CBE
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 ...
FRAeS
The Royal Aeronautical Society, also known as the RAeS, is a British multi-disciplinary professional institution dedicated to the global aerospace community. Founded in 1866, it is the oldest aeronautical society in the world. Members, Fellows ...
(8 September 1893 – 30 January 1976) was a British architect most notable for designing the Television Centre, London, the redevelopment of
Imperial College
Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...
and an impressive variety of British interwar airport/aerodrome buildings.
Biography
Dawburn was born in London 8 September 1893, the son of R. A. Dawburn,Who Was Who 1971-1980 a Civil Engineer. He was educated at The King's School, Canterbury and at
Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
Corpus Christi College (full name: "The College of Corpus Christi and the Blessed Virgin Mary", often shortened to "Corpus"), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. From the late 14th century through to the early 19th century ...
, reading Maths Part 1 and then Architectural Studies in 1914. He served in the
Royal Flying Corps
"Through Adversity to the Stars"
, colors =
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and after the War he returned to Cambridge and assisted Professor E S Prior in the Architecture School. In 1920–21 he worked in the office of the Architect Arthur Keen (1861–1938) and passed the war final RIBA examination in 1921.
* 1921-1923 he worked in the Public Works Department in Hong Kong.
* 1924 won in open competition the design for
Raffles College
The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a national public research university in Singapore. Founded in 1905 as the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States Government Medical School, NUS is the oldest autonomous university in the c ...
National University of Singapore
The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a national public research university in Singapore. Founded in 1905 as the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States Government Medical School, NUS is the oldest autonomous university in the c ...
and is now the older building of their
Faculty of Law
A faculty is a division within a university or college comprising one subject area or a group of related subject areas, possibly also delimited by level (e.g. undergraduate). In American usage such divisions are generally referred to as colleges ...
* 1931 Flew 8,000 miles in a light aeroplane with
Nigel Norman
Air Commodore Sir Henry Nigel St Valery Norman, 2nd Baronet, (21 May 1897 – 19 May 1943) was a consulting civil engineer and Royal Air Force officer during the first half of the 20th century.Brooklands
Brooklands was a motor racing circuit and aerodrome built near Weybridge in Surrey, England, United Kingdom. It opened in 1907 and was the world's first purpose-built 'banked' motor racing circuit as well as one of Britain's first airfields, ...
Aero Clubhouse, officially opened on 28 May 1932
* 1933 Founded Norman and Dawbarn where he remained a senior partner until 1958
* 1945-47 President of the Architectural Association and member of the RIBA Council
* 1948 awarded the CBE in the
1948 Birthday Honours
The 1948 Birthday Honours were appointments by King George VI to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of the Commonwealth Realms. The appointments were made to celebrate the official birthday of the King, a ...
List
* 1951 won 2 Architectural Awards from the Council of the
Festival of Britain
The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition and fair that reached millions of visitors throughout the United Kingdom in the summer of 1951. Historian Kenneth O. Morgan says the Festival was a "triumphant success" during which people:
...
.
* 1956 the foundation stone fo BBC Television Centre was laid
* 1960 Her Majesty the Queen formally opened Television Centre
He married Olive Topham in 1923 and they had two daughters
Professional career
In partnership with Sir
Nigel Norman
Air Commodore Sir Henry Nigel St Valery Norman, 2nd Baronet, (21 May 1897 – 19 May 1943) was a consulting civil engineer and Royal Air Force officer during the first half of the 20th century.Heston, Birmingham, Jersey, Guernsey, Manchester and Wolverhampton. After Norman's death in a flying accident during World War II, Dawbarn continued the practice on his own. The firm, Norman and Dawbarn, was purchased by Capita in 2005
In the late 1920s and early 1930s he collaborated with
Alan Muntz
Frederick Alan Irving Muntz BA FRAeS (7 June 1899 – 7 March 1985) was a British consulting aeronautical engineer.Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920-2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007 http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/ ...
in an airport consultancy firm called Norman, Muntz and Dawbarn, and with Norman he made a tour of airports around the world to make recommendations to RIBA on airport design.
Television Centre
The BBC commissioned him to design its new home for television. According to Louis Barfe:
In 2020 Television Centre was officially 60 years old and commemorative film was made by the Royal Television Society to celebrate, featuring Philip Schofield (who as a child had always wanted to work in the building)
Imperial College
In 1956 Dawbarn was engaged to redevelop Imperial College, demolishing the late Victorian Imperial Institute in South Kensington. In response to public outcry in 1956 he said: "Change is usually sad, but it is dangerous to live too much in the past, and to overstate the past at the expense of the future." There was so much opposition to the original scheme that a new one was proposed in 1958 which kept the highly symbolic clock tower of the old Imperial Institute.
Airport buildings
Early in his career, after a study tour of American airports, Dawbarn designed various impressive airport/aerodrome buildings at Heston,
Brooklands
Brooklands was a motor racing circuit and aerodrome built near Weybridge in Surrey, England, United Kingdom. It opened in 1907 and was the world's first purpose-built 'banked' motor racing circuit as well as one of Britain's first airfields, ...
,
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
,
Jersey
Jersey ( , ; nrf, Jèrri, label=Jèrriais ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey (french: Bailliage de Jersey, links=no; Jèrriais: ), is an island country and self-governing Crown Dependencies, Crown Dependency near the coast of north-west F ...
,
Guernsey
Guernsey (; Guernésiais: ''Guernési''; french: Guernesey) is an island in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy that is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown Dependency.
It is the second largest of the Channel Islands ...
,
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
and
Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton () is a city, metropolitan borough and administrative centre in the West Midlands, England. The population size has increased by 5.7%, from around 249,500 in 2011 to 263,700 in 2021. People from the city are called "Wulfrunian ...
.
Other buildings
Other notable buildings include:
* The Institute of Medical Psychology
* The Wilton Estate in Dalston
* The
Froebel Educational Institute
Froebel College is one of the four constituent colleges of the University of Roehampton.
History
The college was founded as a women's teacher training college in 1892 by followers of Friedrich Fröbel. The Froebel Society had been formed in 1874 ...
at the
University of Roehampton
The University of Roehampton, London, formerly Roehampton Institute of Higher Education, is a public university in the United Kingdom, situated on three major sites in Roehampton, in the London Borough of Wandsworth. Roehampton was formerly an e ...
* Makerere University College (now
Makerere University
Makerere University, Kampala (; Mak) is Uganda's largest and oldest institution of higher learning, first established as a technical school in 1922. It became an independent national university in 1970. Today, Makerere University is composed of ni ...