22 Meadway, Hampstead Garden Suburb, June 2021

Michael Frank Wharlton Bunney MBE (1873–1927) was an English architect who was closely associated with the development of

Hampstead Garden Suburb Hampstead Garden Suburb is an elevated suburb of London, north of Hampstead, west of Highgate and east of Golders Green. It is known for its intellectual, liberal, artistic, musical and literary associations. It is an example of early twentiet ...

. He was born in

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

where his father,

John Wharlton Bunney John Wharlton Bunney (20 June 1828 – 23 September 1882) was an English topographical and landscape artist of the nineteenth century. His father was a merchant captain whom Bunney, as a boy, accompanied on several voyages around the world. ...

was doing watercolours for

John Ruskin John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English writer, philosopher, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and politi ...

and was

correspondent for 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 ...

. Michael Bunney went to

Fettes College Fettes College () is a co-educational independent boarding and day school in Edinburgh, Scotland, with over two-thirds of its pupils in residence on campus. The school was originally a boarding school for boys only and became co-ed in 1983. In ...

, Edinburgh and then studied at the

Architectural Association The Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, commonly referred to as the AA, is the oldest independent school of architecture in the UK and one of the most prestigious and competitive in the world. Its wide-ranging programme ...

and

Royal Academy Schools The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its purpo ...

. He was articled to

Horace Field Horace Field was a London-born architect. His work was often in a Wrenaissance style, as well as other post-gothic English historical revival styles, with influences from the Arts and Crafts movement and Richard Norman Shaw. His commissions incl ...

between 1890 and 1894, becoming his chief assistant between 1895 and 1902, when he went into practice on his own before partnering with Clifford Makins from 1905. He became ARIBA in 1906 and FRIBA 1919 and co-authored, with

, ''English domestic architecture of the XVII and XVIII Centuries'' (pub 1905, rev. ed. 1928). Bunney & Makins designed ninety houses in

between 1909 and 1914. During the First World War he was sent by

Raymond Unwin Sir Raymond Unwin (2 November 1863 – 29 June 1940) was a prominent and influential English engineer, architect and town planner, with an emphasis on improvements in working class housing. Early years Raymond Unwin was born in Rotherham, Yorks ...

with other

architects, to work for the Ministry of Health Architects' Department designing housing and public buildings at the new munitions town of Gretna, Dumfries, for which he was awarded the MBE in 1918. He also undertook town planning and designed a beach pavilion in

Prestatyn Prestatyn is a seaside town and community in Denbighshire, Wales. Historically a part of Flintshire, it is located on the Irish Sea coast, to the east of Rhyl. Prestatyn has a population of 19,085, History Prehistory There is evidence that the ...

, Flintshire as well as some individual houses in North Wales. He is often confused with his son, the architect Michael John Hewetson Bunney FRIBA. Between 1998 and 2002 John and Sarah, the grandchildren of Michael Bunney donated a large quantity of their grandfather's archive to the National Monuments Record, now the

Historic England Archive The Historic England Archive is the public archive of Historic England, located in The Engine House on Fire Fly Avenue in Swindon, formerly part of the Swindon Works of the Great Western Railway. It is a public archive of architectural and arch ...

Selected publications

* ''English Domestic Architecture of the XVII and XVIII Centuries''. George Bell and Sons, London, 1905 & 1928. (With

)

References

1873 births 1926 deaths English architects Associates of the Royal Institute of British Architects Members of the Order of the British Empire Hampstead Garden Suburb {{England-architect-stub