Raymond Erith
Raymond Charles Erith
Erith was appointed architect for the reconstruction of
Early years
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 contracted
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 to
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 to
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 in East Anglia immediately after the war gave him a profound understanding of the local vernacular architecture, which was to have a subtle influence on his mature style.
Post-war career
In 1946 Erith opened an office in
His larger country houses are
After Erith's death in 1973, his partner Quinlan Terry carried on his practice (now Quinlan Terry Architects).
Draughtsmanship
That Erith was an outstanding draughtsman is seen in his sketchbooks, working drawings and designs for the many competitions
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.
References
- ^ Raymond Erith RA 1904–1973 (exhibition catalogue), Royal Academy of Arts 1976
- ^ Raymond Erith: East Anglian architect : 6–28 October 1979 (exhibition catalogue), Gainsborough's House, Sudbury, Suffolk
- ^ Raymond Erith: Drawings for the Royal Academy – exhibition held by Hobhouse Limited, London SW1, 30 Sept-12 Oct 1986
- ^ Raymond Erith (1904–1973): Progressive Classicist, Sir John Soane’s Museum, 2004: www.soane.org/exhibitions/raymond_erith_1904_1973_progressive_classicist
- ^ The Architects' Journal, 4 January 1934
- ^ Country Life, 11 November 1950
- ^ The Buildings of England – Essex 2007 p319, by James Bettley and Nicolas Pevsner
- ^ International Architect, Vol. 1, No. 6, Issue 6, 1981
- ^ 'Raymond Erith's Library at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford', Twentieth Century Society Archive, Building of the Month, November 2004 [1]
- ^ The Builder, 29 May 1964
- ISBN 978-1-84994-437-3.
- ^ Country Life, 7 July 1960
- ^ House and Garden, February 1966
- ^ Country Life, 13 and 20 September 1984; Architectural Digest, April 1981
- ^ Country Life, 22 July 1965 and 29 September 1988
- ^ Country Life, 27 September and 4 October 1973; Quinlan Terry, Kingswalden Notes MCMLXX, London 1988
- ^ The Architect and Building News, 25 December 1963
- ^ Country Life, 10 February 2000
- ^ House and Garden, November 1958 and September 1983
- ^ In collections of the British Architectural Library, Drawings & Archives, Victoria and Albert Museum http://www.architecture.com/LibraryDrawingsAndPhotographs/DrawingsAndArchives/Drawings.aspx
Further reading
- Lucy Archer, Raymond Erith Architect (1985)
- Lucy Archer ed. Raymond Erith (1904–1973): Progressive Classicist (Sir John Soane’s Museum, 2004)