Roderick Gradidge AA Dipl.

ARIBA SAP Ariba is an American software and information technology services company located in Palo Alto, California. It was acquired by German software maker SAP SE for $4.3 billion in 2012. Company beginnings Ariba (now SAP Ariba) was founded in ...

(3 January 1929 – 20 December 2000) was a British architect and writer on architecture, former Master of the

Art Workers Guild The Art Workers' Guild is an organisation established in 1884 by a group of British painters, sculptors, architects, and designers associated with the ideas of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement. The guild promoted the 'unity of a ...

and campaigner for a traditional architecture.

Career

Gradidge was an evangelist for the Arts & Crafts, the Victorian and a

Vernacular A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...

architecture which had become unfashionable by the beginning of his career. He became an expert on the architecture of this period and in particular in the County of

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

(near his home at

Chiswick Chiswick ( ) is a district of west London, England. It contains Hogarth's House, the former residence of the 18th-century English artist William Hogarth; Chiswick House, a neo-Palladian villa regarded as one of the finest in England; and Full ...

Country house commissions

Gradidge had the opportunity to work on a number of buildings in Surrey by prominent architects, such as Sir

Edwin Lutyens Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens ( ; 29 March 1869 – 1 January 1944) was an English architect known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era. He designed many English country houses, war memori ...

Harold Falkner Harold Falkner FRIBA (1875–1963) was a notable British architect in the early 20th century and is now considered a leading exponent of the vernacular and the Arts and Crafts Movement, Arts & Crafts in architecture. Most of his surviving build ...

Hugh Thackeray Turner Hugh Thackeray Turner (8 March 1853 – 11 December 1937) was an English Arts and Crafts architect and also an amateur china painter. Hugh Turner was born at Foxearth, Essex, England. His father, Rev. John Richard Turner, was a Church of Engla ...

Detmar Blow Detmar Jellings Blow (24 November 1867 – 7 February 1939) was a British architect of the early 20th century, who designed principally in the arts and crafts style. His clients belonged chiefly to the British aristocracy, and later he became es ...

and Charles Voysey. He completed a number of projects elsewhere, particularly with fine interiors and country houses. One of his finest country house commissions was for a large extension at ''Fulbrook House'', one of Lutyens's finest and earliest country house commissions outside

Farnham Farnham ( /ˈfɑːnəm/) is a market town and civil parish in Surrey, England, around southwest of London. It is in the Borough of Waverley, close to the county border with Hampshire. The town is on the north branch of the River Wey, a trib ...

, Surrey and which he published in his book, ''The Surrey Style''. He designed a library with

David Hicks David Matthew Hicks (born 7 August 1975) is an Australian who attended al-Qaeda's Al Farouq training camp in Afghanistan, and met with Osama bin Laden during 2001. He was then detained by the United States in Guantanamo Bay detention camp ...

Nicholas Hawksmoor Nicholas Hawksmoor (probably 1661 – 25 March 1736) was an English architect. He was a leading figure of the English Baroque style of architecture in the late-seventeenth and early-eighteenth centuries. Hawksmoor worked alongside the principa ...

Easton Neston Easton Neston is situated in south Northamptonshire, England. Though the village of Easton Neston which was inhabited until around 1500 is now gone, the parish retains the name. At the 2011 Census the population of the civil parish remained le ...

in the style of the

English Baroque English Baroque is a term used to refer to modes of English architecture that paralleled Baroque architecture in continental Europe between the Great Fire of London (1666) and roughly 1720, when the flamboyant and dramatic qualities of Baroque ...

for

Lord Hesketh Baron Hesketh, of Hesketh in the County Palatine of Lancaster, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1935 for Sir Thomas Fermor-Hesketh, 8th Baronet, who had previously briefly represented Enfield in the House of Co ...

, a

Gothick Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

conservatory at

Cholmondeley Castle Cholmondeley Castle ( ) is a country house in the civil parish of Cholmondeley, Cheshire, England. Together with its adjacent formal gardens, it is surrounded by parkland. The site of the house has been a seat of the Cholmondeley family since ...

and altered

Mount Stuart Mount Stuart is a mountain in the Cascade Range, in the U.S. state of Washington. It is the second highest non-volcanic peak in the state, after Bonanza Peak and seventh-highest overall. Mount Stuart is the highest peak in the Stuart Range, and ...

for

Lord Bute John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, (; 25 May 1713 – 10 March 1792), styled Lord Mount Stuart between 1713 and 1723, was a British nobleman who served as the 7th Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1762 to 1763 under George III. He was arguabl ...

. Much of Gradidge's work on Surrey country houses was with the Surrey-based architect

Michael Blower Michael Blower MBE AAdipl FRIBA FRSA (born 1929) is a notable British architect, activist for the preservation and restoration of England's cultural heritage and accomplished watercolourist and recorder of England's townscapes. Most of his buil ...

. Their first projects were on Voysey's ''New House'' in

Haslemere The town of Haslemere () and the villages of Shottermill and Grayswood are in south west Surrey, England, around south west of London. Together with the settlements of Hindhead and Beacon Hill, they comprise the civil parish of Haslemere i ...

and on

's ''Charles Hill Court'' for an Austrian industrialist. From there, they went onto

's ''Tancreds Ford'', which they designed and built for the writer

Ken Follett Kenneth Martin Follett, (born 5 June 1949) is a British author of thrillers and historical novels who has sold more than 160 million copies of his works. Many of his books have achieved high ranking on best seller lists. For example, in the ...

and his first wife, and which was published in two articles in Country Life. Next came ''Kingswood Hanger (The New House)'', reputedly designed by

and for which they jointly won a

RIBA The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three suppl ...

Award, which was also published in Country Life. Just prior to Gradidge's death, he and Blower were working on a project at ''Combe Court'', which was completed by Michael Blower and his sons through their architectural practice, Stedman Blower.

Other work

Gradidge worked on a number of pub interiors for

Ind Coope Allied Breweries was the result of a 1961 merger between Ind Coope (of Burton), Ansells (of Birmingham), and Tetley Walker (of Leeds). In 1978, Allied Breweries merged with the food and catering group J. Lyons and Co to form Allied Lyons. The bre ...

, such as the ''Markham Arms'' (now altered) on the

Kings Road King's Road or Kings Road (or sometimes the King's Road, especially when it was the king's private road until 1830, or as a colloquialism by middle/upper class London residents), is a major street stretching through Chelsea and Fulham, both ...

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

and the ''Three Greyhounds'' in

Soho Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century. The area was develop ...

, London. He restored the

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

interior of

E. W. Godwin Edward William Godwin (26 May 1833, Bristol – 6 October 1886, London) was a progressive English architect-designer, who began his career working in the strongly polychromatic " Ruskinian Gothic" style of mid-Victorian Britain, inspired by ...

Northampton Guildhall Northampton Guildhall is a municipal building in St Giles' Square in Northampton, England. It is a Grade II* listed building. History The first guildhall in Northampton was a 12th-century building at the junction of Gold Street and Horsemark ...

, and the interior of

Bodelwyddan Castle Bodelwyddan Castle ( cy, Castell Bodelwyddan), close to the village of Bodelwyddan, near Rhyl, Denbighshire in Wales, was built around 1460 by the Humphreys family of Anglesey as a manor house. It was associated with the Williams-Wynn family fo ...

for the National Portrait Gallery, which won the Museum of the Year Award in 1989. At ''St Marys, Bourne Street'',

South Kensington South Kensington, nicknamed Little Paris, is a district just west of Central London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Historically it settled on part of the scattered Middlesex village of Brompton. Its name was supplanted with ...

and the National Portrait Gallery in London, Gradidge carried out interior modifications, although they have since been altered. Further projects included additions to

St Edmund's College, Cambridge St Edmund's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England. Founded in 1896, it is the second-oldest of the four Cambridge colleges oriented to mature students, which accept only students reading for postgraduate degr ...

(1990–3),

Pugin Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin ( ; 1 March 181214 September 1852) was an English architect, designer, artist and critic with French and, ultimately, Swiss origins. He is principally remembered for his pioneering role in the Gothic Revival st ...

's ''St Chads, Birmingham'' and ''St Augustine, Ramsgate''.

Society activity

He was active in the

being elected in 1969, served as the Guild's Secretary from 1977 to 1984 and was elected Master in 1987. He was a founding member of the Thirties Society (later to become the

20th Century Society The Twentieth Century Society (C20) is a British charity which campaigns for the preservation of architectural heritage from 1914 onwards. The society's interests embrace buildings and artefacts that characterise 20th-century Britain. It is fo ...

), of which he was a Trustee for many years. He was also prominent in the

Victorian Society The Victorian Society is a UK amenity society and membership organisation that campaigns to preserve and promote interest in Victorian and Edwardian architecture and heritage built between 1837 and 1914 in England and Wales. It is a registered ...

Personal life

Gradidge was born on 3 January 1929 in

Old Hunstanton Old Hunstanton is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It covers an area of and had a population of 47 in 25 households at the 2001 census. The population had risen to 628 at the 2011 Census. For the purposes of local g ...

, Norfolk, and died 20 December 2000 in London, aged 71. He spent his childhood in India, where his father was a

Brigadier Brigadier is a military rank, the seniority of which depends on the country. In some countries, it is a senior rank above colonel, equivalent to a brigadier general or commodore, typically commanding a brigade of several thousand soldiers. In ...

. He then attended

Stowe School , motto_translation = I stand firm and I stand first , established = , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent school, day & boarding , religion = Church of England , president = , head_label = Headmaster ...

. After 2 years of

National Service National service is the system of voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939. The l ...

Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...

, he moved to London and 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 ...

, where he completed his training as an architect and was elected an Associate of the

Royal Institute of British Architects The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three suppl ...

(

). He remained in London practicing as an architect and writer for most of his life, where he was a prominent figure in social and architectural circles in the last half of the 20th century. Gradidge was an advocate of rational dress, a movement more usually associated with modernists, and had suits tailored in fine cloths that featured jackets and kilts. For much of his life he wore his hair uncut and tied as a plait; he felt cutting it was unnecessary and wasteful of time. He was a long-time member of the congregation of the Anglo-Catholic

St Mary's, Bourne Street St Mary's, Bourne Street, is an Anglican church on Bourne Street near Sloane Square in London. It was built 'quickly and cheaply' in 1874 by Robert Jewell Withers, with the intention of providing ministry to the poor living in the nearby slums of ...

, Belgravia, where his requiem mass was celebrated. He did not marry and had no children.

Legacy

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...

'' obituary described Gradidge as ''one of the most colourful and underrated English architects of recent years''. Obituaries also appeared in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'', ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' and ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

''.''

'', 2 January 2001 Towards the end of his career, he was awarded a

Award, (the gold-standard of architectural awards in the UK) for the design of a house in the Surrey Hills, completed with Michael Blower. His legacy is limited in that he never completed a whole building from scratch and in so far as what remains of his work as an architect are wholly interiors, extensions, alterations and extensions to pre-existing buildings.

Notes

Bibliography

* ''Dream Houses: The Edwardian Ideal'', by Roderick Gradidge. Constable, 1980 (hardback, ). * ''Edwin Lutyens: Architect Laureate'', by Roderick Gradidge. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1981 (hardback, ). * ''The Surrey Style'', by Roderick Gradidge. Kingston: Surrey Historic Buildings Trust, 1991 (paperback, ).

External links

The Blower Foundation (for cultural connection) is a registered UK Charity devoted to cultural heritage and expression
and hold an archive of drawings by Michael Blower and Roderick Gradidge and have an online gallery of buildings by both architects.
Stedman Blower Architects
hold additional correspondence and detailed information on the projects by

and Roderick Gradidge. {{DEFAULTSORT:Gradidge, Roderick Arts and Crafts architects Architects from London 1929 births Associates of the Royal Institute of British Architects 2000 deaths 20th-century English architects Masters of the Art Worker's Guild People educated at Stowe School