Robert Hurd
This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
Robert Hurd | |
---|---|
Born | Robert Philip Andrew Hurd 5 July 1905 |
Died | 17 September 1963 | (aged 58)
Nationality | British |
Alma mater | University of Cambridge |
Occupation | Architect |
Movement | Scottish Renaissance |
Parent(s) | Percy Hurd Hannah Cox |
Relatives | Anthony Hurd (brother) |
Robert Philip Andrew Hurd (29 July 1905 – 17 September 1963) was an influential conservation architect. His original aim was to be an architectural author specialising in traditional forms. He came to Scotland in 1930 and worked at the Edinburgh College of Art for two years as assistant to the architect and planner Frank Mears. He was an early and highly respected conservation architect and wrote and broadcast on Scottish architecture, planning and reconstruction.[1][2][3][4][5]
Life
Hurd was of Anglo-Scottish parentage, the son of Sir Percy Angler Hurd MP and Hannah Swan Cox. He suffered from polio in early life and walked his whole life with a limp. He was educated at Marlborough College and then the LCC Central School of Arts. Thereafter he studied at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, becoming a close friend of Raymond McGrath and Mansfield Forbes. He had developed a love of Scotland during childhood holidays with his grandparents in Dundee and on student walking holidays in the Highlands.[6] He came to live in Scotland in 1930 and completed his architectural studies at Edinburgh College of Art. As a student he lived in a house at 49 George Square. While working with Frank Mears, he met his mother's former tutor, the pioneering biologist and planner, Patrick Geddes, who was to be an abiding influence on his work.[citation needed]
He was an early member of the
Although Hurd was declared unfit for overseas service, he served as an officer in the Royal Engineers (1940–46) and was put in charge of removing Edinburgh’s cast-iron railings for the war effort. During this time he also became president of the Saltire Society, a role he continued until 1948.[8] In 1946, he chaired a Saltire Society Committee which made recommendations on the future of Scottish broadcasting.[9] He took an active interest in the arts in general and served on a number of Edinburgh International Festival committees.[6] He also served on the Councils of the Edinburgh Architectural Association and the Edinburgh Film Guild. Politically, he was a Scottish nationalist.
Work
In 1932 he went into partnership with Norman Neil (b. 1899) who was deeply influenced by German and Scandinavian architecture. Hurd himself quickly developed a love of conservation but also displayed a commitment to the modern in several projects.
Early projects included the rebuilding of Eaglescarnie, near Haddington and the restoration of Acheson House in Edinburgh. He restored Lambs House in
Hurd's passion for housing which took account of Scottish tradition and fitted the Scottish landscape led in 1937 to the foundation of the Saltire Society housing awards which continue today.
Personal life
Also an outsider in other senses Hurd never joined the RIBA. Hurd was homosexual and had a single lifelong partner from around 1935.[citation needed]
Hurd died whilst on holiday in Switzerland, but his body was flown home and his was the last full interment within the otherwise closed-to-burial Canongate Kirkyard.[citation needed]
A pencil sketch of Hurd by
Principal works
- Ravelston Gardens (modernist flats), Edinburgh (1935)
- Restoration of Acheson House, Canongate, Edinburgh (1936)
- Restoration of Hamilton House, East Lothian (1937)
- Restoration of Lamb’s House in Leith(1937)
- Restoration of Loudoun Hall near Ayr (1939)
- Restoration of Culzean Castle (1946-8)
- Restoration of tenements on Bank Street, Edinburgh (1950)
- Rebuilding of Chessel’s Court and Morocco Land, CanongateEdinburgh (1952)
- Rebuilding of numerous tenements on CanongateEdinburgh (1952-5)
- Restoration of Culross Abbey House (1954)
- Restoration of Bible Land and Shoemaker Land, CanongateEdinburgh (1956)
- Library and Village Centre, Skelmorlie (1956)
- Extensions to his Alma Mater Emmanuel College, Cambridge (1957) (criticised by the Anti Ugly action group in 1959)
- Further restoration at Chessel’s Court (1958)
- Kyle of Lachalsh Primary School (1959)
References
- ^ Hurd, Robert (1932), Building Scotland, in Cleghorn Thomson, David (Ed.), Scotland in Quest of Her Youth, Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh, pp. 172 - 190
- ^ Hurd, Robert (1939), The Face of Modern Edinburgh, in the Quarterly Illustrated of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland, No. 61, July 1939, pp. 11 - 17
- ^ Hurd, Robert (1942), Planning and Building: An Architectural Survey, in The New Scotland: 17 Chapters on Scottish Reconstruction, The London Scots Self-Government Committee, pp. 59 - 73
- ^ Hurd, Robert (1951), Architecture, in Reid, J.M. (Ed.), Some Scottish Arts, Serif Books Ltd., Edinburgh, pp. 5 - 12
- ^ Hurd, Robert (1952), Gladstone's Land: The Story of an Old Edinburgh House, The Saltire Society
- ^ The Saltire Society, Edinburgh, p. 5
- ^ Hurd, Robert (1938), Scotland Under Trust, Adam & Charles Black, London
- ^ Hurd, Robert (1952), Architecture and the Saltire Society, in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland, No. 88, May 1952, pp. 42 - 44
- ^ Saltire Society (1946), Broadcasting; Recommendations of the Saltire Society's Broadcasting Committee, together with Comments on the White Paper, and the Reports of Listening Groups on Scottish Broadcast Programmes, January - March 1946
- ^ Dictionary of Scottish Architects: Robert Hurd
- ^ Hurd, Robert & Reiach, Alan, (1942), Building Scotland - Past and Future, The Saltire Society
- National Galleries of Scotland. Retrieved 2 January 2020.