Pepler and Allen
(Sir) George Lionel Pepler (1882 – 13 April 1959) was influential in the development of town planning practice in the first half of the twentieth century. From 1905 until 1914, in partnership with Ernest Gladstone Allen ARIBA, Pepler carried on a practice in architecture, surveying and the then emerging discipline of town planning.
The partners were awarded three gold medals at housing exhibitions in 1908 and 1910 and were among the first to specialize in laying out new villages and housing estates for landowners, among others at Fallings Park near Wolverhampton and at Knebworth, Hertfordshire. During that period Pepler became a member of the Garden City (later Town and Country Planning) Association, and was active in the advocacy of the garden city concept and of the operation by local authorities of their permissive planning powers under the first Town Planning Act, of 1909. In 1914 Pepler succeeded Thomas Adams as chief technical planning officer to the Local Government Board. a position which he would retain through several changes of his designation and that of the department, until 1946. George Pepler was a colleague of Raymond Unwin who was working at Letchworth, and together they founded the Town Planning Institute.
The partnership was dissolved on 31 December 1914 when Pepler withdrew. However, Ernest Allen continued to practice under the style of Pepler and Allen in partnership with Francis Longstreth Thompson.
Address:
1905-1909 Pepler and Allen, architects and surveyors, 3 George Street, Croydon, Surrey
1908 Pepler and Allen, 3 George Street, Croydon and 37 Queen Victoria Street London EC
1910 Pepler and Allen, Pall Mall London and Swansea
1914 Howard House, 4, Arundel Street, Strand,
1915-1923 Howard House, 4 Arundel Street, Strand, London WC
1924-1925 11 Arundel Street, Strand, London WC (1926)
1927-1936 Allen and Potter 11 Arundel Street, Strand, London WC
1911-1912 7 Gower Street, Swansea, Glamorgan, Wales
1913-1914 14 Fisher Street, Swansea, Glamorgan, Wales