George Topham Forrest,F.R.I.B.A. FGSFRSE (1872 – 1945) was a Scottisharchitect who became chief architect for theLondon County Council and was responsible for the design of many public housing estates, and also co-designed two bridges over theRiver Thames.
Forrest attendedAberdeen Grammar School. He apprenticed with the architecture firm of Brown and Watt from 1890 to 1894 and also took classes at Robert Gordon's College. He then moved to London and worked as an improver for John Macvicar Anderson while taking classes atKing's College and attending theArchitectural Association studios.[1]
From 1898 to 1899 he was chief assistant in theLeeds City Engineer's Office, primarily working on overseeing improvements in working-class housing. From 1899 to 1905 he was principal assistant in theWest Riding County Architect's Department, Yorkshire; at first he worked onasylums, but in 1903 he was put in charge of all county education design.[1] In 1905 he became the county Education Architect forNorthumberland and in 1914Essex County Architect.[1][2]
In 1919 he became architect to the London County Council and held that post until his retirement in 1935.[1][2] His work there included theBritish Postgraduate Medical School building inHammersmith,[2] many schools and hospitals, and the architecture ofLambeth Bridge (withReginald Blomfield)[1][3] andChelsea Bridge.[2]Pevsner called the Chelsea Bridge design "concise and functional".[4]
His time at the LCC coincided with most of the great interwar period of construction ofcouncil houses andflats: approximately 61,000 units by the outbreak of World War II. In particular, he was in charge of the development of theBecontree estate, which had 26,000 units by itself;[2] he was recruited from Essex specifically to plan it.[5]
Forrest oversaw the design, layout and construction of the council dwellings, so those built during his tenure reflect his preference for plainneo-Georgian architecture,[6] with houses having square-paned sash windows, unadorned brick facades, and plain front doors with small canopies above.[2] This is seen clearly at the largest LCC housing estate, Becontree, where most of the homes are 2-storey cottages in short terraces and despite varied groupings and one of the first uses ofcul-de-sacs, which the planners called 'banjos' after their shape,[7] there is an overall impression of uniformity.[8][9][10] However, on the LCC's most important non-suburban estate built during this period,Ossulston Estate inCamden Town, he was influenced byModernist workers' housing he had seen inVienna.[11][12][13][14] Also, under the influence of theGarden city movement, he had the buildings on LCC estates laid out informally and grouped at road junctions and around smallgreens.[2] For example, at theTottenhamestate known as Tower Gardens or White Hart Lane, the pre-World War I southern portion designed by W.E. Riley has 2-storey terraced houses on a grid,[15] whilst in the northern section built under Forrest after the war, the housing is less dense and is grouped around an axis where tennis courts and a community club were provided; there were also originally 4allotments.[16] At theSt Helier Estate, he retained trees and hedgerows where possible and had shrubberies and greens planted,[17] and the housing is deliberately varied in appearance.[18] Even at the high-density Ossulston estate, the flats are grouped around courtyards and greens accessed through archways.[11]
Forrest became a Licentiate of theRoyal Institute of British Architects on 27 February 1911 and was elected a Fellow in early 1919.[1]
In 1921 he was elected a Fellow of theRoyal Society of Edinburgh due to his amateur interests in geology. His proposers wereAlexander Veitch Lothian, SirJohn James Burnet,George Adam Smith and SirJ. Arthur Thomson.[19]
He died on 31 March 1945 inPort Appin.
Forrest wrote several journal articles and papers for professional societies on designing for county councils, particularly on the design of schools,[1] in addition to reports to the LCC. He co-edited and contributed to several volumes in theSurvey of London and designed a reconstruction of theGlobe Theatre as an appendix to an LCC publication on it.[20]
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
