Raymond Charles ErithRAFRIBA (7 August 1904 – 30 November 1973) was a leading classical architect in England during the period dominated by the modern movement after theSecond World War. His work demonstrates his continual interest in expanding the classical tradition to establish a progressivemodern architecture, drawing on the past.
Erith was appointed architect for the reconstruction ofDowning Street (1958), elected aRoyal Academician (1959) and served on theRoyal Fine Art Commission (1960–73). Since his death, exhibitions of his work have been held by theRoyal Academy of Arts (1976),[1] Gainsborough's House, Sudbury (1979),[2] Niall Hobhouse (1986)[3] andSir John Soane’s Museum (2004).[4]
Raymond Erith was born in London. He was the eldest son of Charles Erith, a mechanical engineer and his wife May. At the age of four he contractedtuberculosis, which led to twelve years of intermittent illness and left him permanently lame. He trained at theArchitectural Association (1921–26) and worked forPercy Richard Morley Horder andVerner Owen Rees before setting up his own practice in London in 1928. He was commissioned by his aunt to remodel her house, Meadowside, atLoughton and to build an additional house to its rear. From 1929–39 he was in partnership with Bertram Hume, with whom he won an international competition for replanning the Lower Norrmalm area ofStockholm (1934).[5]
In 1934 he married Pamela, younger daughter of Arthur and Elsie Spencer Jackson, who had also qualified at the AA. They had four daughters. In 1936 they moved toDedham, Essex. Among Erith's early commissions were Great House, Dedham (1937)[6] and gates, lodges and cottages inWindsor Great Park forKing George VI (1939). Architectural historianNickolaus Pevsner wrote in 1954 “There is nothing at Dedham to hurt the eye”. In 1938 the Dedham Vale Society was founded with Erith as its founding Chairman.[7]
As a young man he looked back to the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries to pick up the thread of tradition while it was still unbroken and carry it forward from there. This led him toJohn Soane, an important influence on his early designs but later he turned to earlier sources of inspiration and especially toPalladio and the robust practicality of his farmhouse villas.
During the Second World War from 1940–45 Erith became a farmer in Essex, where he lived for the rest of his life. This experience and his country practice inEast Anglia immediately after the war gave him a profound understanding of the localvernacular architecture, which was to have a subtle influence on his mature style.
In 1946 Erith opened an office inIpswich, moving it to Dedham in 1958. His architecture ranges fromcottages and small houses[8] to public buildings such as the Library[9] and quadrangle atLady Margaret Hall,Oxford (1959–1963),Jack Straw's Castle onHampstead Heath (1963)[10] and the New Common Room Building atGray's Inn (1971). Major work includes 15,17 and 19, Aubrey Walk, London W8 (1951), The Pediment,Aynho, Northamptonshire, and its garden buildings (1956–73),[11] the Provost's Lodgings at theQueen's College, Oxford (1958),[12] and the Folly inHerefordshire (1961).[13]
His larger country houses areBentley, Sussex (1960–71),[14] Wivenhoe New Park, Essex (1962),[15] and King's Walden Bury, Hertfordshire (1969).[16] The best known of his many restorations was the reconstruction of Nos 10 and 11 and complete rebuilding of No. 12, Downing Street (1959–63).[17] He also remodelled numerous houses including Morley Hall,Wareside, Hertfordshire (1955),[18] Wellingham House,Ringmer, Sussex (1955–71),[19] Hunton Manor,Hampshire (1962), and Shelley's Folly,Cooksbridge, Sussex (1968).
After Erith's death in 1973, his partnerQuinlan Terry carried on his practice (now Quinlan Terry Architects).
That Erith was an outstanding draughtsman is seen in his sketchbooks, working drawings and designs for the many competitions[20] he entered in his early years. His fine drawings were regularly exhibited at theRoyal Academy Summer Exhibitions. These showed many of his most important commissions, as well as unexecuted schemes such as a Factory, Warehouse, Offices etc. at Ipswich (1948), a House inDevonshire to be called the Redoubt for Mr Freeman (1949) and Variation on a theme by Palladio: Design for a Church in Italy (1952).
From 1962 onwards Erith’s designs were regularly exhibited at the RA in the form of linocuts by Quinlan Terry, who became his pupil in 1962 and subsequently his partner.
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