Sir Frederick Ernest GibberdCBERA(7 January 1908 – 9 January 1984) was an English architect,town plannerandlandscape designer.He is particularly known for his work inHarlow,Essex, and for theBISF house,a design for a prefabricatedcouncil housethat was widely adopted inpost-warBritain.
Frederick Ernest Gibberd | |
|---|---|
| Born | 7 January 1908 *Coventry,England |
| Died | 9 January 1984(aged 76) |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Architect |
| Buildings | 1933–1936,Pullman Court,Streatham, London |
| Projects | Harlow New Town,The Gibberd Garden,London Central Mosque,Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral |
Biography
editGibberd was born inCoventry,the eldest of the five children of a localtailor,and was educated at the city'sKing Henry VIII School.In 1925 he was articled to a firm of architects inBirminghamand studied architecture underWilliam Bidlakeat theBirmingham School of Art,where his roommate wasF. R. S. Yorke.[1]
A good friend ofSir Geoffrey Jellicoe,Gibberd's work was also influenced byLe Corbusier,Mies van der Rohe,andF. R. S. Yorke.He set up in practice in 1930, designingPullman Court,Streatham Hill, London (1934–36), a housing development which launched his career. With the success of this scheme, Gibberd became established as the 'flat' architect (referring to blocks offlats) and went on to build several other schemes, including Park Court,Sydenhamand Ellington Court,Southgate(both 1936), continuing to practise until the outbreak of theSecond World War.
Gibberd and Yorke collaborated on a number of publications, including the influential bookThe Modern Flat,which was published in 1937 and featured the then newly completed Pullman Court and Park Court, as well as many other European examples. Gibberd also designed theBISF house,a prefabricated form ofcouncil housingsponsored by theBritish Iron and Steel Federationand widely adopted bylocal authoritiesin Britain in thepostwaryears.[2]
Gibberd was consultant architect-planner for theHarlownew towndevelopment and spent the rest of his life living in the town he had designed. His most notable works there include The Lawn, Britain's first modern-style point block, consisting of nine storeys arranged in a butterfly design on an area of open ground surrounded by oak trees; a trompe-l'oeil pair of curved terraces facing a cricket green at Orchard Croft, which won a British Housing Award in 1951; the pioneering broken-silhouette flats in Morley Grove; and much of the housing in Mark Hall neighbourhood, which is in its entirety aconservation area.The Harvey Centre lacks architectural distinction, but is notable as an early British example of a large purpose-built indoorshopping mall.His similarly pioneering Sports Centre has been demolished, as has the original town hall. The Water Gardens, although listed byEnglish Heritage,have been spoilt by the abutment of a car park and shopping centre. The garden of his own house at Marsh Lane (Gibberd Garden), on the outskirts ofHarlow,a mixture of formal and informal design, contains architectural elements salvaged from his reconstruction ofCoutts Bankin London.[3]
A further achievement by Gibberd in planning Harlow is his incorporation of works by many leading architects of the postwar years, such as FRS Yorke,Powell & Moya,Graham Dawbarn,John Poulson,Maxwell Fry&Jane Drew,Michael Neylan,William Crabtree,Leonard Manasseh,ECP Monson,Gerard Goalen,Gerald Lacoste,Richard SheppardandH. T. Cadbury-Brown.A substantial collection of public sculptures is visible around the town, including works byHenry Moore,Elisabeth Frink,Auguste RodinandBarbara Hepworth.
Gibberd wroteHarlow: The story of a New Townin collaboration with Len White and Ben Hyde Harvey. In 1953 he publishedTown Designa book on the forms, processes, and history of the subject.
Personal life
editHe married first Dorothy Phillips, with whom he had one son and two daughters. She died in 1970.[4]He then married Mrs Patricia Fox-Edwards on 30 March 1972.[5]They remained married until his death.[6]
Legacy
editHis architectural firm, Frederick Gibberd Partnership, continues to practise in London.[7]
In 2019, a new school in Harlow was named Sir Frederick Gibberd College.[8]Built by Caledonian Modular from 198 prefabricated modules, the school was forced to close in August 2023 due to concerns about structural irregularities.[9][10]In December 2023, the DfE confirmed that the college would be demolished and rebuilt.[11]
Notable buildings
edit
- HarlowNew Town
- London Central Mosque
- Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral
- Didcot Power Station,Oxfordshire, England
- A list of buildings by Frederick Gibberd
- 1933–1936,Pullman Court,Streatham,London
- 1936, Park Court, Sydenham, London
- 1937, Ellington Court,Southgate,London
- 1937–1939, Macclesfield Nurses Home,Cheshire,England
- 1945–1949, Somerford Estate,Hackney,London
- 1946–1963,NuneatonTown Centre,Warwickshire,England
- 1949–1951,Chrisp Street Marketand associated housing,Poplar, London(part of theLansbury Estate)
- 1950 Orchard Croft Housing Estate & The Stow (Shopping centre), Harlow,Essex,England
- 1950–1969, Terminal Buildings,Heathrow Airport,near London (including the oldTerminal 1,Terminal 2,andQueens Building)
- 1951,The Lawn,Harlow, Essex, England
- 1952, Market Square, Harlow, Essex, England
- 1953–1961,Ulster Hospital,Belfast
- 1956,Bath Technical College,Somerset,England
- 1956–1968,Civic Centre,Saint Albans,Hertfordshire,England
- 1958,Derwent Reservoir,DurhamandNorthumberland,England
- 1958, The Beckers, Rectory Road, Hackney, London
- 1958–1961, Kingsgate Estate, Hackney, London[12]
- 1959–1969, Civic Centre,Doncaster,Yorkshire,England
- 1962, College of Technology,Kingston-Upon-Hull,England
- 1962,Sydenham, Leamington Spa
- 1959–1968, Fulwell Cross Library,Ilford
- 1960–1966,Priory Square,Birmingham, England
Fulwell Cross Library, Ilford - 1960–1967,Roman Catholic Cathedral,Liverpool,England
- 1961, Morley Grove Flats, Harlow, Essex, England
- 1962–1966,Douai Abbey,Berkshire,England
- 1964,Saint George's Chapel, Heathrow Airport,near London
- 1964, Water Gardens, Harlow, Essex, England
- 1965, Chapel, De La Salle College, Middleton,Lancashire,England
- 1964–1968,Didcot Power Station,Oxfordshire,England
- 1965–1974,Edmonton Green,Edmonton,London
- 1966–1975, Arundel Great Court,The Strand,London
- 1968–1975,InterContinental London Park Lane
- 1969,Coutts BankHeadquarters, The Strand, London
- 1970-1975, 10Spring Gardens,British Councilheadquarters[13]
- 1970–1977,London Central Mosque
- 1972,Royal Spa Centre,Leamington Spa
- 1973, Homer House, Monson Street,Lincoln, England.Described by Pevsner asTwo staggered wings of offices either side of a service block. Red brick with an emphatic chamfering of angles and a strong vertical accent of load-bearing buttress piers dividing the main elevations into seven and eight bays. The overall impact is of somewhat fortress-like austerity.[14]
- 1973-1974.Thomas Cooper Memorial Chapel,High Street,Lincoln, England.[15]
- 1980, The Harvey Centre, Harlow, Essex, England
Selected publications
edit- The Architecture of England: from Norman Times to the Present Day.Architectural Press.1938
- Built in Furniture in Great Britain.Alec Tiranti,1948.
- Harlow: The story of a New Town(With Len White and Ben Hyde Harvey). 1980.
- Town Design a book on the forms, processes, and history of the subject.1953.
References
edit- ^Richards, J. M.; Cox, Alan (2004)."Gibberd, Sir Frederick Ernest (1908–1984)".Oxford Dictionary of National Biography(Online ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/31144.Retrieved22 May2008.
- ^Wilkinson, Damon (23 January 2022)."Wythenshawe's Tin Town has the city's rarest homes - and a special story to tell".Manchester Evening News.
- ^Wilson, Andrew (2002),Influential Gardners: The Designers who Shaped 20th-Century Garden Style,London: Mitchell Beazley, p. 186,ISBN1-84533-179-6
- ^ab"Sir Frederick Gibberd".The Times.10 January 1984.
- ^"Marriages".The Times.30 March 1972.
- ^"Lives in Brief".The Times.24 October 2006.
- ^"About us".Gibberd.Retrieved11 December2019.
- ^"Sir Frederick Gibberd College".BMAT.Retrieved23 August2023.
- ^Morby, Aaron (22 August 2023)."£29m modular-built secondary school shuts over structural fears".Construction Enquirer.Retrieved23 August2023.
- ^Aaron, Morby (24 August 2023)."Risk of collapse in 'high winds' shuts Caledonian Modular schools".Construction Enquirer.Retrieved24 August2023.
- ^Morby, Aaron (5 December 2023)."Three Caledonian Modular-built schools to be demolished".Construction Enquirer.Retrieved5 December2023.
- ^"Kingsgate Estate".Modernism in Metro-Land.Retrieved6 May2019.
- ^"Geograph:: 10 Spring Gardens (C) Stephen Richards".geograph.org.uk.Retrieved4 December2017.
- ^Antram N (revised), Pevsner N & Harris J, (1989),The Buildings of England: Lincolnshire,Yale University Press. pg 525
- ^Antram N (revised), Pevsner N & Harris J, (1989),The Buildings of England: Lincolnshire,Yale University Press. pg 502