Roderick Gradidge
Encyclopedia
Roderick Gradidge AA Dipl.
ARIBA
(3 January 1929 – 20 December 2000) was a prominent British
architect
and writer
on architecture, former Master of the Art Workers Guild
and campaigner for a traditional architecture.
, the Victorian
and a Vernacular
architecture which had become so unfashionable by the beginning of his career. It is this passion that drove him to his writing career and to become a repository of the knowledge of the architecture of this period and in particular in the County of Surrey
(near his home at Chiswick
) where so much interesting architecture was produced in this period. Roderick had the opportunity to work on a number of buildings in the county by prominent architects, such as Sir Edwin Lutyens
, Harold Falkner
, Hugh Thackeray Turner, Detmar Blow
and Charles Voysey
. He completed a number of interesting 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
, Surrey
and which he published in his book, the Surrey Style. He designed a library with David Hicks
at Nicholas Hawksmoor
’s Easton Neston
in the style of the English Baroque
for Lord Hesketh, a Gothick conservatory at Cholmondeley Castle
and altered Mount Stuart
for Lord Bute. He worked on a number of pub interiors for Ind Coope, such as the Markham Arms (now altered) on the Kings Road
, Chelsea
and the Three Greyhounds in Soho
, London
. He restored the Gothic
interior of E. W. Godwin’s Northampton Guildhall
, and the interior of Bodelwyddan Castle
for the National Portrait Gallery, which won the Museum of the Year Award in 1989. At St Marys, Bourne Street, South Kensington
and the National Portrait Gallery in London, he also did some interior modifications, although the latter has since been altered. Further notable projects included additions to St Edmund's College, Cambridge
(1990-3), Pugin
’s St Chads, Birmingham and St Augustine, Ramsgate.
He was active in the Art Workers Guild
, serving as the Guild's Secretary from 1977-84 and Master in 1987. He was a founding member of the Thirties Society (later to become the 20th Century Society) of which he was a Trustee for many years and was prominent in The Victorian Society
, at a time when these were marginal interests within the architectural profession.
, who had taken over notable Farnham
architectural practice AJ & LR Stedman
. Their first projects were on Voysey
's New House in Haslemere
and on Detmar Blow
’s Charles Hill Court for an Austrian industrialist. From there, they went onto Harold Falkner
’s Tancreds Ford, which they designed and built for the writer Ken Follett
and his first wife, and which was published in two articles in Country Life
. Next came The New House, reputedly designed by Hugh Thackeray Turner and for which they jointly won a RIBA
Award, which was also published in Country Life. Just prior to his death, they were working on a project at Combe Court, which was completed by Michael Blower and his sons through their architectural practice, Stedman Blower.
, Norfolk
, and died 20 December 2000 in London, aged 71. H. His father Brigadier
John Gradidge, was posted in India
at the time of his son's birth, who was then brought up amidst the splendours of the British Raj
. He was sent off to Public School at Stowe
and from there and after 2 years National Service
in the Palestine
, he moved to London and the Architectural Association, where he completed his training as an architect and was elected an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects
(ARIBA
). 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. Roddy 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 long-time member of the congregation of the Anglo-Catholic St Mary’s, Bourne Street, Kensington, where his requiem mass was celebrated. On that occasion the priest officiating quipped in his eulogy that it was one of the few occasions he could remember when Roddy was on time for mass. He had no children and was never married.
obituary described him as one of the most colourful and underrated English
architects of recent years. Obituaries also appeared in The Times
, in The Guardian
and in The Independent
, the latter one penned by the prominent architectural historian and critic Gavin Stamp
. Another heavyweight writer and architectural critic, Kenneth Powell wrote in the late 1980’s that Roderick would merit rather more than a footnote when the history of late 20th Century British architecture comes to be written. At the twilight of his career, he was awarded a RIBA
Award, (the gold-standard of architectural awards in the UK) for the design of a house in the Surrey Hills
, completed with his sometime architectural partner Michael Blower. Perhaps though, 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. Fortunately, many of these are Listed Buildings and they will survive as a testament to his career.
Architectural Association School of Architecture
The Architectural Association School of Architecture, more usually known as the AA, is an architectural school in London, United Kingdom...
ARIBA
Ariba
Ariba is a software and information technology services company located in Sunnyvale, California.- Early life :Ariba was founded in 1996 by Bobby Lent, Boris Putanec, Paul Touw, Rob Desantis, Ed Kinsey, Paul Hegarty, and Keith Krach on the idea of using the Internet to enable companies to...
(3 January 1929 – 20 December 2000) was a prominent British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
and writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
on architecture, former Master of the Art Workers Guild
Art Workers Guild
The Art Workers Guild or Art-Workers' Guild is an organisation established in 1884 by a group of British architects associated with the ideas of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement. The guild promoted the 'unity of all the arts', denying the distinction between fine and applied art...
and campaigner for a traditional architecture.
Career
Roderick was an evangelist for the Arts & CraftsArts 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...
, the Victorian
Victorian architecture
The term Victorian architecture refers collectively to several architectural styles employed predominantly during the middle and late 19th century. The period that it indicates may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria. This represents the British and...
and a Vernacular
Vernacular
A vernacular is the native language or native dialect of a specific population, as opposed to a language of wider communication that is not native to the population, such as a national language or lingua franca.- Etymology :The term is not a recent one...
architecture which had become so unfashionable by the beginning of his career. It is this passion that drove him to his writing career and to become a repository of the knowledge of the architecture of this period and in particular in the County of Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
(near his home at Chiswick
Chiswick
Chiswick is a large suburb of west London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It is located on a meander of the River Thames, west of Charing Cross and is one of 35 major centres identified in the London Plan. It was historically an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex, with...
) where so much interesting architecture was produced in this period. Roderick had the opportunity to work on a number of buildings in the county by prominent architects, such as Sir Edwin Lutyens
Edwin Lutyens
Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens, OM, KCIE, PRA, FRIBA was a British architect who is known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era...
, Harold Falkner
Harold Falkner
Harold Falkner FRIBA was a notable British architect in the early 20th Century and is now considered a leading exponent of the vernacular and the Arts & Crafts in architecture...
, Hugh Thackeray Turner, Detmar Blow
Detmar Blow
Detmar Jellings Blow 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 estates manager to the Duke of Westminster...
and Charles Voysey
Charles Voysey (architect)
Charles Francis Annesley Voysey was an English architect and furniture and textile designer. Voysey's early work was as a designer of wallpapers, fabrics and furnishings in a simple Arts and Crafts style, but he is renowned as the architect of a number of notable country houses...
. He completed a number of interesting 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
Farnham is a town in Surrey, England, within the Borough of Waverley. The town is situated some 42 miles southwest of London in the extreme west of Surrey, adjacent to the border with Hampshire...
, Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
and which he published in his book, the Surrey Style. He designed a library with David Hicks
David Hicks
David Matthew Hicks is an Australian who was convicted by the United States of America Guantanamo Military Commission under the Military Commissions Act of 2006, on charges of providing material support for terrorism...
at Nicholas Hawksmoor
Nicholas Hawksmoor
Nicholas Hawksmoor was a British architect born in Nottinghamshire, probably in East Drayton.-Life:Hawksmoor was born in Nottinghamshire in 1661, into a yeoman farming family, almost certainly in East Drayton, Nottinghamshire. On his death he was to leave property at nearby Ragnall, Dunham and a...
’s Easton Neston
Easton Neston
Easton Neston is a country house near Towcester, Northamptonshire, England, and is part of the Easton Neston Parish. It was designed in the Baroque style by the architect Nicholas Hawksmoor. Easton Neston is thought to be the only mansion which was solely the work of Hawksmoor...
in the style of the English Baroque
English Baroque
English Baroque is a term sometimes used to refer to the developments in English architecture that were parallel to the evolution of Baroque architecture in continental Europe between the Great Fire of London and the Treaty of Utrecht ....
for Lord Hesketh, a Gothick conservatory at Cholmondeley Castle
Cholmondeley Castle
Cholmondeley Castle is a country house in the civil parish of Cholmondeley, Cheshire, England. It has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade II* listed building. It is surrounded by a estate.-House:...
and altered Mount Stuart
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 tenth-highest overall...
for Lord Bute. He worked on a number of pub interiors for Ind Coope, such as the Markham Arms (now altered) on the Kings Road
Kings Road
King's Road or Kings Road, known popularly as The King's Road or The KR, is a major, well-known street stretching through Chelsea and Fulham, both in west London, England...
, Chelsea
Chelsea, London
Chelsea is an area of West London, England, bounded to the south by the River Thames, where its frontage runs from Chelsea Bridge along the Chelsea Embankment, Cheyne Walk, Lots Road and Chelsea Harbour. Its eastern boundary was once defined by the River Westbourne, which is now in a pipe above...
and the Three Greyhounds in Soho
Soho
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster and part of the West End of London. Long established as an entertainment district, for much of the 20th century Soho had a reputation for sex shops as well as night life and film industry. Since the early 1980s, the area has undergone considerable...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. He restored the Gothic
Gothic Revival architecture
The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...
interior of E. W. Godwin’s Northampton Guildhall
Northampton Guildhall
Northampton Guildhall is a building which stands on St Giles' Square in Northampton, England.-Original building:It was built to the design of Edward William Godwin begun when he was only 28 between 1861 and 1864 in neo-gothic style. As well as housing Northampton Borough Council, it is also used...
, and the interior of Bodelwyddan Castle
Bodelwyddan Castle
Bodelwyddan Castle, 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. Its most important association was with the Williams-Wynn family, which extended for around 200 years from 1690...
for the National Portrait Gallery, which won the Museum of the Year Award in 1989. At St Marys, Bourne Street, South Kensington
South Kensington
South Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London. It is a built-up area located 2.4 miles west south-west of Charing Cross....
and the National Portrait Gallery in London, he also did some interior modifications, although the latter has since been altered. Further notable projects included additions to St Edmund's College, Cambridge
St Edmund's College, Cambridge
Saint Edmund's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. It is the second oldest of the four Cambridge colleges oriented to mature students, which only accept students reading for either Masters or Doctorate degrees, or undergraduate degrees if they are aged 21 or older, the...
(1990-3), Pugin
Pugin
Pugin most commonly refers to Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin , English architect and designer.Other members of his family include:...
’s St Chads, Birmingham and St Augustine, Ramsgate.
He was active in the Art Workers Guild
Art Workers Guild
The Art Workers Guild or Art-Workers' Guild is an organisation established in 1884 by a group of British architects associated with the ideas of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement. The guild promoted the 'unity of all the arts', denying the distinction between fine and applied art...
, serving as the Guild's Secretary from 1977-84 and Master in 1987. He was a founding member of the Thirties Society (later to become the 20th Century Society) of which he was a Trustee for many years and was prominent in The Victorian Society
The Victorian Society
The Victorian Society is the national charity responsible for the study and protection of Victorian and Edwardian architecture and other arts in Britain....
, at a time when these were marginal interests within the architectural profession.
Partnership with Michael Blower
Roderick completed a number of fine restorations and extensions to country houses in Surrey in the 1980’s and 1990’s. He did these in a loose partnership with the prominent Surrey-based architect, Michael BlowerMichael Blower
Michael Blower AAdipl FRIBA FRSA 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...
, who had taken over notable Farnham
Farnham
Farnham is a town in Surrey, England, within the Borough of Waverley. The town is situated some 42 miles southwest of London in the extreme west of Surrey, adjacent to the border with Hampshire...
architectural practice AJ & LR Stedman
Arthur Stedman
Arthur J Stedman FRIBA was a British architect in the Late-Victorian and Edwardian periods. He was a prominent architect in and around Farnham, Surrey where he was educated, lived and died.- Career :...
. Their first projects were on Voysey
Charles Voysey (architect)
Charles Francis Annesley Voysey was an English architect and furniture and textile designer. Voysey's early work was as a designer of wallpapers, fabrics and furnishings in a simple Arts and Crafts style, but he is renowned as the architect of a number of notable country houses...
's New House in Haslemere
Haslemere
Haslemere is a town in Surrey, England, close to the border with both Hampshire and West Sussex. The major road between London and Portsmouth, the A3, lies to the west, and a branch of the River Wey to the south. Haslemere is approximately south-west of Guildford.Haslemere is surrounded by hills,...
and on Detmar Blow
Detmar Blow
Detmar Jellings Blow 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 estates manager to the Duke of Westminster...
’s Charles Hill Court for an Austrian industrialist. From there, they went onto Harold Falkner
Harold Falkner
Harold Falkner FRIBA was a notable British architect in the early 20th Century and is now considered a leading exponent of the vernacular and the Arts & Crafts in architecture...
’s Tancreds Ford, which they designed and built for the writer Ken Follett
Ken Follett
Ken Follett is a Welsh author of thrillers and historical novels. He has sold more than 100 million copies of his works. Four of his books have reached the number 1 ranking on the New York Times best-seller list: The Key to Rebecca, Lie Down with Lions, Triple, and World Without End.-Early...
and his first wife, and which was published in two articles in Country Life
Country Life (magazine)
Country Life is a British weekly magazine, based in London at 110 Southwark Street, and owned by IPC Media, a Time Warner subsidiary.- Topics :The magazine covers the pleasures and joys of rural life, as well as the concerns of rural people...
. Next came The New House, reputedly designed by Hugh Thackeray Turner and for which they jointly won a RIBA
Riba
Riba means one of the senses of "usury" . Riba is forbidden in Islamic economic jurisprudence fiqh and considered as a major sin...
Award, which was also published in Country Life. Just prior to his death, they were working on a project at Combe Court, which was completed by Michael Blower and his sons through their architectural practice, Stedman Blower.
Personal life
Roddy was born 3 January 1929 in Old HunstantonOld 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 as of the 2001 census.For the purposes of local government, it falls within the district of North Norfolk....
, Norfolk
Norfolk
Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...
, and died 20 December 2000 in London, aged 71. H. His father Brigadier
Brigadier
Brigadier is a senior military rank, the meaning of which is somewhat different in different military services. The brigadier rank is generally superior to the rank of colonel, and subordinate to major general....
John Gradidge, was posted in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
at the time of his son's birth, who was then brought up amidst the splendours of the British Raj
British Raj
British Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; The term can also refer to the period of dominion...
. He was sent off to Public School at Stowe
Stowe School
Stowe School is an independent school in Stowe, Buckinghamshire. It was founded on 11 May 1923 by J. F. Roxburgh, initially with 99 male pupils. It is a member of the Rugby Group and Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. The school is also a member of the G20 Schools Group...
and from there and after 2 years National Service
National service
National service is a common name for mandatory government service programmes . The term became common British usage during and for some years following the Second World War. Many young people spent one or more years in such programmes...
in the Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
, he moved to London and the Architectural Association, where he completed his training as an architect and was elected an Associate 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:...
(ARIBA
Ariba
Ariba is a software and information technology services company located in Sunnyvale, California.- Early life :Ariba was founded in 1996 by Bobby Lent, Boris Putanec, Paul Touw, Rob Desantis, Ed Kinsey, Paul Hegarty, and Keith Krach on the idea of using the Internet to enable companies to...
). 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. Roddy 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 long-time member of the congregation of the Anglo-Catholic St Mary’s, Bourne Street, Kensington, where his requiem mass was celebrated. On that occasion the priest officiating quipped in his eulogy that it was one of the few occasions he could remember when Roddy was on time for mass. He had no children and was never married.
Legacy
The TelegraphThe Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
obituary described him as one of the most colourful and underrated English
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
architects of recent years. Obituaries also appeared in The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, in The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
and in The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
, the latter one penned by the prominent architectural historian and critic Gavin Stamp
Gavin Stamp
Gavin Stamp is a British writer and architectural historian. He is a trustee of the Twentieth Century Society, a registered charity which promotes the appreciation of modern architecture and the conservation of Britain’s architectural heritage...
. Another heavyweight writer and architectural critic, Kenneth Powell wrote in the late 1980’s that Roderick would merit rather more than a footnote when the history of late 20th Century British architecture comes to be written. At the twilight of his career, he was awarded a RIBA
Riba
Riba means one of the senses of "usury" . Riba is forbidden in Islamic economic jurisprudence fiqh and considered as a major sin...
Award, (the gold-standard of architectural awards in the UK) for the design of a house in the Surrey Hills
Surrey Hills AONB
The Surrey Hills is a Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty , located in Surrey, England. The AONB was designated in 1958 and covers one quarter of the county of Surrey...
, completed with his sometime architectural partner Michael Blower. Perhaps though, 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
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
are wholly interiors, extensions, alterations and extensions to pre-existing buildings. Fortunately, many of these are Listed Buildings and they will survive as a testament to his career.
External links
- Obituary http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1379044/Roderick-Gradidge.html in The Telegraph.
- Obituary http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2001/jan/25/guardianobituaries.alanpower in The Guardian by Alan PowersAlan PowersAlan Powers is a British author specialising in books on architecture.Powers trained as an art historian at University of Cambridge, gaining an undergraduate degree and a PhD. During his career he has combined writing with painting and illustration. His work includes aquatints, drawings,...
. - The Blower Foundation (for cultural connection) is a registered UK Charity devoted to cultural heritage and expression and http://www.cultural-connection.org hold an archive of drawings by Michael Blower and Roderick Gradidge and have an online gallery of buildings by both architects.
- Stedman Blower Architectshttp://www.stedmanblower.co.uk hold additional correspondence and detailed information on the projects by Michael BlowerMichael BlowerMichael Blower AAdipl FRIBA FRSA 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...
and Roderick Gradidge.