Geoffrey Bazeley (1906–1989) was a British Modernist architect, born in

Penzance Penzance ( ; kw, Pennsans) is a town, civil parish and port in the Penwith district of Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is the most westerly major town in Cornwall and is about west-southwest of Plymouth and west-southwest of London. Situated ...

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

into a family of

shipowner A ship-owner is the owner of a merchant vessel (commercial ship) and is involved in the shipping industry. In the commercial sense of the term, a shipowner is someone who equips and exploits a ship, usually for delivering cargo at a certain frei ...

s and traders. In 1935 he was commissioned to build Tregannick House in Cornwall and set up his own practice there. Tregannick has been described as "one of the best Modern Movement houses in the west of England."

Career

Bazeley studied architecture at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

(1926–29) and then 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 ...

in London (1929–32). He was known for his

Modernist architecture Modern architecture, or modernist architecture, was an architectural movement or architectural style based upon new and innovative technologies of construction, particularly the use of glass, steel, and reinforced concrete; the idea that form ...

. He was first employed as an assistant to

George Grey Wornum George Grey Wornum (17 April 1888 – 11 June 1957) was a British architect. Grey Wornum was born in London and educated at Bradfield College and the Slade School of Art. He studied architecture under the guidance of his uncle, Ralph Selden Wornum ...

on the

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 ...

building on

Portland Place Portland Place is a street in the Marylebone district of central London. Named after the Third Duke of Portland, the unusually wide street is home to BBC Broadcasting House, the Chinese and Polish embassies, the Royal Institute of British A ...

, London W1. In 1933 he began working for the Russian-born Modernist

Serge Chermayeff Serge Ivan Chermayeff (born Sergei Ivanovich Issakovich; russian: link=no, Сергей Ива́нович Иссако́вич; 8 October 1900 – 8 May 1996) was a Russian-born British architect, industrial designer, writer, and co-founder of ...

(who co-designed one of Britain's most iconic 1930s buildings, the

De La Warr Pavilion The De La Warr Pavilion is a grade I listed building, located on the seafront at Bexhill on Sea, East Sussex, on the south coast of England. The Modernist and International Style building was designed by the architects Erich Mendelsohn and S ...

), acting as the principal assistant for Shrub's Wood in

Chalfont St Giles Chalfont St Giles is a village and civil parish in southeast Buckinghamshire, England. It is in a group of villages called The Chalfonts, which also includes Chalfont St Peter and Little Chalfont. It lies on the edge of the Chiltern Hills, we ...

, Buckinghamshire. Bazeley started his architectural practice in Penzance in 1936 and after the war opened branches in

St Austell St Austell (; kw, Sans Austel) is a town in Cornwall, England, south of Bodmin and west of the border with Devon. St Austell is one of the largest towns in Cornwall; at the 2011 census it had a population of 19,958. History St Austell wa ...

and

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymouth ...

. He went into partnership with Peter Barbary. The firm had a very good reputation and won an award for Housing in the

Isles of Scilly The Isles of Scilly (; kw, Syllan, ', or ) is an archipelago off the southwestern tip of Cornwall, England. One of the islands, St Agnes, is the most southerly point in Britain, being over further south than the most southerly point of the ...

in 1950. They received a substantial amount of work from the

War Office The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...

, and were also responsible for the cinema in

Hayle Hayle ( kw, Heyl, "estuary") is a port town and civil parish in west Cornwall, England. It is situated at the mouth of the Hayle River (which discharges into St Ives Bay) and is approximately seven miles (11 km) northeast of Penzance. ...

, an hotel in Penzance, the Farley Building in Plymouth and the

English China Clays English China Clays PLC, or ECC, was a mining company involved in the extraction of china clay, based in St Austell, Cornwall. It was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but in 1999 was acquired by Imetal. History English China Clays was i ...

headquarters in St Austell. Barbary died in 1970 and Portland Square was put under compulsory purchase by the Polytechnic in 1972. After this Bazeley merged into partnership with Mr Miller-Williams in Looe Street, the Barbican, Plymouth. In 2001, Bazeley, Miller-Williams and Corfield merged with The Jonathan Ball Practice to become The Bazeley Partnership.

Selected works

In 1935 he was commissioned to build Tregannick House in Cornwall and set up his own practice there. It was his first major solo commission, and it clearly shows how he had imbibed the lessons of both

and his partner,

Erich Mendelsohn Erich Mendelsohn (21 March 1887 – 15 September 1953) was a German architect, known for his expressionist architecture in the 1920s, as well as for developing a dynamic Functionalism (architecture), functionalism in his projects for department ...

. Bazeley’s later projects included the modernisation of the Seaton Barracks in

, offices for the ECL group in St Austell, and the new See House for the

Bishop of Truro The Bishop of Truro is the ordinary (diocesan bishop) of the Church of England Diocese of Truro in the Province of Canterbury. History There had been between the 9th and 11th centuries a Bishopric of Cornwall until it was merged with Credi ...

References

External links

Hilltop house at Tregannick
from themodernlocation.net
Tregannick from Timesonline

The Farley building, Plymouth
from 'Derelict Places' website {{DEFAULTSORT:Bazeley, Geoffrey 1906 births 1989 deaths Architects from Cornwall People from Penzance 20th-century English architects