William Richard Lethaby (18 January 1857 – 17 July 1931) was an English
architect
An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
and
architectural historian
An architectural historian is a person who studies and writes about the history of architecture, and is regarded as an authority on it.
Professional requirements
As many architectural historians are employed at universities and other facilities ...
whose ideas were highly influential on the late
Arts and Crafts and early
Modern
Modern may refer to:
History
* Modern history
** Early Modern period
** Late Modern period
*** 18th century
*** 19th century
*** 20th century
** Contemporary history
* Moderns, a faction of Freemasonry that existed in the 18th century
Phil ...
movements in architecture, and in the fields of
conservation
Conservation is the preservation or efficient use of resources, or the conservation of various quantities under physical laws.
Conservation may also refer to:
Environment and natural resources
* Nature conservation, the protection and managem ...
and
art education
Visual arts education is the area of learning that is based upon the kind of art that one can see, visual arts
The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, de ...
.
Life and career
Early life
Lethaby was born in
Barnstaple,
Devon
Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...
, the son of a fiercely
Liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and m ...
craftsman and lay preacher. After studies at Barnstaple Art School and an early apprenticeship with a local architect he found work in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
in 1879 as Chief Clerk to architect
Richard Norman Shaw
Richard Norman Shaw RA (7 May 1831 – 17 November 1912), also known as Norman Shaw, was a British architect who worked from the 1870s to the 1900s, known for his country houses and for commercial buildings. He is considered to be among the g ...
. Shaw quickly recognized Lethaby's talent as a designer and Lethaby was to contribute significant pieces of work to major Shaw-designed buildings such as
Scotland Yard in London and
Cragside in
Northumberland
Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey.
It is bordered by land ...
.
While working for Shaw, Lethaby became involved in 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 ...
, which campaigned to preserve the integrity and authenticity of older buildings against the Victorian practice of 'improving' them to the point of almost completely rebuilding and redesigning them. Through this he became a personal friend of
Arts and Crafts Movement pioneers
William Morris
William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He ...
and
Philip Webb
Philip Speakman Webb (12 January 1831 – 17 April 1915) was a British architect and designer sometimes called the Father of Arts and Crafts Architecture. His use of vernacular architecture demonstrated his commitment to "the art of commo ...
, becoming a significant and influential member of their circle and acting as co-founder 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 ...
in 1884,
being elected Master in 1911.
He was a lifelong socialist.
The Guild was formed from a nucleus drawn from two separate groups, the St George's Art Society, a group of architects who had seen service in the offices of Norman Shaw, including
Ernest Newton
Ernest Newton (12 September 1856 – 25 January 1922) was an English architect, President of Royal Institute of British Architects and founding member of the Art Workers' Guild.
Life
Newton was the son of an estate manager of Bickley, Ke ...
,
Mervyn Macartney
Mervyn is a masculine given name and occasionally a surname which is of Old Welsh origin, with elements ''mer'', probably meaning "marrow", and ''myn'', meaning "eminent".
Despite the misconception of the letter 'V' being an English spelling, th ...
,
Reginald Barratt
Reginald is a masculine given name in the English language.
Etymology and history
The meaning of Reginald is “King". The name is derived from the Latin ''Reginaldus'', which has been influenced by the Latin word ''regina'', meaning "queen". Th ...
,
Edwin Hardy, Lethaby and
Edward Schroeder Prior
Edward Schroeder Prior (1852–1932) was an architect, instrumental in establishing the arts and crafts movement. He was one of the foremost theorists of the second generation of the movement, writing extensively on architecture, art, craftsma ...
, and the Fifteen, founded by the designer and writer
Lewis Foreman Day
Lewis Foreman Day (29 January 1845 – 18 April 1910) was a British decorative artist and industrial designer and an important figure in the Arts and Crafts movement.
Biography
Day was born at Peckham Rye, south London, on 29 January 1845. Hi ...
and the illustrator and designer
Walter Crane
Walter Crane (15 August 184514 March 1915) was an English artist and book illustrator. He is considered to be the most influential, and among the most prolific, children's book creators of his generation and, along with Randolph Caldecott and Ka ...
. Prior wrote the prospectus for the Guild. It initially met in Newton's chambers by St George's Church, Bloomsbury.
Independent practice
![122-124 Colmore Row](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/122-124_Colmore_Row.jpg)
From 1889 Lethaby worked only part-time for Shaw and increasingly practiced independently, designing a wide range of products—books, furniture and stained glass as well as buildings—exploring the
mystical
Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute, but may refer to any kind of ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or spiritual meaning. It may also refer to the attainment of insight in u ...
symbolism of medieval and non-European design and architecture: themes he was to elaborate in his first and most famous (though arguably least representative) book ''Architecture, Mysticism, and Myth'', published in 1891. This was the first major work of architectural theory to treat architecture as a system of symbols with identifiable philosophical meanings, rather than as abstract systems of aesthetic principles.
Lethaby finally left Shaw's practice in 1892 after the completion of his first major independent architectural project—the country estate of
Avon Tyrrell in
Hampshire
Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...
, built for Lord Manners. The next decade was Lethaby's most productive in terms of built works as his contacts in the
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...
area, where the ideas of the arts and crafts movement were particularly well received, led to series of commissions for buildings in the
Midlands or for Birmingham-based clients. He built Monkwood Cottage,
Loughton
Loughton () is a town and civil parish in the Epping Forest District of Essex. Part of the metropolitan and urban area of London, the town borders Chingford, Waltham Abbey, Theydon Bois, Chigwell and Buckhurst Hill, and is northeast of Chari ...
, Essex, for his friend,
Hubert Llewellyn Smith
Sir Hubert Llewellyn Smith (1864 – 19 September 1945) was a British civil servant. He served as permanent secretary to the Board of Trade from 1907 to 1919, where he played an important role in the Liberal government's welfare reforms. He a ...
.
London County Council
In 1894 Lethaby was appointed Art Inspector to the Technical Education Board of the newly formed
London County Council
London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today kno ...
. Here he had a pioneering role in developing education in the fine and practical arts, most notably as the founder of the
Central School of Arts and Crafts
The Central School of Art and Design was a public art school, school of fine arts, fine and applied arts in London, England. It offered foundation and degree level courses. It was established in 1896 by the London County Council as the Central ...
in 1896. His most significant innovations lay in breaking down academic barriers between design (perceived as an artistic and intellectual pursuit) and production (widely perceived as the less sophisticated activity of the craftsman or artisan). Lethaby believed that this was an artificial distinction and sought to have both taught as equally valuable parts of the process of producing a high quality end-product.
Academic and pioneer of conservation
In 1901 Lethaby was appointed the first Professor of Design at the
Royal College of Art
The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It o ...
.
This, coupled with his appointments as Principal of the Central School of Arts and Crafts in 1902 and as
Surveyor of Westminster Abbey in 1906 meant that he was increasingly devoted to the academic study of the theory and history of architecture and design. He effectively ceased architectural practice around this time, though he remained an immensely influential figure through his writings and teaching. Lethaby's role as a guide and mentor to German Cultural Attaché
Hermann Muthesius
Adam Gottlieb Hermann Muthesius (20 April 1861 – 29 October 1927), known as Hermann Muthesius, was a German architect, author and diplomat, perhaps best known for promoting many of the ideas of the English Arts and Crafts movement within German ...
during his investigations into English architecture was to prove particularly significant in the light of Muthesius's later role as an influence on the early pioneers of the
Bauhaus
The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 20 ...
.
At Westminster Abbey, Lethaby was able to put into practice his belief in sympathetic and historically accurate restoration, conducting extensive research into the history of its structure and design and largely setting the template that the restoration and preservation of historic buildings was to follow for the rest of the century.
Lethaby died on 17 July 1931 at
Bayswater in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
. He was buried in the churchyard of
St Mary's Church at
Hartley Wintney
Hartley Wintney is a large village and civil parish in the Hart district of Hampshire, England. It lies about northwest of Fleet and east of Basingstoke. The parish includes the smaller contiguous village of Phoenix Green as well as the ham ...
in
Hampshire
Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...
.
Awards
Lethaby was offered 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 supp ...
Gold Medal award but turned it down. He is the last person to have done so.
Influence and reputation
Lethaby has traditionally been seen by figures such as
Nikolaus Pevsner
Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (1 ...
as significant primarily in his role as a precursor of the early modern movement. He was the acknowledged theorist behind the work of
Ernest Gimson
Ernest William Gimson (; 21 December 1864 – 12 August 1919) was an English furniture designer and architect. Gimson was described by the art critic Nikolaus Pevsner as "the greatest of the English architect-designers". Today his reputati ...
and the group of architect-craftsmen who worked with him in Sapperton,
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean.
The county town is the city of Gl ...
, intent to found a "''school of rational building''". Lethaby's emphasis on "''good, honest building''" is viewed as making explicit the
functionalism implicit in the writings and architecture of
Pugin,
Ruskin and
Philip Webb
Philip Speakman Webb (12 January 1831 – 17 April 1915) was a British architect and designer sometimes called the Father of Arts and Crafts Architecture. His use of vernacular architecture demonstrated his commitment to "the art of commo ...
, with his connection to Muthesius as the means through which this idea was to influence the German modernist pioneers.
Major built works
Avon TyrrellHouse, near
Burley, Hampshire (1892)
* The Hurst, Hartopp Road,
Four Oaks, Birmingham
Four Oaks is an affluent residential area in Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, lying along the north and east borders of Sutton Park. Four Oaks is situated approximately north of Birmingham City Centre, and is bordered by Sutton Park, Streetly ...
(1894) - largely demolished
*
122–124 Colmore Row (Eagle Insurance Offices),
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...
(1900)
* Melsetter House, Gatehouse, Lodge and Chapel,
Hoy
Hoy ( sco, Hoy; from Norse , meaning "high island") is an island in Orkney, Scotland, measuring – the second largest in the archipelago, after Mainland. A natural causeway, ''the Ayre'', links the island to the smaller South Walls; the tw ...
,
Orkney (1900)
* High Coxlease House,
Lyndhurst, Hampshire
Lyndhurst is a large village and civil parish situated in the New Forest National Park in Hampshire, England. Serving as the administrative capital of the New Forest, it is a popular tourist attraction, with many independent shops, art gallerie ...
(1902)
*
All Saints' Church, Brockhampton
The Church of All Saints is a Church of England parish church at Brockhampton-by-Ross, Brockhampton in the English county of Herefordshire. The church was commissioned by Alice Foster as a memorial to her parents, Eben Dyer Jordan, Eben and Juli ...
,
Herefordshire
Herefordshire () is a county in the West Midlands of England, governed by Herefordshire Council. It is bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh counties of Monmouthsh ...
(1902)
Major publications
* ''Architecture, Mysticism, and Myth'' (1891)
* With Swainson, Harol
''The Church of Sancta Sophia, Constantinople : A Study of Byzantine Building' (London: Macmillan, 1894).
* ''Mediaeval Art'' (1904)
* ''Architecture: An Introduction to the History and Theory of the Art of Building'' (1912)
* ''Form in Civilization: Collected Papers on Art and Labour'' (1922)
* ''
Philip Webb
Philip Speakman Webb (12 January 1831 – 17 April 1915) was a British architect and designer sometimes called the Father of Arts and Crafts Architecture. His use of vernacular architecture demonstrated his commitment to "the art of commo ...
and His Work'' (1935)
Further reading
*Pauline Brain (2010). "Some men who made Barnstaple..." Has some information and copies of his work.
*Vaughan Hart (1993). ‘William Richard Lethaby and the Holy Spirit’, ''Architectural History: Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain'', vol.36, pp.145-158.
*"
*Godfrey Rubens (1986). ''William Richard Lethaby'', London: The Architectural Press
References
External links
*
*
Central Saint Martins Museum and Study Collection- The museum has a large collection of works by W.R. Lethaby, which are available to view on th
VADSwebsite.
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lethaby, William
1857 births
1931 deaths
People from Barnstaple
Architects from Devon
Academics of the Royal College of Art
Academics of the Central School of Art and Design
English Christian socialists
Masters of the Art Worker's Guild
Guild of St George