David Evelyn Nye MBE was a British architect, born in 1906, who practised in Surrey,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. He was best known as a cinema architect, having designed many picture houses in the 1930s for the Shipman and King cinema circuit. He was a committed Christian,

abstainer Abstentionism is standing for election to a deliberative assembly while refusing to take up any seats won or otherwise participate in the assembly's business. Abstentionism differs from an election boycott in that abstentionists participate in ...

and

vegetarian Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter. Vegetariani ...

Architectural work

Embassy Theatre, Peterborough, England - 20080125

In 1930 he was awarded the first scholarship by the

Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) (also known as Anti-Scrape) is an amenity society founded by William Morris, Philip Webb, and others in 1877 to oppose the destructive 'restoration' of ancient buildings occurring in ...

, through which he learned about the restoration of ancient buildings. Nye set up his own practice in 1931, initially working as honorary architect to the

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

Rural Community Council The rural community councils (RCCs) were established in rural England during the twentieth century to promote rural community life. Each shire county now has one, although some are relative newcomers. The RCCs also form a national coalition call ...

Maldon, Essex Maldon (, locally ) is a town and civil parish on the Blackwater estuary in Essex, England. It is the seat of the Maldon District and starting point of the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation. It is known for Maldon Sea Salt which is produced ...

. He was responsible for the 1932 restoration work on Thomas Plume's Library. It was in Maldon that he secured his first cinema project, designing the Embassy Cinema for the Shipman & King cinema circuit, which was erected on Maldon High Street in 1936. The Embassy was demolished in 1987 to make way for a

sheltered housing Sheltered housing is a term covering a wide range of rented housing for older and/or disabled or other vulnerable people. In the United Kingdom most commonly it refers to grouped housing such as a block or "scheme" of flats or bungalows with a ...

complex, Embassy Court. Nye continued his association with Shipman & King for another 9 years, designing over 40 cinemas. His most renowned cinema design was possibly the Rex, Berkhamsted, an

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

picture house designed in 1937 with a nautical theme, featuring decorations of waves, shells and portholes. The Rex was eventually turned into a bingo hall and then closed in 1988, but the building was listed Grade II by English Heritage, preserving it from demolition by property developers. A local campaign to restore the Rex succeeded and in 2004 it was re-opened as an independent cinema. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

Nye served in the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

. After the war, he began his work as an architect again, specialising in church building and restoration. He designed the church of St Faith's Church, Dulwich in the mid-1950s. He was appointed Architect to the

Diocese of Southwark The Diocese of Southwark is one of the 42 dioceses of the Church of England, part of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The diocese forms part of the Province of Canterbury in England. It was created on 1 May 1905 from part of the ancient Dio ...

and Architect and Surveyor to

Guildford Cathedral The Cathedral Church of the Holy Spirit, Guildford, commonly known as Guildford Cathedral, is the Anglican cathedral at Guildford, Surrey, England. Richard Onslow donated the first of land on which the cathedral stands, with Viscount Bennett, ...

. His practice also carried out restoration work for the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

and was responsible for the reconstruction of All Hallows, London Wall after wartime bombing and the new Pewterers' Hall in Oat Lane in the City in 1960. Nye was chairman of SPAB’s Technical panel for several years. The Architects' Practice of Nye, Saunders and Partners, based in Godalming, Surrey, was formed in 1971 following the merger of David Evelyn Nye & Partners with A.E.F. Saunders and Associates, and today the Nye Saunders practice continues to specialise in church and historic building conservation.

Buildings

File:St. Peters Church Maldon.jpg, Thomas Plume's Library, Maldon File:Christ The King, Salfords - geograph.org.uk - 66796.jpg, Christ the King, Salfords File:Bromley, St Mark's Church - geograph.org.uk - 240687.jpg, St Mark's Bromley File:Berkhamsted Rex auditorium1.jpg, The interior of Nye's Rex Cinema, Berkhamsted * The Rex Cinema,

Berkhamsted Berkhamsted ( ) is a historic market town in Hertfordshire, England, in the Bulbourne valley, north-west of London. The town is a civil parish with a town council within the borough of Dacorum which is based in the neighbouring large new town ...

, Hertfordshire (1937) * St Faith's Church, Dulwich, London * St Mark's Church, Bromley, London (restoration, 1953–54) * St Swithin’s Church, Purley, London (1954–55) * Church of Christ the King, Salfords, Surrey (1958–67) * Embassy Theatre, Peterborough (1937)

Cinemas

Everyman Esher in Esher, United Kingdom (4 screens) Maxime Cinema in Blackwood, United Kingdom (5 screens) Rex Cinema in Berkhamsted, United Kingdom (1 screen)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nye, David Evelyn Architects from Surrey Art Deco architects 1906 births 1986 deaths 20th-century English architects British film people Members of the Order of the British Empire