordshire. Around 1906, they moved to Harmer Green near Welwyn, where Holden designed a house for them.[1] The couple lived a simple life, described by C R Ashbee's wife Janet in 1906 as "bananas and brown bread on the table; no hot water; plain living and high thinking and strenuous activity for the betterment of the World".[4] The couple had no children together and lived at Harmer Green for the rest of their lives.[1]

Works

Early career

Belgrave Hospital for Children

Adams' practice specialised in the design of hospitals and a number of Holden's early designs were for hospitals. At this early stage in his career, he produced designs in a variety of architectural styles as circumstances required, reflecting the influences of a number architects.[1]

His red brick arts and craft elevations for the Belgrave Hospital for Children in Kennington, south London (1900–1903), are influenced by Philip Webb and Henry Wilson and feature steeply-pitched roofs, corner towers and stone window surrounds.[5][6] The building, now converted to apartments, is grade II* listed.[3][7]

In 1902, Holden won the architectural competition to design the Bristol Central Library. His Tudor Revival elevations in bath stone incorporate modernist elements complementing the adjacent Abbey Gate of Bristol Cathedral. The front elevation features oriel windows and sculpture groups with Chaucer, Bede and Alfred the Great.[8] Internally, the design is classical. The building is grade I listed.[8] The library was described by architectural historian Andor Gomme as "one of the great masterpieces of the early Modern Movement",[8] and has been compared with Charles Rennie Mackintosh's Glasgow School of Art. It is sometimes suggested that Mackintosh's designs for the later part of the school were inspired by Holden's.[3]

Front
Rear
Reading Room
Bristol Central Library

At Midhurst, West Sussex, Holden designed Tudor-style elevations for the Sir Ernest Cassel-funded King Edward VII Sanatorium (1903–1906). The building features long wings of south-facing rooms to maximise patients' exposure to sunlight and fresh air. The elevations are in keeping with the building's rural setting, with elevations in the local tile-hung style.[3][9]

V-shaped chapel of King Edward VII Sanatorium (plan)

Holden also designed the sanitorium's V-shaped open-air chapel so that it could be used for both outdoor and indoor worship.[3][9] Both buildings are grade II listed.[10][11] Other hospitals he designed in this period include the British Seamen's Hospital in Istanbul (1903–1904), the Women's Hospital in Soho, central London (1908) and the extension of the Bristol Royal Infirmary (1909–12).[1]

For the Law Society he designed (1902–1904) a simplified neoclassical extension to the existing Lewis Vulliamy-designed building in Chancery Lane with a panelled arts and crafts interior with carving by William Aumonier and friezes by Conrad Dressler.[3][12]

Strand
Agar Street
British Medical Association Building

In 1906, Holden won the architectural competition to design a new headquarters for the British Medical Association on the corner of The Strand and Agar Street (now Zimbabwe House). The six-storey L-shaped building replaced a collection of houses on the site already occupied by the Association and provided it with accommodation for a council chamber, library and offices on the upper floors above space for shops on the ground floor and in the basement.[13] Described as simplified classicism reduced to geometric shapes,[3] the first three storeys are clad in grey Cornish granite with Portland stone above.[note 1] At second floor level a controversial series of 7-foot (2.1 m) tall sculptures representing the development of science and the ages of man were carved by Jacob Epstein.[3][15][note 2] The building is grade II* listed.[16]

The practice became Adams & Holden in 1907 when Holden became a partner and Adams, Holden & Pearson when Lionel Pearson became a partner in 1913.[3] Other buildings by Holden before the First World War include modernist office buildings in Holborn[17] and Oxford Street,[18] an extension in red brick of Alfred Waterhouse's Shire Hall in Bedford,[19] arts and crafts Sutton Valence School, Kent and the Wren-influenced Kings College for Women, Kensington.[3] Holden also worked with Epstein on the tomb of Oscar Wilde at Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris (1911–12).[6] In 1915, Holden was a founding member of the Design and Industries Association and he was a member of the Art Workers' Guild from 1917.[3]

War cemeteries and memorials

Memorial at Buttes New British Cemetery

In the First World War, Holden served with the London Ambulance column until October 1917 when he was appointed as a temporary Lieutenant with the army's graves registration units.[1][20] From 1918 to 1928, Holden worked on 67 cemeteries for the dead of World War I.[21] In 1920, he was appointed one of the Imperial War Graves Commission's (now the Commonwealth War Graves Commission) four Principal Architects in France and Belgium.[1][note 3] His work for the Commission included a number of memorials to the New Zealand missing dead including those at Messines Ridge, and the Buttes New British Cemetery (New Zealand) Memorial at Zonnebeke.[21] His designs were a further simplification in his architectural style and often used Portland stone.[1]

In 1922, Holden designed the War Memorial Gateway for Clifton College, Bristol using a combination of limestone and gritstone to match the style of the school's buildings.[3][22]

London Transport

South Wimbledon station, one of the stations for the extension of the City and South London Railway.

Through his involvement with the Design and Industries Association Holden had met Frank Pick, general manager of the Underground Electric Railways Company of London (UERL).[3] In 1923, Pick commissioned Holden to design a façade for a side entrance at Westminster tube station.[23] This was followed in 1924 with an appointment to design seven new stations in south London for the extension of the City and South London Railway (now part of the Northern line) from Clapham Common to Morden. Holden's designs further simplified his earlier modernist style; double-height ticket halls clad in plain Portland stone framing a glazed screen, adapted to suit the street corner sites of most of the stations.[3] The screens feature the Underground roundel made up in coloured glass panels and are divided by stone columns surmounted by capitals formed as a three-dimensional version of the roundel.

Holden also advised the UERL's own architect, Stanley Heaps, on the new façades for a number of the existing stations on the line and produced the design for a new entrance at Bond Street station on the Central London Railway.[23]

During the later 1920s, Holden designed a series of replacement buildings and new façades for station improvements around the UERL's network. Many of these featured Portland stone cladding and variations of the glazed screens developed for the Morden extension.[note 4] At Piccadilly Circus, one of the busiest stations on the system, Holden designed (1925–1928) a spacious travertine-lined circulating concourse and ticket hall below the roadway of the junction from which banks of escalators accessed the platforms below.[25]

UERL headquarters at 55 Broadway

In 1926, Holden began the design of a new headquarters for the UERL at 55 Broadway above St. James's Park station. Above the first floor, the steel-framed building was constructed to a cruciform plan and rises in a series of receding stages to a central clock tower 175 feet (53 m) tall.[26] The arrangement maximises daylight to the building's interior without the use of light wells. Like his stations of the period and his pre-First World War commercial buildings, the block is austerely clad in Portland stone. Holden again detailed the elevations with commissioned sculptures; Day and Night, two compositions by Epstein, are at first floor level and a series of eight bas-reliefs at the seventh floor represent the four winds (two for each of the cardinal directions, on each side of the projecting wings).[note 5] The building is grade II listed.[26]

In 1930, Holden and Pick made a tour of Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden to see the latest developments in modern architecture.[24] The UERL was planning extensions of the Piccadilly line to the west, north-west and north of London, and a new type of station was wanted. Adapting the architectural styles he had seen on the tour, Holden created functional designs composed of simple forms; cylinders, curves and rectangles, built in plain brick, concrete and glass. The extensions to the west and north-west were over existing routes operated by the District line and required a number of stations to be rebuilt to accommodate additional tracks or to replace original, basic buildings. Sudbury Town, the first station to be rebuilt in 1931, formed a template for many of the other new stations that followed - a tall rectangular brick box with a concrete lid and panels of vertical glazing to allow light into the interior.[note 6]

Sudbury Town station
Arnos Grove station
Southgate station
Stations for the Piccadilly line

For Arnos Grove station, one of eight new stations on the northern extension of the line, Holden modified the rectangular box into a circular drum; a design inspired by Gunnar Asplund's Stockholm Public Library.[3] Also notable on the northern extension is Southgate station; here Holden designed a single-storey circular building with a canopied flat roof. Above this, the central section of roof rises up on a continuous horizontal band of clerestory windows, supported internally by a single central column. The building is topped by an illuminated feature topped with a bronze ball.[28] In order to handle such a large volume of work, Holden delegated significant design responsibility to his assistants, such as Charles Hutton, who took the lead on Arnos Grove Station.[29] For some other Piccadilly line stations the design was handled in-house by Stanley Heaps or by other architectural practices, but all followed the modern brick, glass and concrete style defined by Holden.[3][note 7]

East Finchley station

The UERL became part of London Transport in 1933, but the focus remained on high quality design. In the late 1930s, Holden designed replacement stations at Highgate and East Finchley and new stations at Elstree South and Bushey Heath for the Northern line's Northern Heights plan.[31] Holden's designs incorporated sculpture relevant to the stations' local history: Dick Whittington for Highgate,[32] a Roman centurion at Elstree South[33] and an archer for East Finchley.[34][note 8] Much of the project was postponed shortly after the outbreak of World War II and was later cancelled.[35] Only East Finchley station was completed in full with Highgate in part; the other plans were scrapped. East Finchley station is located on an embankment and the platforms are accessed from below. Making use of the station's air-rights, Holden provided staff office space spanning above the tracks accessed through semi-circular glazed stairways from the platforms. Eric Aumonier provided the statue The Archer, a prominent feature of the station.[36]

Holden's last designs for London Transport were three new stations for the Central line extension in north-east London.[37] These were designed in the 1930s, but were also delayed by the war and were not completed until 1947. Post-war austerity measures reduced the quality of the materials used compared with the 1930s stations and the building at Wanstead was adapted from a temporary structure constructed during the line's wartime use as an underground factory.[38] Gants Hill is accessed through subways and has no station building, but is notable for the design of its platform level concourse, which features a barrel vaulted ceiling inspired by stations on the Moscow Metro.[37]

University of London

Main article: Senate House (University of London)
Senate House, home to the University of London's administration offices and library

After the First World War, the University of London needed a replacement for its overcrowded and scattered accommodation in Kensington. A site was acquired in Bloomsbury near the British Museum and Holden was commissioned in 1931 to design the new buildings, partly due to the success of 55 Broadway.[14]

Holden's original plan was for a single structure covering the whole site, stretching almost 1,200 feet (370 m) from Montague Place to Torrington Street. It comprised a central spine linked by a series of wings to the perimeter façade and enclosing a series of courtyards. The scheme was to be topped by two towers; the taller Senate House and a smaller one to the north. The design featured elevations of load-bearing brick work faced with Portland stone.

Construction began in 1932, but due to a shortage of funds, the design was gradually cut back, and only the Senate House and Library and the buildings for the Institute of Education and the School of Oriental Studies were completed in 1937.[14] Holden's intention to adorn the building with sculpture was also not fulfilled.[3][6] As he had with his earlier buildings, Holden also prepared the designs for the individual elements of the interior design.[14][39] The onset of the Second World War prevented any further progress on the full scheme, although Adams, Pearson and Holden did design further buildings for the university in the vicinity.[3]

Town planning

After the war, Holden's focus was mainly on town planning. In 1944 he produced plans for the reconstruction of Canterbury with H M Enderby and, between 1944 and 1954 produced plans for the City of London with William Holford. In 1947, he planned a scheme for the South Bank of the River Thames between County Hall and Waterloo Bridge, for the London County Council.[1][40] This was superseded and became the site of the Festival of Britain. He was also architectural and planning consultant to the University of Edinburgh and to the Borough of Tynemouth.[40]

Holden on architecture

Holden recognised that his architectural style placed him in "rather a curious position, not quite in the fashion and not quite out of it; not enough of a traditionalist to please the traditionalists and not enough of a modernist to please the modernists."[41]

He described his ideal building as one "which takes naturally and inevitably the form controlled by the plan and the purpose and the materials. A building which provides opportunities for the exercise and skill and pleasure in work not only to the designer but also for the many craftsmen employed and the occupants of the building."[42] In a 1957 essay on architecture, he wrote: "I don't seek for a style, either ancient or modern, I want an architecture which is through and through a good building. A building planned for a specific purpose, constructed in the method and use of materials, old or new, most appropriate to the purpose the building has to serve."[42]

Awards and recognition

Holden won the RIBA's London Architectural Medal for 1929 (awarded 1931) for 55 Broadway.[1][43] In 1936 he was awarded the RIBA's Royal Gold Medal for his body of work.[40] In 1943 he was appointed a Royal Designer for Industry for the design of transport equipment.[1] He was awarded honorary doctorates by Manchester University in 1936 and London University in 1946.[40] Holden twice declined a knighthood, in 1944 and 1951, as he considered architecture to be a collaborative process.[3][44]

He was Vice President of the RIBA from 1935 to 1937 and a member of the Royal Fine Art Commission from 1933 to 1947.[40]

Many of Holden's buildings have been granted listed status, protecting them against demolition and unapproved alteration. The RIBA holds a collection of Holden's personal papers and material from Adams, Holden and Pearson.

See also

Notes and references

Notes

  1. ^ Holden considered Portland stone "the only stone that washes itself" (Karol), capable of withstanding London's then smoggy atmosphere.[14]
  2. ^ The controversy centred on the supposed shocking nakedness of the statues, but Epstein's sculptures were supported by many leaders of the artistic establishment.[15] In the 1930s, after the building had been sold to the government of Southern Rhodesia, the sculptures were defaced, supposedly to prevent pieces falling off.
  3. ^ The other Principal Architects were Edwin Lutyens, Reginald Blomfield and Herbert Baker. Holden's assistants included Wilfred Clement Von Berg and William Harrison Cowlishaw.[1]
  4. ^ Holden's station work of this period includes new buildings at West Kensington and, with Stanley Heaps, at Hounslow West and Ealing Common.[24] New entrances or façades were designed for Mansion House, Hammersmith, Archway, Green Park and Holborn. Subsequent reconstructions mean that only West Kensington, Hounslow West, Ealing Common and Holborn remain.
  5. ^ The nudity of the Epstein figures again generated controversy, though these have avoided mutilation. Of the eight bas-reliefs, three were carved by Eric Gill and one each by Henry Moore, Eric Aumonier, Allan G Wyon, Samuel Rabinovitch and Alfred Gerrard.[27]
  6. ^ The Sudbury Town pattern was reproduced with adaptations at Acton Town, Alperton, Eastcote, Northfields, Oakwood, Rayners Lane, Sudbury Hill and Turnpike Lane.
  7. ^ Stanley Heaps designed stations at Boston Manor and Osterley; Felix Lander designed Park Royal.[30]
  8. ^ Dick Whittington was chosen for Highgate because tradition has him "turning again" back to London on Highgate Hill. A centurion was chosen for Elstree South because of the nearby Roman settlement of Sulloniacae. The archer was symbolic of East Finchley's location on the former edge of a royal hunting forest.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Hutton & Crawford 2007.
  2. ^ "No. 25312". The London Gazette. 25 January 1884.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Powers 2007.
  4. ^ Ashbee journals, 24 June 1906, quoted in Hutton & Crawford 2007
  5. ^ Sheppard 1956, pp. 106–108.
  6. ^ a b c Stevens Curl 2006.
  7. ^ Historic England. "Details from listed building database ({{{num}}})". National Heritage List for England.
  8. ^ a b c Historic England. "Details from listed building database ({{{num}}})". National Heritage List for England.
  9. ^ a b "King Edward VII Sanatorium" (PDF). The British Medical Journal: 1417&ndash1421. 16 June 1906. Retrieved 18 August 2010.
  10. ^ Historic England. "Details from listed building database ({{{num}}})". National Heritage List for England.
  11. ^ Historic England. "Details from listed building database ({{{num}}})". National Heritage List for England.
  12. ^ Historic England. "Details from listed building database ({{{num}}})". National Heritage List for England.
  13. ^ "The British Medical Association, The New Offices" (PDF). The British Medical Journal: 1661–1664. 7 December 1907. Retrieved 18 August 2010.
  14. ^ a b c d Karol 2008, pp. 6–7.
  15. ^ a b "The Association's New Building" (PDF). The British Medical Journal: 40–43. 4 July 1908. Retrieved 3 September 2010.
  16. ^ Historic England. "Details from listed building database ({{{num}}})". National Heritage List for England.
  17. ^ Historic England. "Details from listed building database ({{{num}}})". National Heritage List for England.
  18. ^ Historic England. "Details from listed building database ({{{num}}})". National Heritage List for England.
  19. ^ Historic England. "Details from listed building database ({{{num}}})". National Heritage List for England.
  20. ^ "No. 30342". The London Gazette. 16 October 1917.
  21. ^ a b Glancey 2009.
  22. ^ Historic England. "Details from listed building database ({{{num}}})". National Heritage List for England.
  23. ^ a b Day & Reed 2008, p. 96.
  24. ^ a b Day & Reed 2008, p. 99.
  25. ^ Day & Reed 2008, p. 98.
  26. ^ a b Historic England. "Details from listed building database ({{{num}}})". National Heritage List for England.
  27. ^ "55 Broadway". Exploring 20th Century London. London Museums Hub. Retrieved 16 September 2010.
  28. ^ Day & Reed 2008, p. 103.
  29. ^ Hanson 1975, pp. 349–56.
  30. ^ Day & Reed 2008, p. 114.
  31. ^ Beard 2002, p. 82.
  32. ^ Day & Reed 2008, p. 140.
  33. ^ Beard 2002, p. 78.
  34. ^ Day & Reed 2008, p. 133.
  35. ^ Beard 2002, p. 124.
  36. ^ "Eric Aumonier, sculptor, putting the final touches to "The Archer" East Finchley Underground station". Exploring 20th Century London. London Museums Hub. Retrieved 23 September 2010.
  37. ^ a b Day & Reed 2008, p. 149.
  38. ^ Emmerson & Beard 2004, p. 119.
  39. ^ Rice 2003.
  40. ^ a b c d e Who Was Who 2007.
  41. ^ Holden, quoted in Karol 2008.
  42. ^ a b Holden, quoted in Glancey 2007.
  43. ^ "Architectural Medal, Underground Railway Offices in Westminster". The Times (45725): p. 10. 20 January 1931. Retrieved 17 September 2010. {{cite journal}}: |page= has extra text (help)
  44. ^ Blacker 2004.

Bibliography

Further reading

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