Sir Raymond Unwin 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

Rotherham

Rotherham is a town in South Yorkshire, England. It lies on the River Don, at its confluence with the River Rother, between Sheffield and Doncaster. Rotherham, at from Sheffield City Centre, is surrounded by several smaller settlements, which together form the wider Metropolitan Borough of...

, Yorkshire

Yorkshire

Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...

 and grew up in Oxford

Oxford

The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...

, after his father sold up his business and moved there to study. He was educated at Magdelen College School. In 1884 he returned to the North to become an apprentice engineer for Stavely Iron & Coal Company near Chesterfield

Chesterfield

Chesterfield is a market town and a borough of Derbyshire, England. It lies north of Derby, on a confluence of the rivers Rother and Hipper. Its population is 70,260 , making it Derbyshire's largest town...

.

Unwin had become interested in social issues at an early age and was inspired by the lectures and ideals of John Ruskin

John Ruskin

John Ruskin was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, also an art patron, draughtsman, watercolourist, a prominent social thinker and philanthropist. He wrote on subjects ranging from geology to architecture, myth to ornithology, literature to education, and botany to political...

 and William Morris

William Morris

William Morris 24 March 18343 October 1896 was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement...

. In 1885 he moved to Manchester

Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

 and became secretary of Morris's local Socialist League

Socialist League (UK, 1885)

The Socialist League was an early revolutionary socialist organisation in the United Kingdom. The organisation began as a dissident offshoot of the Social Democratic Federation of Henry Hyndman at the end of 1884. Never an ideologically harmonious group, by the 1890s the group had turned from...

. He wrote articles for the League's newspaper and spoke on street corners for its cause and for the Labour Church

The Labour Church

The Labour Church was an organization intended to give expression to the religion of the labour movement. This religion is not theological but leaves the theological for the individual to consider and contemplate.-History:...

. He also became a close friend of the socialist philosopher Edward Carpenter

Edward Carpenter

Edward Carpenter was an English socialist poet, socialist philosopher, anthologist, and early gay activist....

, whose Utopia

Utopia

Utopia is an ideal community or society possessing a perfect socio-politico-legal system. The word was imported from Greek by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempt...

n community ideas led to his developing a small commune at Millthorpe near Sheffield

Sheffield

Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...

.

In 1887 he returned to Staveley Iron as an engineer, working on development of mining townships and various other buildings, and joined the Sheffield Socialist Society

Sheffield Socialist Society

The Sheffield Socialist Society was an early revolutionary socialist organisation in Sheffield, England.The Society was founded in 1886 on the initiative of Edward Carpenter. Carpenter was influenced by Henry Hyndman's book England for All, and struck up a friendship with William Morris...

.

In 1893 he married Barry Parker's sister Ethel, and formed a partnership in 1896 based in Buxton

Buxton

Buxton is a spa town in Derbyshire, England. It has the highest elevation of any market town in England. Located close to the county boundary with Cheshire to the west and Staffordshire to the south, Buxton is described as "the gateway to the Peak District National Park"...

, Derbyshire. The partners preferred the simple vernacular style and made it their aim to improve housing standards for the working classes. They were also members of the Northern Art Worker's Guild and were close friends of Edgar Wood

Edgar Wood

Edgar Wood was an architect who practised from Manchester at the turn of the 20th century and gained a considerable reputation both in Britain and abroad, notably in Germany. British design was then of European significance. His work is principally domestic, but he designed several churches and...

 (1860–1935) the leading Arts and Crafts

Arts and Crafts movement

Arts and Crafts was an international design philosophy that originated in England and flourished between 1860 and 1910 , continuing its influence until the 1930s...

 architect in the North of England and a founding member of the group.

Planning career

In their various writings, including their book The Art of Building a Home (1901), Parker and Unwin aimed to popularise the Arts and Crafts Movement

Arts and Crafts movement

Arts and Crafts was an international design philosophy that originated in England and flourished between 1860 and 1910 , continuing its influence until the 1930s...

, and as a result of their success thousands of homes were built on their pattern in the early part of the 20th century.

A notable example of one of their earliest collaborations at Clayton, Staffordshire, is dated to 1899, and was originally called the Goodfellow House after the man who commissioned it. Parker and Unwin were involved in designing many of the interior fittings, which remain in the house to this day, and the initial layout of the large gardens. Goodfellow sold the house in 1926 to Colley Shorter who ran the nearby pottery works of Wilkinson's and Newport. He renamed it Chetwynd House and when he married his star designer Clarice Cliff in 1940, she moved into the house and lived there intil 1972. It is her association that has made the house particularly famous since.

In 1902 Parker and Unwin were asked to design a model village at New Earswick near York

York

York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...

 for Joseph

Joseph Rowntree (philanthropist)

Joseph Rowntree was a Quaker philanthropist and businessman from York, England. Rowntree is perhaps best known for being a champion of social reform and his time as a chocolatier at family business Rowntree's, one of the most important in Britain...

 and Benjamin Seebohm Rowntree

Benjamin Seebohm Rowntree

Benjamin Seebohm Rowntree, CH, often known simply as Seebohm Rowntree was a British sociological researcher, social reformer and industrialist.-Life:...

, and the following year they were given the opportunity to take part in the creation of Letchworth

Letchworth

Letchworth Garden City, commonly known as Letchworth, is a town and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England. The town's name is taken from one of the three villages it surrounded - all of which featured in the Domesday Book. The land used was first purchased by Quakers who had intended to farm the...

, when the First Garden City Company

Garden city movement

The garden city movement is a method of urban planning that was initiated in 1898 by Sir Ebenezer Howard in the United Kingdom. Garden cities were intended to be planned, self-contained communities surrounded by "greenbelts" , containing proportionate areas of residences, industry and...

 asked them to submit a plan.

In 1903 they were involved with the "Cottages Near a Town Exhibit" for the Northern Art Workers Guild of Manchester. In 1904 after their plan was adopted they opened a second office at Baldock

Baldock

Baldock is a historic market town in the local government district of North Hertfordshire in the ceremonial county of Hertfordshire, England where the River Ivel rises. It lies north of London, southeast of Bedford, and north northwest of the county town of Hertford...

. In 1905 Henrietta Barnett asked them to plan the new Garden Suburb at Hampstead

Hampstead

Hampstead is an area of London, England, north-west of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Camden in Inner London, it is known for its intellectual, liberal, artistic, musical and literary associations and for Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland...

.

Unwin moved from Letchworth to Hampstead in 1906, and he lived here for the rest of his life at the farmstead "Wyldes".

In 1907 Ealing Tenants Limited, a progressive cooperative in west London, appointed him to take forward the development of Brentham garden suburb.

Unwin joined the Local Government Board

Local Government Board

The Local Government Board was a British Government supervisory body overseeing local administration in England and Wales from 1871 to 1919.The LGB was created by the Local Government Board Act 1871 The Local Government Board (LGB) was a British Government supervisory body overseeing local...

 in December 1914. In 1915 he was seconded to the Ministry of Munitions to design the villages of Gretna

Gretna, Dumfries and Galloway

Gretna is a town in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. Because they are near the Anglo-Scottish border, nearby Gretna Green and to a lesser extent Gretna, are historically linked to weddings because of the more liberal marriage laws in Scotland...

 and Eastriggs

Eastriggs

Eastriggs is a village in the south of Dumfries and Galloway. It has a small number of shops, a restaurant, post office, public house, working men's club and a church...

 and supervise others. From 1917 he had an influential role at the Tudor Walters Committee on working-class housing whose report was published in 1919, the year in which he was appointed Chief Architect to the newly formed Ministry of Health. That post had evolved into the Chief Technical Officer for Housing and Town Planning by the time of his retirement in November 1928.

His demonstration during the Great War

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 of the principles of building homes rapidly and economically whilst maintaining satisfactory standards for gardens, family privacy and internal spaces, gave him great influence over the Tudor Walters Committee and hence, indirectly, over much inter-war public housing. This report marked Unwin's definitive break from the traditional 'garden city' concept, as it proposed that the new developments should be peripheral 'satellites' rather than fully-fledged garden cities. Unwin became technical adviser to the Greater London Regional Planning Committee in 1929 and largely wrote its two reports, the first published in that year and the second in 1933.

Unwin was President of the Royal Institute of British Architects

Royal Institute of British Architects

The Royal Institute of British Architects is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally.-History:...

 (RIBA) from 1931 to 1933, was knighted in 1932 and consulted by United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...

 on the New Deal

New Deal

The New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...

 in 1933. In 1936 he was appointed visiting Professor of Town Planning at Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

 and in 1937 he received the RIBA

Riba

Riba means one of the senses of "usury" . Riba is forbidden in Islamic economic jurisprudence fiqh and considered as a major sin...

 Royal Gold Medal for architecture. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

 in 1937.

Death and legacy

Raymond Unwin died at Lyme, Connecticut

Lyme, Connecticut

Lyme is a town in New London County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 2,016 at the 2000 census. Lyme and its neighboring town Old Lyme are the namesake for Lyme disease.-Geography:...

 at the home of his daughter on 29 June 1940.

External links

• DSA Architect Biography Report: Parker & Unwin
• Andrew Saint, Unwin, Sir Raymond (1863–1940), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 accessed 2 Nov 2010
• The Town Extension Plan, 1912 Warburton lecture.