Name

(Sir) Alfred Edward Richardson

Designation
Architect
Born
1880
Place of Birth
London
Location
London
Died
1964

  • Born      19 May 1880 at London
  • Married  1904 Elizabeth Byers (March 1882 – 1958) – one daughter
  • Died      3 February 1964 at Ampthill
  • RIBA     1947 Gold Medal for Architecture.

Sir Alfred Edward Richardson was an all-round talent, an accomplished practitioner and exceptional draughtsman, an inspirational teacher and author of significance.

While working in the office of Frank Verity he met C. Lovett Gill, with whom he set up practice in 1908. The partnership was appointed architects to the Duchy of Cornwall Estate, and was responsible for a number of buildings in London and the south east, including Moorgate Hall, Finsbury Pavement, additions to University College, London, St Margaret’s House, Wells Street, London (winner of the London Architecture Bronze Medal), the Jockey Club, Newmarket, and Holy Cross Church, Greenford, Middlesex.

In 1912 they designed the New Theatre (Opera House), in Manchester, Richardson’s only work in the north-west of England

After the 1939-45 war Richardson took into partnership his son-in-law E. A. S. Houfe, and among their works are the restoration of St James’s, Piccadilly, restoration and enlargement of Trinity House, Trinity Square, the Associated Electrical Industries building, Grosvenor Square, the Wolfson building and St Hilda's College. Oxford and Bracken House (Financial Times building), Cannon Street.

His writings include Monumental classic architecture in Great Britain during the XVIII and XIX Centuries (1914), a re- appraisal of Victorian Neo-classical architecture, Regional Architecture of the West of England (1924) (with Gill), Georgian England (1943) and An Introduction to Georgian Architecture (1949) as well as two books on domestic architecture.

From 1919 to 1946 he was Professor of Architecture at University College and was knighted for his services to architecture in 1956. President of the Royal Academy 1954

An authority on the Georgians he revived its atmosphere in his 18th-century house at Ampthill, which he furnished with examples of craftmanship of the period, and where initially he sacrificed electric light to candle and oil power (until persuaded otherwise by his wife.).

Address
29a Wimpole Street, London W1

Residence
1919-1964 Avenue House, 20 Church Street Ampthill, Bedfordshire

 

Partnerships

Name Designation Formed Dissolved Location
Richardson and Gill Architectural practice 1908 1939 London