Cecil Clavering
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John Cecil Clavering
OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
(17 April 1910 – 6 October 2001) was an English architect, best known for his work designing Odeon Cinemas as part of
Harry Weedon Harold William "Harry" Weedon (1887 – 17 June 1970) was a British architect. Although he designed a large number of buildings during a long career, he is best known for his role overseeing the Art Deco designs of the Odeon Cinemas for Oscar Deu ...
's architectural practice in the 1930s, and his later work as the architect of the Public Record Office in Kew, London.


Life

Clavering was born and educated in
Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...
, the son of a schoolmaster. At the age of seventeen he was articled to a firm of architects in
South Shields South Shields () is a coastal town in South Tyneside, Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the south bank of the mouth of the River Tyne. Historically, it was known in Roman times as Arbeia, and as Caer Urfa by Early Middle Ages. According to the 20 ...
while studying architecture at
Armstrong College, Newcastle The Colleges of Durham University are residential colleges that are the primary source of accommodation and support services for undergraduates and postgraduates at Durham University, as well as providing a focus for social, cultural and sportin ...
, where he was introduced to the work of
Le Corbusier Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...
, Willem Marinus Dudok,
Erich Mendelsohn Erich Mendelsohn (21 March 1887 – 15 September 1953) was a German architect, known for his expressionist architecture in the 1920s, as well as for developing a dynamic Functionalism (architecture), functionalism in his projects for department ...
and Berthold Lubetkin. With a travelling scholarship he visited the major architecture centres of Italy, Austria and Germany in 1929 and 1930. Clavering's work at the time included the draughtsmanship or design of several cinemas in South Shields and Newcastle upon Tyne. Clavering was unhappy with the classical detailing that was required for the cinemas, however - feeling that such ostentatious decoration was inappropriate in poor areas and also presented practical problems when reproduced in terracotta or faience - and concluded that "the answer appeared to be the new architecture advocated by
Le Corbusier Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...
and the Germans". Clavering's opportunity came when
Harry Weedon Harold William "Harry" Weedon (1887 – 17 June 1970) was a British architect. Although he designed a large number of buildings during a long career, he is best known for his role overseeing the Art Deco designs of the Odeon Cinemas for Oscar Deu ...
was commissioned to redesign the interior of a cinema being built in Warley for
Oscar Deutsch Oscar Deutsch (12 August 1893 – 5 December 1941)Allen Eyles, ‘Deutsch, Oscar (1893–1941)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 200accessed 29 April 2011/ref> was a British-Hungarian businessman. He was the fou ...
, owner of the expanding Odeon Cinemas chain. Weedon's practice at the time numbered only six architects, none of whom except Weedon himself had any experience of cinema design, so Clavering was recruited to complete the job. He next worked on the
Odeon, Kingstanding The Odeon at Kingstanding, Birmingham, was a 1930s cinema in the Odeon chain. Though closed as a cinema in 1962, the building survives as a bingo hall, and is Grade II listed. History The cinema was constructed between 1935 and 1936 to a sym ...
, then examples in
Sutton Coldfield Sutton Coldfield or the Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield, known locally as Sutton ( ), is a town and civil parish in the City of Birmingham, West Midlands, England. The town lies around 8 miles northeast of Birmingham city centre, 9 miles south ...
, Colwyn Bay and Scarborough, "one masterpiece after the other" considered "the finest expressions of the Odeon circuit style". Later in 1935 however Clavering stunned Weedon by resigning to take up a job with the Office of Works. Weedon approached Clavering's former tutor who recommended
Robert Bullivant The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...
as Clavering's replacement. In 1935 Clavering entered the only design  competition ever held for direct entry into the professional class of H.M.Office of Works and was offered a post in Shanghai. He was to provide all buildings and accommodation needs of the Diplomatic and Consular Service of the Far East from Siam to Japan. In 1934 Clavering had married Maysie Hanlon whom he had met whilst studying at Durham University. She was the daughter of a grocer who owned several shops on Tyneside. They travelled to Shanghai together and their daughter, Ann, was born there in August 1935. They lived in a house provided for them in the grounds of the British Consulate. In 1941 the family returned to England by sea via Canada and America. They lived near London during this wartime period and Clavering remained with the Office of Works. He then specialised in buildings and facilities for research throughout England.  These included the Blue Streak Project at Spadeadam in Cumbria; the wind tunnels for the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough and Bedford, and the radio communication centre at Goonhilly Downs in Cornwall. He was later involved in the design of the buildings housing the Nuclear Reactors at Windscale in Cumbria, now called Sellafield, and Britain’s first working Nuclear Power Station. Another project, the rebuilding of Whitehall in London, was later aborted. His final project, the Public Record Office at Kew, he regarded as his best work. Clavering was awarded the OBE for Services to Architecture in 1971 and he and Maysie then retired to Harrogate for their final years.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clavering, Cecil 20th-century English architects 1910 births 2001 deaths People from Sunderland Architects from London Alumni of Newcastle University Alumni of Armstrong College, Durham