Charles Henry Holden | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Charles Holden, 1946 | |
| Born | (1875-05-12)12 May 1875 Great Lever, Bolton, Lancashire, England |
| Died | 1 May 1960(1960-05-01) (aged 84) Harmer Green, Hertfordshire, England |
| Occupation | Architect |
| Awards | RIBA London Architecture Medal for 1929 (awarded 1931) RIBA Royal Gold Medal (1936) Royal Designer for Industry (1943) |
| Practice | Adams, Holden & Pearson |
| Buildings | 55 Broadway Senate House Bristol Central Library London Underground stations Cemeteries forImperial War Graves Commission |
Charles Henry HoldenFRIBA MRTPI RDI (12 May 1875 – 1 May 1960) was an English architect best known for designing manyLondon Underground stations during the 1920s and 1930s, theUnderground Electric Railways Company of London's headquarters at55 Broadway, for theUniversity of London'sSenate House and forBristol Central Library. He created many war cemeteries in Belgium and northern France for theImperial War Graves Commission.
After working and training inBolton andManchester, Holden moved to London. His early buildings were influenced by theArts and Crafts Movement, but for most of his career he championed an unadorned style based on simplified forms and massing that was free of what he considered to be unnecessary decorative detailing.[note 1] Holden believed strongly that architectural designs should be dictated by buildings' intended functions. After the First World War, he increasingly simplified his style and his designs became pared-down andmodernist, influenced by European architecture. He was a member of theDesign and Industries Association and theArt Workers' Guild. He produced complete designs for his buildings including the interior design and architectural fittings.
Although not without its critics, his architecture is widely appreciated. He was awarded theRoyal Institute of British Architects' (RIBA's)Royal Gold Medal for architecture in 1936 and was appointed aRoyal Designer for Industry in 1943. His station designs for London Underground became the corporation's standard design influencing designs by all architects working for the organisation in the 1930s. Many of his buildings have been grantedlisted building status, protecting them from unapproved alteration. He twice declined the offer of aknighthood.
Charles Henry Holden was born on 12 May 1875 atGreat Lever, Bolton, the fifth and youngest child of Joseph Holden (1842–1918), adraper andmilliner, and Ellen (née Broughton, 1841–1890) Holden. Holden's childhood was marred by his father's bankruptcy in 1884 and his mother's death when he was fifteen years old.[1][2] Following the loss of his father's business, the family moved 15 miles (24 km) toSt Helens, where his father returned to his earlier trade and worked as aniron turner andfitter and where he attended a number of schools.[1]
He briefly had jobs as a laboratory assistant and a railway clerk in St Helens. During this period he attendeddraughting classes at theYMCA and considered a career as an engineer inSir Douglas Fox's practice.[3] In 1891 he began working for his brother-in-law, David Frederick Green, aland surveyor and architect in Bolton.[4] In April 1892 he wasarticled to Manchester architect Everard W. Leeson and, while training with him, also studied at theManchester School of Art (1893–94) andManchester Technical School (1894–96).[note 2]
While working and studying in Manchester, Holden formed friendships with artistMuirhead Bone and his future brother-in-lawFrancis Dodd.[6] About this time Holden was introduced to the writings ofWalt Whitman and became friends with James William Wallace and a number of the members of Bolton's Whitman society known as the "Eagle Street College".[6] Whitman's writings and those ofHenry David Thoreau,Ralph Waldo Emerson andEdward Carpenter were major influences on Holden's life.[6] He incorporated many of their philosophies and principles into his style of living and method of working.[7]
In 1895 and 1896 Holden submitted designs toBuilding News Designing Club competitions using the pseudonym "The Owl".[note 3] Although the number of competing submissions made was not always large, from nine competition entries, Holden won five first places, three second places and one third place.[8][9] In 1897, he entered the competition for the RIBA's prestigious Soane Medallion for student architects. Of fourteen entries, Holden's submission for the competition's subject, a "Provincial Market Hall", came third.[10] Holden described the design as being inspired by the work ofJohn Belcher,Edgar Wood andArthur Beresford Pite.[11]
Around 1898 Holden began living with Margaret Steadman (née Macdonald, 1865–1954), a nurse and midwife. They were introduced by Holden's older sister, Alice, and became friends through their common interest in Whitman.[12] Steadman had separated from her husband James Steadman, a university tutor, because of his alcoholism and abuse.[13][note 4] Steadman and her husband were never divorced and, though she and Holden lived as a married couple and Holden referred to her as his wife, the relationship was never formalised, even after James Steadman's death in 1930.[15]
The Holdens lived in suburbanNorbiton, Surrey (nowRoyal Borough of Kingston upon Thames) until 1902, when they moved toCodicote in Hertfordshire. Around 1906, they moved to Harmer Green nearWelwyn, where Holden designed a house for them.[16] The house was plainly furnished and the couple lived a simple life, described by Janet Ashbee in 1906 as "bananas and brown bread on the table; no hot water; plain living and high thinking and strenuous activity for the betterment of the World".[17] The couple had no children together, though Margaret had a son, Allan, from her marriage.[18][note 5] Charles and Margaret Holden lived at Harmer Green for the rest of their lives.[16]
Holden left Leeson's practice in 1896 and worked for Jonathan Simpson in Bolton in 1896 and 1897, working on house designs there and atPort Sunlight,[19] before moving to London to work forArts and Crafts designerCharles Robert Ashbee. His time with Ashbee was short and, in October 1899, he became chief assistant inH. Percy Adams' practice, where he remained for the rest of his career.[16]
A number of Holden's early designs were for hospitals, which Adams' practice specialised in. At this early stage in his career, he produced designs in a variety of architectural styles as circumstances required, reflecting the influences of a number of architects.[16] Holden soon took charge of most of the practice's design work.[20] From 1900 to 1903, Holden studied architecture in the evenings at theRoyal Academy School.[21] He also continued to produce designs in his spare time for his brother-in-law and Jonathan Simpson.[22]
His red brick arts and craft façades for theBelgrave Hospital for Children inKennington, south London (1900–03), were influenced byPhilip Webb andHenry Wilson and feature steeply pitched roofs, corner towers and stone window surrounds.[23][24] The building, now converted to apartments, isGrade II* listed.[25][26]
In 1902, Holden won thearchitectural competition to design theBristol Central Library. HisTudor Revival façades inbath stone incorporatemodernist elements complementing the adjacentAbbey Gate ofBristol Cathedral. The front façade featuresoriel windows and sculpture groups withChaucer,Bede andAlfred the Great by Charles Pibworth.[27][28] Internally, the design is classical, with the furniture designed by Holden and the stone carving mostly by William Aumonier.[29] It was described by architectural historianSir Nikolaus Pevsner as "free Neo-Tudor" and "extremely pretty" and byAndor Gomme as "one of the great masterpieces of the early Modern Movement".[27][30] It has been compared withCharles Rennie Mackintosh'sGlasgow School of Art and it is sometimes suggested that Mackintosh's designs for the later part of the school were inspired by Holden's,[25] although Pevsner noted that Mackintosh's designs were in circulation earlier.[30] The building is Grade I listed.[27]
AtMidhurst, West Sussex, Holden designed Tudor-style façades for theSir Ernest Cassel-funded King Edward VII Sanatorium (1903–06). The building features long wings of south-facing rooms to maximise patients' exposure to sunlight and fresh air. The design is in keeping with the building's rural setting, with façades in the local tile-hung style.[25][31] Pevsner called this "certainly one of the best buildings of its date in the country" and "a model of how to build very large institutions".[32] He designed the sanitorium's V-shaped open-air chapel so that it could be used for both outdoor and indoor worship.[25][31] Both buildings are Grade II* listed.[33][34] Other hospitals he designed in this period include the British Seamen's Hospital inIstanbul (1903–04) and the Women's Hospital inSoho, central London (1908).[16]
ForThe Law Society he designed (1902–04) a simplifiedneoclassical extension to the existingLewis Vulliamy-designed building inChancery Lane with external sculptures by Charles Pibworth and a panelled arts and crafts interior with carving by William Aumonier and friezes byConrad Dressler.[25][35][36] Pevsner considered the façades to beMannerist: "The fashionable term Mannerism can here be used legitimately; for Holden indeed froze up and invalidated current classicalmotifs, which is what Mannerist architects did in theCinquecento."[37]
In 1906, Holden won the architectural competition to design a new headquarters for theBritish Medical Association on the corner ofThe Strand and Agar Street (nowZimbabwe House). The six-storey L-shaped building replaced a collection of buildings on the site already occupied by the Association and provided it with accommodation for a council chamber, library and offices on the upper floors above space for shops on the ground floor and in the basement.[38] Described by Powers as "classicism reduced to geometric shapes",[25] the first three storeys are clad in grey Cornish granite withPortland stone above.[note 6] Located at second floor level was a controversial series of 7-foot (2.1 m) tall sculptures representing the development of science and the ages of man byJacob Epstein.[25][40][note 7] The building is Grade II* listed.[41] Alastair Service considered it "perhaps his best London building".[42]
In 1909, Holden won the design competition for an extension to theBristol Royal Infirmary. Subsequently, dedicated to the memory ofKing Edward VII (died 1910), the extension (1911–12) was built on steeply sloping ground for which Holden designed a linked pair of Portland stone-faced blocks around a courtyard. The plain, abstract blocks have towers on the corners and two-storeyloggias, and are a further simplification of Holden's style.[43][note 8]
The practice became Adams & Holden in 1907 when Holden became a partner and Adams, Holden & Pearson whenLionel Pearson became a partner in 1913.[25] In 1913, Holden was awarded the RIBA's Godwin medal and £65 to study architecture abroad. He travelled to America in April 1913 and studied the organisation of household and social science departments at American universities in preparation for his design of theWren-influencedKings College for Women, Kensington.[25][44] Other buildings by Holden before the First World War include modernist office buildings inHolborn[45] andOxford Street,[46] an extension in red brick ofAlfred Waterhouse'sShire Hall inBedford,[47] and Arts and CraftsSutton Valence School, Kent.[25]
Holden also worked with Epstein on the tomb ofOscar Wilde atPère Lachaise cemetery in Paris (1911–12).[24] In 1915, he was a founding member of theDesign and Industries Association and he was a member of theArt Workers' Guild from 1917.[25] Unsuccessful competition entries for which he produced designs include Strathclyde Royal Infirmary (1901),Manchester Royal Infirmary (1904),County Hall (1907), theNational Library of Wales (1909), Coventry Town Hall (1911) and theBoard of Trade building (1915).[48]
The Holdens shared a strong sense of personal duty and service. In theFirst World War, Margaret Holden joined the "Friends' Emergency Committee for the Assistance of Germans, Austrians and Hungarians in distress" which helped refugees of those countries stranded in London by the conflict. Charles Holden served with theRed Cross's London Ambulance Column as a stretcher-bearer transferring wounded troops from London's stations to its hospitals. Holden also served on the fire watch atSt Paul's Cathedral between 1915 and 1917.[49]
On 3 October 1917, Holden was appointed a temporary lieutenant with the army's Directorate of Graves Registration and Enquiries.[50][51] He travelled to the French battlefields for the first time later that month and began planning new cemeteries and expanding existing ones.[52] Holden described his experience:
The country is one vast wilderness, blasted out of recognition where once villages & orchards & fertile land, now tossed about & churned in hopeless disorder with never a landmark as far as the eye can reach & dotted about in the scrub and untidiness of it all are to be seen here & there singly & in groups little white crosses marking the place where men have fallen and been buried.[53]
In September 1918, Holden transferred to theImperial War Graves Commission (now the Commonwealth War Graves Commission) with the new rank of major.[54] From 1918 until 1928 he worked on 69 Commission cemeteries.[55] Initially, Holden ran the drawing office and worked as the senior design architect under the three principal architects in France and Belgium (Edwin Lutyens,Reginald Blomfield andHerbert Baker).[16][56] Holden worked on the experimental war cemetery atLouvencourt and, according to Geurst and Karol, probably on the one atForceville that was selected as the prototype for all that followed.[57][58][note 9]
In 1920, he was promoted to be the fourth principal architect.[56][note 10] His work for the Commission included memorials to the New Zealand missing dead atMessines Ridge British Cemetery, and theButtes New British Cemetery atZonnebeke.[61] His designs were stripped of ornament, often using simply detailed masses of Portland stone in the construction of the shelters and other architectural elements.[16][62] Philip Longworth's history of the Commission described Holden's pavilions at Wimereux Communal Cemetery as "almost cruelly severe".[63]
In 1922, Holden designed the War Memorial Gateway forClifton College, Bristol, using a combination of limestone andgritstone to match theGothic style of the school's buildings.[25][64] For the British War Memorials Committee, he produced a design for aHall of Remembrance (1918) that would have been in the form of an art gallery,[65] and forNew College, Oxford, he created a design for a tiny memorial chapel (1919). Neither was constructed.[66]
Through his involvement with the Design and Industries Association, Holden metFrank Pick, general manager of theUnderground Electric Railways Company of London (UERL).[25] Holden at the time had no experience in designing for transport, but this changed through his collaboration with Pick.[67] In 1923, Pick commissioned Holden to design a façade for a side entrance atWestminster Underground station.[68] This was followed in 1924 with an appointment to design the UERL's pavilion for theBritish Empire Exhibition.[69] Also in 1924, Pick commissioned Holden to design seven new stations in south London for the extension of theCity and South London Railway (now part of theNorthern line) fromClapham Common toMorden. The designs replaced a set by the UERL's own architect,Stanley Heaps, which Pick had found unsatisfactory.[69] The designs reflect the simple modernist style he was using in France for the war cemeteries; double-height ticket halls are clad in plain Portland stone framing a glazed screen, each adapted to suit the street corner sites of most of the stations.[25] The screens feature theUnderground roundel made up in coloured glass panels and are divided by stone columns surmounted bycapitals formed as a three-dimensional version of the roundel. Holden also advised Heaps on new façades for a number of the existing stations on the line and produced the design for a new entrance atBond Street station on theCentral London Railway.[68]
During the later 1920s, Holden designed a series of replacement buildings and new façades for station improvements around the UERL's network. Many of these featured Portland stone cladding and variations of the glazed screens developed for the Morden extension.[note 11] AtPiccadilly Circus, one of the busiest stations on the system, Holden designed (1925–28) a spacioustravertine-lined circulating concourse and ticket hall below the roadway of the junction from which banks of escalators gave access to the platforms below.[72]
In 1926, Holden began the design of a new headquarters for the UERL at55 Broadway aboveSt James's Park station. Above the first floor, thesteel-framed building was constructed to acruciform plan and rises in a series of receding stages to a central clock tower 175 feet (53 m) tall.[73] The arrangement maximises daylight to the building's interior without the use oflight wells.[note 12] Like his stations of the period and his pre-First World War commercial buildings, the block is austerely clad in Portland stone. Holden again detailed the façades with commissioned sculptures;Day andNight, two compositions by Epstein, are at first floor level, and a series of eightbas-reliefs at the seventh floor represent thefour winds (two for each of thecardinal directions, on each side of the projecting wings).[note 13] The building is Grade I listed.[76]
In 1930, Holden and Pick made a tour of Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden to see the latest developments in modern architecture.[70] The UERL was planning extensions of thePiccadilly line to the west, north-west and north of London, and a new type of station was wanted. Adapting the architectural styles he had seen on the tour, Holden created functional designs composed of simple forms: cylinders, curves and rectangles, built in plain brick, concrete and glass. The extensions to the west and north-west were over existing routes operated by theDistrict line and required a number of stations to be rebuilt to accommodate additional tracks or to replace original, basic buildings.Sudbury Town, the first station to be rebuilt in 1931, formed a template for many of the other new stations that followed: a tall rectangular brick box with a concrete flat roof and panels of vertical glazing to allow light into the interior. The Grade II* listed building was described by Pevsner as "an outstanding example of how satisfying such unpretentious buildings can be, purely through the use of careful details and good proportions."[77][note 14]
ForArnos Grove station, one of eight new stations on the northern extension of the line, Holden modified the rectangular box into a circular drum, a design inspired byGunnar Asplund'sStockholm Public Library.[25] Also notable on the northern extension isSouthgate station; here Holden designed a single-storey circular building with a canopied flat roof. Above this, the central section of roof rises up on a continuous horizontal band ofclerestory windows, supported internally by a single central column. The building is topped by an illuminated feature capped with a bronze ball.[78] Other stations show the influence ofWillem Marinus Dudok's work inHilversum, Netherlands.[79] In order to handle such a large volume of work, Holden delegated significant design responsibility to his assistants, such asCharles Hutton, who took the lead on Arnos Grove Station.[80] For some other Piccadilly line stations the design was handled in-house by Stanley Heaps or by other architectural practices. All followed the modern brick, glass and concrete house style defined by Holden,[25] but some lacked Holden's originality and attention to detail; Pick dubbed these "Holdenesque".[69][note 15]
The UERL became part ofLondon Transport in 1933, but the focus remained on high quality design. Under Pick, Holden's attention to detail and idea of integrated design extended to all parts of London's transport network, from designing bus and tram shelters to a new type of six-wheeled omnibus.[82] In the late 1930s, Holden designed replacement stations atHighgate,East Finchley andFinchley Central and new stations atElstree South andBushey Heath for theNorthern line'sNorthern Heights plan.[83] Holden's designs incorporated sculpture relevant to the local history of a number of stations:Dick Whittington for Highgate,[84] a Romancenturion at Elstree South[85] and an archer for East Finchley.[86][note 16] Much of the project was postponed shortly after the outbreak of theSecond World War and was later cancelled.[88] Only East Finchley station was completed in full with Highgate in part; the other plans were scrapped. East Finchley station is located on an embankment and the platforms are accessed from below. Making use of the station'sair-rights, Holden provided staff office space spanning above the tracks accessed through semi-circular glazed stairways from the platforms.Eric Aumonier provided the statueThe Archer, a prominent feature of the station.[87]
Holden's last designs for London Transport were three new stations for theCentral line extension in north-east London.[89] These were designed in the 1930s, but were also delayed by the war and were not completed until 1947.Post-war austerity measures reduced the quality of the materials used compared with the 1930s stations and the building atWanstead was adapted from a temporary structure constructed during the line's wartime use as an underground factory.[90]Gants Hill is accessed through subways and has no station building, but is notable for the design of its platform level concourse, which features abarrel vaulted ceiling inspired by stations on theMoscow Metro.[89]
After the First World War, theUniversity of London needed a replacement for its overcrowded and scattered accommodation inKensington. A site was acquired inBloomsbury near theBritish Museum and Holden was commissioned in 1931 to design the new buildings, partly due to the success of 55 Broadway.[39] His original plan was for a single structure covering the whole site, stretching almost 1,200 feet (370 m) from Montague Place to Torrington Street. It comprised a central spine linked by a series of wings to the perimeter façade and enclosing a series of courtyards. The scheme was to be topped by two towers: a smaller one to the north, and a 19-storey, 210-foot (64 m) tall Senate House.[39]
Construction began in 1932, but due to a shortage of funds, the design was gradually revised and cut back, and only the Senate House and Library were completed in 1937, with the buildings for theInstitute of Education and theSchool of Oriental Studies completed later.[39] The design featured façades of load-bearing brickwork faced with Portland stone. Holden's intention to adorn the building with sculpture was also not fulfilled.[25][24] As he had with his earlier buildings, Holden also prepared the designs for the individual elements of the interior design.[39][91] From its completion until 1957, it was the tallest office building in London.[92]
Senate House divided opinion. Pevsner described its style as "strangely semi-traditional, undecided modernism", and summarised: "The design certainly does not possess the vigour and directness of Charles Holden's smaller Underground stations."[93] Others have described it asStalinist,[94] or astotalitarian due to its great scale.[39]Functionalist architectErich Mendelsohn wrote to Holden in 1938 that he was "very much taken and ... convinced that there is no finer building in London."[95] Historian Arnold Whittick described the building as a "static massive pyramid ... obviously designed to last for a thousand years", but thought "the interior is more pleasing than the exterior. There is essentially the atmosphere of dignity, serenity and repose that one associates with the architecture of ancient Greece."[96] The onset of the Second World War prevented any further progress on the full scheme, although Adams, Holden & Pearson did design further buildings for the university in the vicinity.[25]
With virtually no new work being commissioned, Holden spent the war years planning for the reconstruction that would be required once it was over.[97] Holden was a member of the RIBA's twelve-man committee which formulated the institute's policy for post-war reconstruction. Holden'stown planning ideas involved the relocation of industry out of towns and cities to new industrial centres in the style ofPort Sunlight orBournville where workers could live close to their workplace. The new industrial centres would be linked to the existing towns with new fast roads and reconstruction in town centres would be planned to provide more open space around the administrative centres.[98]
In 1944–45, Holden produced plans for the reconstruction ofCanterbury, Kent, with the City Architect Herbert Millson Enderby.[16] Canterbury had been badly damaged byLuftwaffe bombing including theBaedeker raids in May and June 1942. Holden and Enderby aimed to preserve much of the character of the city, but planned for thecompulsory purchase of 75 acres (30 ha) of the town centre for large scale reconstruction including a new civic way from the cathedral to a new town hall. Outside the city, they plannedbypasses and aring road at a two-mile (3.2-kilometre) radius of the centre. Although approved by the city council, the plan was widely opposed by residents andfreeholders and the "Canterbury Citizens Defence Association" issued an alternative plan before taking control of the council at local elections in November 1945. The change in administration ended the proposals, although a new plan prepared in 1947 without Holden's or Enderby's involvement retained some of their ideas including the ring road.[99]
TheCity of London's first reconstruction plan was written by the City Engineer F. J. Forty and published in 1944. It had met with considerable criticism andWilliam Morrison, Minister for Town and Country Planning, asked theCity of London Corporation to prepare a new plan. Holden was approached, and he accepted provided thatWilliam Holford also be appointed. Holden's and Holford's City of London Plan (1946–1947) recommended a relaxation of the strict height limits imposed in the capital and the first use in London ofplot ratio calculations in the planning process so that buildings could be designed with floor space of up to five times the ground area.[100][101] For the bomb-devastated area aroundSt Paul's Cathedral, Holden proposed a newprecinct around which buildings would be positioned to provide clear views of the cathedral and from which new ceremonial routes would radiate. The heights of buildings would be strictly defined to protect these views. The plan was accepted by the Minister for Town and Country Planning in 1948 and was incorporated into the wider London Development Plan.[102]
In 1947, Holden planned a scheme on behalf of theLondon County Council for theSouth Bank of theRiver Thames between County Hall andWaterloo Bridge,[16][103] including a plan for a concert hall with the council's architect Edwin Williams. The scheme received little attention and was almost immediately superseded by plans to develop the area as the site of theFestival of Britain.[104][note 17] Holden was also architectural and planning consultant to theUniversity of Edinburgh and to the Borough ofTynemouth.[103]
Although Charles Holden had gradually reduced his workload, he was still continuing to go into the office three days per week during the early 1950s. He did not formally retire until 1958, but even then he visited occasionally. Margaret Holden died in 1954 after a protracted illness which had left her nearly blind since the mid-1940s. In the last decade of his life, Holden was himself physically weaker and was looked after by his niece Minnie Green.[106]
One of Holden's last public engagements was when he acted as a sponsor at the award of the RIBA's Royal Gold Medal toLe Corbusier in 1953.[107] The last project that Holden worked on was a much criticised headquarters building forEnglish Electric inAldwych, London. In 1952, Adams, Holden & Pearson were appointed by English Electric's chairman,Sir George Nelson, and Holden designed a monolithic stone building around a courtyard. In 1955, theLondon County Council persuaded English Electric to put the scheme aside and hold a limited architectural competition for a new design. Adams, Holden & Pearson submitted a design, but were beaten by Sir John Burnet, Tait and Partners. When that practice later refused Sir George Nelson's request to redesign the façades, Adams, Holden & Pearson were reappointed and Charles Holden revised his practice's competition entry. The new design was criticised by theRoyal Fine Art Commission and a further redesign was carried out by one of Holden's partners to produce the final design, described by Pevsner as "a dull, lifeless building, stone-faced and with nothing to recommend it".[108][note 18]
Holden died on 1 May 1960. He was cremated atEnfield Crematorium and his ashes were spread in the garden of the Friends' Meeting House inHertford. On 2 June 1960 a memorial service was held atSt Pancras New Church, where Holden had designed the altar in 1914. Obituaries were published in daily newspapersThe Manchester Guardian,The Times andThe Daily Telegraph and in construction industry periodicals includingThe Builder,Architectural Review,Journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects andJournal of the Town Planning Institute. Generally, the obituaries were positive about Holden's early work and the stations for London Underground, were neutral about Senate House and were negative about his practice's later works.[110] The Harmer Green house and most of its contents were auctioned with the proceeds left to family members. Holden also left £8,400 to friends and staff and £2,000 to charity.[111]
Holden recognised that his architectural style placed him in "rather a curious position, not quite in the fashion and not quite out of it; not enough of a traditionalist to please the traditionalists and not enough of a modernist to please the modernists."[112] He believed that the principal aim of design was to achieve "fitness for purpose",[69] and repeatedly called for a style of architecture that avoided unnecessary architectural adornment.
In 1905, in an essay titled "If Whitman had been an Architect", Holden made an anonymous plea to architects for a new form of modern architecture: "Often I hear of the glory of the architecture of ancient Greece; of the proud Romans; of sombre Egypt; the praise of vast Byzantium and the lofty Middle Ages, too, I hear. But of the glory of the architecture of the Modern I never hear. Come, you Modern Buildings, come! Throw off your mantle of deceits; your cornices, pilasters, mouldings, swags, scrolls; behind them all, behind your dignified proportions, your picturesque groupings, your arts and crafts prettinesses and exaggerated techniques; behind and beyond them all hides the one I love."[113][note 19]
In his 1936 speech when presented with the RIBA'sRoyal Gold Medal, Holden defined his position: "It was not so much a matter of creating a new style, as of discarding those incrustations which counted for style ... surface embroidery empty of structural significance". His method was to focus on "those more permanent basic factors of architecture, the plan, and the planes and masses arising out of the plan."[115] He described his ideal building as one "which takes naturally and inevitably the form controlled by the plan and the purpose and the materials. A building which provides opportunities for the exercise and skill and pleasure in work not only to the designer but also for the many craftsmen employed and the occupants of the building."[116]
In a 1957 essay on architecture, he wrote "I don't seek for a style, either ancient or modern, I want an architecture which is through and throughgood building. A building planned for a specific purpose, constructed in the method and use of materials, old or new, most appropriate to the purpose the building has to serve."[117]
Holden won the RIBA's London Architecture Medal for 1929 (awarded 1931) for 55 Broadway.[16][118] In 1936 he was awarded the RIBA'sRoyal Gold Medal for his body of work.[103] He was Vice President of the RIBA from 1935 to 1937 and a member of the Royal Fine Art Commission from 1933 to 1947.[103] In 1943 he was appointed aRoyal Designer for Industry for the design of transport equipment.[16][119] He was awarded honorary doctorates byManchester University in 1936 and London University in 1946.[103] Many of Holden's buildings have been grantedlisted status, protecting them against demolition and unapproved alteration.
Holden declined the invitation to become aRoyal Academician in 1942, having previously been nominated, but refused because of his connection to Epstein.[107][note 20] He twice declined aknighthood, in 1943 and 1951, as he considered it to be at odds with his simple lifestyle and considered architecture a collaborative process.[25][121][note 21]
The RIBA holds a collection of Holden's personal papers and material from Adams, Holden & Pearson. The RIBA staged exhibitions of his work at the Heinz Gallery in 1988 and at theVictoria and Albert Museum between October 2010 and February 2011.[123][124] Apublic house nearColliers Wood Underground station has been named "The Charles Holden", taking "inspiration" from the architect.[125]
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