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G. Kay Green

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George Kay Green (3 May 1877 – December 1939) was a Scottish architect whose work after 1918 was mostly in southern England.

Life

Born in May 1877,[1] Green was educated at George Watson's College, Edinburgh,[2] and was active in business in Edinburgh from at least 1897,[3] when he went into partnership there with William H. McLachlan.[4] While no trace of Green's formal training as an architect has come to light,[5] in 1899 he submitted designs for a new Upper Hall at the Signet Library,[6] and was described as "George Kay Green, Architect". He was then of 42, Blacket Place, Edinburgh.[7] A drawing by Green of the Laigh Hall, Edinburgh, appeared in the 1902 volume of the journal Judicial Review.[8] Green was in Edinburgh in 1909, when he wrote from there to The Berwick Advertiser on the subject of farming in the Borders.[9]

During the First World War, he served as a quartermaster sergeant in the Royal Engineers and then was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Royal Army Service Corps. In 1920, he was living at 1, Walpole St, London S.W.3.[2]

In 1927, Green was a director of Peacehaven Estates Ltd, Peacehaven Hotel Company Ltd, Peacehaven Water Company Ltd, and Peacehaven Electric Light Company Ltd., which had an address at South Coast Road, Peacehaven, Sussex.[10] In 1928 the companies also had an office at 7, Pall Mall, Westminster, and the directors were Lord Teynham (chairman), C. W. Neville (managing director), and Green.[11] Peacehaven was a large self-build development described in 1940 as "a holiday resort or bungalow-town... founded at the end of the War of 1914–18. It lies at the edge of the cliffs, its plan being a grid of unmade roads".[12]

In London, Green began to specialize in designing large apartment blocks. He was the architect of Sloane Avenue Mansions, an 11-storey Art Deco residential building in Chelsea, London, built between 1931 and 1933.[13][14][15] Another such building he designed was Du Cane Court, Balham High Road, Balham, an early example of an apartment block with revolving doors,[16] the largest block of flats in Great Britain when it was completed in 1934.[17] Perhaps his final major building was Nell Gwynn House in Sloane Avenue, Chelsea, which was finished in 1937.[18] The footprint of the building forms a capital W, and it makes use of Cubist geometric designs, with ancient Egyptian, Aztec, and Mayan patterns.[19]

Private life

In May 1930, at Brighton, Green married Edna Kathleen Hiscock,[20] the 27-year-old daughter of a builder, Herbert Woodbridge Hiscock, and his wife Eleanor.[21] In 1935, they were living at 241, Richmond Road, Twickenham, and the next year at 1, Walpole Street, Chelsea.[22] In September 1936, they announced the birth of a son, Charles.[23] The Post Office Directory for 1938 has Green listed at 8, Orange Street, Haymarket, Westminster W.C.2.[24] In October 1939, the family of three was back in Twickenham,[1] and Green died a few weeks later.[25]

When Green's widow died in 1993, her death was registered as Edna Kathleen Green or Kay-Green.[26]

References

  1. ^ a b 1939 National Registration Act register for 241 Richmond Road, Twickenham at ancestry.co.uk, accessed 18 April 2020 (subscription required)
  2. ^ a b A memorial record of Watsonians who served in the great war 1914 (George Watson's College, Edinburgh, 1920), p. 1063: "GREEN George Kay 1, Walpole St, S.W.3 ... GREEN, GEORGE KAY 1877 ; entd. 1880 ; R.E. (C. of E.), Q.M.S. ; R.A.S.C., 2/Lt. 1917."
  3. ^ David Goold, George Kay Green Architect Biography Report, in Dictionary of Scottish Architects - DSA at Scottisharchitects.org.uk, accessed 2016-05-06
  4. ^ Goold, William H. McLachlan
  5. ^ George Kay Green at themodernhouse.com
  6. ^ Goold, Signet Library in Dictionary of Scottish Architects
  7. ^ Academy Architecture and Architectural Review, 1899
  8. ^ Iain Gordon Brown Building for Books: The Architectural Evolution of the Advocates' Library 1689-1925 (Aberdeen University Press, 1989), p. xvii
  9. ^ "An Object Lesson" in The Berwick Advertiser (Northumberland, England), Friday 24 September 1909, p. 2: "An Object Lesson: Mr George Kay Green, Edinburgh, writes:— As one who has had special opportunities of studying the character and life of our Border farm tenants..."
  10. ^ The Directory of Directors for 1927 (Thomas Skinner & Co, 1927), p. 625
  11. ^ Garcke's Manual of Electricity Supply, Volume 32 (Electrical Press Limited, 1928), p. 752
  12. ^ 'Parishes: Piddinghoe', in L. F. Salzman, ed., A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 7, the Rape of Lewes (London, 1940), pp. 66-69 at British History Online, accessed 14 January 2018
  13. ^ "Sloane Avenue Mansions". Emporis. Archived from the original on 4 June 2016. Retrieved 4 May 2016.
  14. ^ Concrete and Constructional Engineering. Vol. 29. Concrete Publications. 1934. p. 14.
  15. ^ "Sloane Avenue Mansions, London". manchesterhistory. Retrieved 6 May 2016.
  16. ^ "Du Cane Court, Balham High Road, Balham, London: the foyer with revolving doors | RIBA". Architecture.com. Retrieved 6 May 2016.
  17. ^ Proceedings of the Huguenot Society of Great Britain and Ireland, Volume 27 (Huguenot Society, 1998), p. 142
  18. ^ "Nell Gwynn House". London Deco Flats. Retrieved 6 May 2016.
  19. ^ Nell Gwynn Chelsea homepage, accessed 25 July 2016
  20. ^ "Marriages" in West Sussex Gazette, Thursday 08 May 1930, p. 12; "Green George K & Hiscock Edna K Brighton 2b 607" in General Index to Marriages for England and Wales, 1930; Register entry at St Stephen's, Hounslow, at ancestry.co.uk, (subscription required)
  21. ^ Baptism at Hounslow in 1903 at ancestry.co.uk, accessed 18 April 2020 (subscription required)
  22. ^ electoral register 1935 and 1936 at ancestry.co.uk, accessed 18 April 2020 (subscription required)
  23. ^ "Births" in The Scotsman (Midlothian, Scotland), 16 September 1936, p. 20: "At 1 Walpole Street, Chelsea London S.W. 5, on September 12th, 1936, to Edna, wife of G. Kay Green, a son"; "GREEN Charles E. K. / Hiscock Chelsea 1a 432" in General Index to Births for England and Wales, 1936
  24. ^ "Architects",Post Office London Private Residents Directory for 1938, p. 2660
  25. ^ "Green George K. 62 Surrey N.E. 2a 226" in General Index to Deaths in England and Wales, December 1939 quarter.
  26. ^ "Green or Kay-Green, Edna Kathleen, Birth 04/12/1902, Death 04/1993, Northern Surrey" in General Index to Register of Deaths for England and Wales, 1936
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