Maxwell Fry
Encyclopedia
Edwin Maxwell Fry, CBE, RA, FRIBA, FRTPI, known as Maxwell Fry (2 August 1899 – 3 September 1987), was an English modernist
architect of the middle and late 20th century, known for his buildings in Britain, Africa and India.
Originally trained in the neo-classical style of architecture, Fry grew to favour the new modernist style, and practised with eminent colleagues including Walter Gropius
, Le Corbusier
and Pierre Jeanneret
. Fry was a major influence on a generation of young architects. Among the younger colleagues with whom he worked was Denys Lasdun
.
In the 1940s Fry designed buildings for west African countries that were then part of the British Empire
, including Ghana and Nigeria. In the 1950s he and his wife, the architect Jane Drew
, worked for three years on an ambitious development to create a new capital city of Punjab at Chandigarh
.
Fry's works in Britain range from railway stations to private houses to large corporate headquarters. Among his best known works in the UK is his Kensal House, in Ladbroke Grove
, London, in which he aimed to provide high quality, low cost housing, and which set new standards.
, near Wallasey
in Cheshire
. His father Ambrose Fry, a chemical manufacturer, later a property developer, was born in Canada, and his mother was Lily Thompson. He had two older sisters, Muriel and Nora, and a younger brother Sydney. To his family and friends he was known as Maxi or Max.
Fry was educated at the Liverpool Institute High School. He served in the King's Liverpool regiment at the end of the First World War. After the war he received an ex-serviceman's grant that enabled him to enter Liverpool University
school of architecture in 1920, where he was trained in "the suave
neo-Georgian classicism" of Professor Charles Reilly
. The curriculum of the course included town planning as an important component, and Fry retained an interest in planning throughout his career. He gained his diploma with distinction in 1923. The next year he worked for a short time in New York before returning to England to join the office of Thomas Adams and F. Longstreth Thompson, specialists in town planning.
His next post was chief assistant in the architect's department of the Southern Railway
, where one of his earliest commissions was Margate railway station
, which opened in 1926. In 1927 he married his first wife Ethel Speakman, by whom he had one daughter, Ann. He returned to Adams and Thompson in 1930 as a partner.
In a 2006 study of Fry in the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, R. W. Liscombe writes that Fry, frustrated at the prevailing conservatism of British architecture and society, renounced Reilly's neo-classicism in favour of "an independent functionalist design idiom modified from the main German and French progenitors of the modern movement". Liscome adds that the "austere formalism and social idealism" of continental modernism appealed to Fry's moral outlook and his desire for social change. Fry's biographer Alan Powers writes that the change in Fry's aesthetic views came gradually; he continued to design in the neo-classical style for some years: "As a partner in Adams, Thompson and Fry, he designed a garden village at Kemsley near Sittingbourne in 1929, and a house at Wentworth, Surrey, in 1932, in the refined neo-Georgian style typical of the Liverpool school." Wells Coates
, a colleague at Adams, Thompson and Fry tried to enthuse Fry with the example of Le Corbusier
, but his conversion to modernism, in Powers's words, "came principally through his membership of the Design and Industries Association
, which introduced him to modern German housing. ... [Fry] was also influenced by the Congrès Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne, and was closely involved in its English branch, the Modern Architectural Research (MARS) Group
, following its establishment in 1933." Even after his espousal of modernism, Fry remained fond of neo-classical architecture, lending his support to a campaign to preserve Nash
's Carlton House Terrace
in the 1930s.
Fry was one of the few modernist architects working in Britain in the thirties who were British; most were immigrants from continental Europe, where modernism originated. Among them was Walter Gropius
, former director of the Bauhaus
, who fled from Nazi Germany in 1934 and with whom Fry set up a practice in London in the same year. The partnership lasted until 1936. Among its joint works was Impington Village College, Cambridgeshire
. Gropius created the original design, and Fry revised it and supervised construction after Gropius had emigrated to the U.S. Among Fry's other well known buildings of the 1930s are the Sun House, Frognal Lane, Hampstead
(1936), Miramonte in New Malden
, Kingston, Surrey
(1937) and Kensal House, in Ladbroke Grove
, London, completed in 1937, where he worked with the pioneering social reformer Elizabeth Denby to create a spacious estate with modern shared amenities; it set new standards for its time. The Times
wrote of this period that "places in Fry's office were much sought after by the eager young men of the profession. Many who later distinguished themselves passed through it and have never forgotten Fry's early influence on them."
From 1937 to 1942 Fry worked as secretary, with Arthur Korn
as chairman, on the governing committee of the MARS group plan for the redevelopment of postwar London, the results of which were outlined in his 1944 work Fine Building. The plan was described by Dennis Sharp
, one of Fry's collaborators, as "frankly Utopia
n and Socialistic in concept." In 1939 Fry became a fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects
. During the Second World War he served with the Royal Engineers
, ending the war with the rank of major.
, whom he had met during his work on the MARS plan. She shared Fry's zeal for architectural and social modernisation, and they became professional as well as personal partners, establishing Fry, Drew and Partners, which existed from 1946 to 1973. Their first work together was for the British government in its west African colonies. In 1944 Fry was appointed town planning adviser to Lord Swinton
, the resident minister of British West Africa; Drew was engaged as Fry's assistant. Their official postings continued until 1946, when Fry and Drew set up in private practice. Although based in London, most of their work for the next few years continued to be in west Africa for the British colonial authorities. The Frys opened an office in Ghana (then known as the Gold Coast) and worked there and in Nigeria, primarily on educational establishments, and often in temporary partnership with other British architects. The Times considered Fry's most notable work in West Africa to be the University of Ibadan
.
In 1951 Fry and Drew joined an ambitious project to create a new city, Chandigarh
, from scratch. With the partition
of India, the Indian part of Punjab needed a new capital. Fry and his wife were responsible for securing Le Corbusier's participation in the project. He had previously declined invitations, but Fry and Drew visited him in Paris and secured his agreement to join them. He took on the designs of the new capital's major governmental and legal buildings and advised on the master plan for the city. Together with Pierre Jeanneret
and a team of local architects, the Frys worked within Le Corbusier's plan to create Chandigarh; they spent three years there, designing housing, a hospital, colleges, a health centre, swimming pools and shops.
Both Fry and Drew often collaborated with and were close friends of Ove Arup
, the founder of the engineering firm Arup
. As Fry, Drew and Partners, the pair's major British commission was the headquarters of Pilkington Glass in St. Helens
, Lancashire
. The building includes a number of modernist art commissions with works by Victor Pasmore
. Fry and Drew took on a number of younger partners, and the practice eventually grew to a considerable size. However, in the view of The Times' s obituarist, "in these new circumstances his personal talent somehow became submerged, and the work of the firm that bore his name, though of acceptable quality, was not easy to distinguish from the competent modern work done by many other firms. Fry's originality, and his sparkle as a designer, were far less evident than in his pre-war buildings."
, Barbara Hepworth
, Ben
and Winifred Nicholson
, Victor Pasmore and Eduardo Paolozzi
; and the author Richard Hughes
. Fry was elected ARA in 1966 and advanced to RA in 1972. He exhibited at the Royal Academy
Summer Exhibition, had a one-man show in 1974 at the Drian Gallery in London, and continued painting in his retirement. He served on the council of the Royal Institute of British Architects, of which he was vice-president in 1961–2. He was awarded the institute's Royal Gold Medal in 1964. He also served on the Royal Fine Arts Commission and on the council of the Royal Society of Arts. He was appointed CBE
in 1955, was elected a corresponding member of the Acádemie Flamande in 1956, and an honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects
in 1963. He was an honorary LLD of Ibadan University, and towards the end of his life he became Professor of Architecture at the Royal Academy.
On his retirement in 1973, Fry and his wife moved from London to a cottage in Cotherstone
, Co. Durham, where he died in 1987 at the age of 88.
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
architect of the middle and late 20th century, known for his buildings in Britain, Africa and India.
Originally trained in the neo-classical style of architecture, Fry grew to favour the new modernist style, and practised with eminent colleagues including Walter Gropius
Walter Gropius
Walter Adolph Georg Gropius was a German architect and founder of the Bauhaus School who, along with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modern architecture....
, Le Corbusier
Le Corbusier
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, better known as Le Corbusier , was a Swiss-born French architect, designer, urbanist, writer and painter, famous for being one of the pioneers of what now is called modern architecture. He was born in Switzerland and became a French citizen in 1930...
and Pierre Jeanneret
Pierre Jeanneret
Pierre Jeanneret was a Swiss architect who collaborated with his more famous brother Charles Edouard Jeanneret for about twenty years....
. Fry was a major influence on a generation of young architects. Among the younger colleagues with whom he worked was Denys Lasdun
Denys Lasdun
Sir Denys Lasdun CH was an eminent English architect. Probably his best known work is the Royal National Theatre, on London's South Bank of the Thames, which is a Grade II* listed building and one of the most notable examples of Brutalist design in the United Kingdom.Lasdun studied at the...
.
In the 1940s Fry designed buildings for west African countries that were then part of the British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
, including Ghana and Nigeria. In the 1950s he and his wife, the architect Jane Drew
Jane Drew
Dame Jane Drew, DBE, FRIBA was an English modernist architect and town planner. She qualified at the AA School in London, and prior to World War II became one of the leading exponents of the Modern Movement in London....
, worked for three years on an ambitious development to create a new capital city of Punjab at Chandigarh
Chandigarh
Chandigarh is a union territory of India that serves as the capital of two states, Haryana and Punjab. The name Chandigarh translates as "The Fort of Chandi". The name is from an ancient temple called Chandi Mandir, devoted to the Hindu goddess Chandi, in the city...
.
Fry's works in Britain range from railway stations to private houses to large corporate headquarters. Among his best known works in the UK is his Kensal House, in Ladbroke Grove
Ladbroke Grove
Ladbroke Grove is a road in west London, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is also sometimes the name given informally to the immediate area surrounding the road. Running from Notting Hill in the south to Kensal Green in the north, it is located in North Kensington and straddles...
, London, in which he aimed to provide high quality, low cost housing, and which set new standards.
Early years
Fry was born in LiscardLiscard
Liscard is an area of the town of Wallasey, in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England. The most centrally located of Wallasey's townships, it is the main shopping area of the town, with many shops located in the Cherry Tree Shopping Centre...
, near Wallasey
Wallasey
Wallasey is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, in Merseyside, England, on the mouth of the River Mersey, at the northeastern corner of the Wirral Peninsula...
in Cheshire
Cheshire
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...
. His father Ambrose Fry, a chemical manufacturer, later a property developer, was born in Canada, and his mother was Lily Thompson. He had two older sisters, Muriel and Nora, and a younger brother Sydney. To his family and friends he was known as Maxi or Max.
Fry was educated at the Liverpool Institute High School. He served in the King's Liverpool regiment at the end of the First World War. After the war he received an ex-serviceman's grant that enabled him to enter Liverpool University
University of Liverpool
The University of Liverpool is a teaching and research university in the city of Liverpool, England. It is a member of the Russell Group of large research-intensive universities and the N8 Group for research collaboration. Founded in 1881 , it is also one of the six original "red brick" civic...
school of architecture in 1920, where he was trained in "the suave
neo-Georgian classicism" of Professor Charles Reilly
Charles Herbert Reilly
Sir Charles Herbert Reilly, was an English architect and teacher. After training in two architectural practices in London he took up a part-time lectureship at the University of London in 1900, and from 1904 to 1933 he headed the Liverpool School of Architecture, which became world-famous under...
. The curriculum of the course included town planning as an important component, and Fry retained an interest in planning throughout his career. He gained his diploma with distinction in 1923. The next year he worked for a short time in New York before returning to England to join the office of Thomas Adams and F. Longstreth Thompson, specialists in town planning.
His next post was chief assistant in the architect's department of the Southern Railway
Southern Railway (Great Britain)
The Southern Railway was a British railway company established in the 1923 Grouping. It linked London with the Channel ports, South West England, South coast resorts and Kent...
, where one of his earliest commissions was Margate railway station
Margate railway station
Margate railway station serves the town of Margate in Thanet in Kent, England. Train services are provided by Southeastern.Trains from the station generally run to London Victoria via , or to via Ramsgate, Canterbury West and Ashford International...
, which opened in 1926. In 1927 he married his first wife Ethel Speakman, by whom he had one daughter, Ann. He returned to Adams and Thompson in 1930 as a partner.
Modernism
Wells Coates
Wells Wintemute Coates OBE was an architect, designer and writer. He was, for most of his life, an ex-patriate Canadian architect who is best known for his work in England...
, a colleague at Adams, Thompson and Fry tried to enthuse Fry with the example of Le Corbusier
Le Corbusier
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, better known as Le Corbusier , was a Swiss-born French architect, designer, urbanist, writer and painter, famous for being one of the pioneers of what now is called modern architecture. He was born in Switzerland and became a French citizen in 1930...
, but his conversion to modernism, in Powers's words, "came principally through his membership of the Design and Industries Association
Design and Industries Association
The Design and Industries Association is a United Kingdom charity whose object is to engage with all those who share a common interest in the contribution that design can make to the delivery of goods and services that are sustainable and enhance the quality of life for communities and the...
, which introduced him to modern German housing. ... [Fry] was also influenced by the Congrès Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne, and was closely involved in its English branch, the Modern Architectural Research (MARS) Group
MARS Group
The Modern Architectural Research Group, or MARS Group, was a British architectural think tank founded in 1933 by several prominent architects and architectural critics of the time involved in the British modernist movement...
, following its establishment in 1933." Even after his espousal of modernism, Fry remained fond of neo-classical architecture, lending his support to a campaign to preserve Nash
John Nash (architect)
John Nash was a British architect responsible for much of the layout of Regency London.-Biography:Born in Lambeth, London, the son of a Welsh millwright, Nash trained with the architect Sir Robert Taylor. He established his own practice in 1777, but his career was initially unsuccessful and...
's Carlton House Terrace
Carlton House Terrace
Carlton House Terrace refers to a street in the St. James's district of the City of Westminster in London, England, and in particular to two terraces of white stucco-faced houses on the south side of the street overlooking St. James's Park. These terraces were built in 1827–32 to overall designs by...
in the 1930s.
Walter Gropius
Walter Adolph Georg Gropius was a German architect and founder of the Bauhaus School who, along with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modern architecture....
, former director of the Bauhaus
Bauhaus
', commonly known simply as Bauhaus, was a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933. At that time the German term stood for "School of Building".The Bauhaus school was founded by...
, who fled from Nazi Germany in 1934 and with whom Fry set up a practice in London in the same year. The partnership lasted until 1936. Among its joint works was Impington Village College, Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west...
. Gropius created the original design, and Fry revised it and supervised construction after Gropius had emigrated to the U.S. Among Fry's other well known buildings of the 1930s are the Sun House, Frognal Lane, Hampstead
Hampstead
Hampstead is an area of London, England, north-west of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Camden in Inner London, it is known for its intellectual, liberal, artistic, musical and literary associations and for Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland...
(1936), Miramonte in New Malden
New Malden
New Malden is a town and shopping centre in the south-western London suburbs, mostly within the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames and partly in the London Borough of Merton, and is situated from Charing Cross...
, Kingston, Surrey
Kingston upon Thames
Kingston upon Thames is the principal settlement of the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames in southwest London. It was the ancient market town where Saxon kings were crowned and is now a suburb situated south west of Charing Cross. It is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the...
(1937) and Kensal House, in Ladbroke Grove
Ladbroke Grove
Ladbroke Grove is a road in west London, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is also sometimes the name given informally to the immediate area surrounding the road. Running from Notting Hill in the south to Kensal Green in the north, it is located in North Kensington and straddles...
, London, completed in 1937, where he worked with the pioneering social reformer Elizabeth Denby to create a spacious estate with modern shared amenities; it set new standards for its time. The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
wrote of this period that "places in Fry's office were much sought after by the eager young men of the profession. Many who later distinguished themselves passed through it and have never forgotten Fry's early influence on them."
From 1937 to 1942 Fry worked as secretary, with Arthur Korn
Arthur Korn (architect)
Arthur Korn was a German Jewish architect and urban planner who was a proponent of modernism in Germany and the UK.-Life and career:...
as chairman, on the governing committee of the MARS group plan for the redevelopment of postwar London, the results of which were outlined in his 1944 work Fine Building. The plan was described by Dennis Sharp
Dennis Sharp
Dennis Sharp was a British architect, professor, curator, historian, author and editor.Dennis Sharp studied at Bedford Modern School and at Luton School of Art...
, one of Fry's collaborators, as "frankly Utopia
Utopia
Utopia is an ideal community or society possessing a perfect socio-politico-legal system. The word was imported from Greek by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempt...
n and Socialistic in concept." In 1939 Fry became a fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects
Royal Institute of British Architects
The Royal Institute of British Architects is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally.-History:...
. During the Second World War he served with the Royal Engineers
Royal Engineers
The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually just called the Royal Engineers , and commonly known as the Sappers, is one of the corps of the British Army....
, ending the war with the rank of major.
1940s and postwar
In 1942, recently divorced from his first wife, Fry married the architect Jane DrewJane Drew
Dame Jane Drew, DBE, FRIBA was an English modernist architect and town planner. She qualified at the AA School in London, and prior to World War II became one of the leading exponents of the Modern Movement in London....
, whom he had met during his work on the MARS plan. She shared Fry's zeal for architectural and social modernisation, and they became professional as well as personal partners, establishing Fry, Drew and Partners, which existed from 1946 to 1973. Their first work together was for the British government in its west African colonies. In 1944 Fry was appointed town planning adviser to Lord Swinton
Philip Cunliffe-Lister, 1st Earl of Swinton
Philip Cunliffe-Lister, 1st Earl of Swinton GBE, CH, MC, PC , known as Philip Lloyd-Greame until 1924 and as The Viscount Swinton from 1935 until 1955, was a prominent British Conservative politician from the 1920s until the 1950s.-Background and early life:Born as Philip Lloyd-Graeme, he was the...
, the resident minister of British West Africa; Drew was engaged as Fry's assistant. Their official postings continued until 1946, when Fry and Drew set up in private practice. Although based in London, most of their work for the next few years continued to be in west Africa for the British colonial authorities. The Frys opened an office in Ghana (then known as the Gold Coast) and worked there and in Nigeria, primarily on educational establishments, and often in temporary partnership with other British architects. The Times considered Fry's most notable work in West Africa to be the University of Ibadan
University of Ibadan
The University of Ibadan is the oldest Nigerian university, and is located five miles from the centre of the major city of Ibadan in Western Nigeria...
.
In 1951 Fry and Drew joined an ambitious project to create a new city, Chandigarh
Chandigarh
Chandigarh is a union territory of India that serves as the capital of two states, Haryana and Punjab. The name Chandigarh translates as "The Fort of Chandi". The name is from an ancient temple called Chandi Mandir, devoted to the Hindu goddess Chandi, in the city...
, from scratch. With the partition
Partition of India
The Partition of India was the partition of British India on the basis of religious demographics that led to the creation of the sovereign states of the Dominion of Pakistan and the Union of India on 14 and 15...
of India, the Indian part of Punjab needed a new capital. Fry and his wife were responsible for securing Le Corbusier's participation in the project. He had previously declined invitations, but Fry and Drew visited him in Paris and secured his agreement to join them. He took on the designs of the new capital's major governmental and legal buildings and advised on the master plan for the city. Together with Pierre Jeanneret
Pierre Jeanneret
Pierre Jeanneret was a Swiss architect who collaborated with his more famous brother Charles Edouard Jeanneret for about twenty years....
and a team of local architects, the Frys worked within Le Corbusier's plan to create Chandigarh; they spent three years there, designing housing, a hospital, colleges, a health centre, swimming pools and shops.
Both Fry and Drew often collaborated with and were close friends of Ove Arup
Ove Arup
Sir Ove Nyquist Arup, CBE, MICE, MIStructE known as Ove Arup, was a leading Anglo-Danish engineer and generally considered to be one of the foremost architectural structural engineers of his time...
, the founder of the engineering firm Arup
Arup
Arup is a global professional services firm headquartered in London, United Kingdom which provides engineering, design, planning, project management and consulting services for all aspects of the built environment. The firm is present in Africa, the Americas, Australasia, East Asia, Europe and the...
. As Fry, Drew and Partners, the pair's major British commission was the headquarters of Pilkington Glass in St. Helens
St Helens, Merseyside
St Helens is a large town in Merseyside, England. It is the largest settlement and administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens with a population of just over 100,000, part of an urban area with a total population of 176,843 at the time of the 2001 Census...
, Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
. The building includes a number of modernist art commissions with works by Victor Pasmore
Victor Pasmore
Edwin John Victor Pasmore was a British artist and architect. He pioneered the development of abstract art in Britain in the 1940s and 1950s.-Biography:...
. Fry and Drew took on a number of younger partners, and the practice eventually grew to a considerable size. However, in the view of The Times
Later years
Fry was also a painter, writer and a poet, and he and Drew had among their friends contemporary artists such as Henry MooreHenry Moore
Henry Spencer Moore OM CH FBA was an English sculptor and artist. He was best known for his semi-abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art....
, Barbara Hepworth
Barbara Hepworth
Dame Barbara Hepworth DBE was an English sculptor. Her work exemplifies Modernism, and with such contemporaries as Ivon Hitchens, Henry Moore, Ben Nicholson, Naum Gabo she helped to develop modern art in Britain.-Life and work:Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth was born on 10 January 1903 in Wakefield,...
, Ben
Ben Nicholson
Benjamin Lauder "Ben" Nicholson, OM was a British painter of abstract compositions , landscape and still-life.-Background and Training:...
and Winifred Nicholson
Winifred Nicholson
Winifred Nicholson was an English painter, a colourist who developed a personalized impressionistic style that concentrated on domestic subjects and landscapes. In her work, the two motifs are often combined in a view out of a window, featuring flowers in a vase or a jug.Nicholson was born in...
, Victor Pasmore and Eduardo Paolozzi
Eduardo Paolozzi
Sir Eduardo Luigi Paolozzi, KBE, RA , was a Scottish sculptor and artist. He was a major figure in the international art sphere, while, working on his own interpretation and vision of the world. Paolozzi investigated how we can fit into the modern world to resemble our fragmented civilization...
; and the author Richard Hughes
Richard Hughes (writer)
Richard Arthur Warren Hughes OBE was a British writer of poems, short stories, novels and plays.He was born in Weybridge, Surrey. His father was a civil servant Arthur Hughes, and his mother Louisa Grace Warren who had been brought up in Jamaica...
. Fry was elected ARA in 1966 and advanced to RA in 1972. He exhibited at the Royal Academy
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...
Summer Exhibition, had a one-man show in 1974 at the Drian Gallery in London, and continued painting in his retirement. He served on the council of the Royal Institute of British Architects, of which he was vice-president in 1961–2. He was awarded the institute's Royal Gold Medal in 1964. He also served on the Royal Fine Arts Commission and on the council of the Royal Society of Arts. He was appointed CBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
in 1955, was elected a corresponding member of the Acádemie Flamande in 1956, and an honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects
American Institute of Architects
The American Institute of Architects is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to support the architecture profession and improve its public image...
in 1963. He was an honorary LLD of Ibadan University, and towards the end of his life he became Professor of Architecture at the Royal Academy.
On his retirement in 1973, Fry and his wife moved from London to a cottage in Cotherstone
Cotherstone
Cotherstone is a village and civil parish in the Pennine hills, in Teesdale, County Durham, England.Cotherstone lies within the historic county boundaries of the North Riding of Yorkshire, but along with the rest of the former Startforth Rural District it was transferred to County Durham for...
, Co. Durham, where he died in 1987 at the age of 88.
List of works
- 1923–40 many houses and flats including Ridge End at WentworthWentworth-People:* Baron Wentworth , the Wentworth peerage, several men and women.* D'Arcy Wentworth , surgeon in the early days of Sydney, Australia, and father of William Charles Wentworth I....
, Surrey and Club House at SittingbourneSittingbourneSittingbourne is an industrial town about eight miles east of Gillingham in England, beside the Roman Watling Street off a creek in the Swale, a channel separating the Isle of Sheppey from mainland Kent...
, Kent - 1924–26 MargateMargate railway stationMargate railway station serves the town of Margate in Thanet in Kent, England. Train services are provided by Southeastern.Trains from the station generally run to London Victoria via , or to via Ramsgate, Canterbury West and Ashford International...
and Ramsgate railway stationRamsgate railway stationRamsgate railway station serves the town of Ramsgate in Thanet in Kent, England, and is located about 10 minutes away on foot from the town centre. The station lies on the Chatham Main Line 127 km east of London Victoria, the Kent Coast Line, and the Ashford to Ramsgate line...
s, Kent - 1935 Flats on St. Leonard's Hill, WindsorWindsor, BerkshireWindsor is an affluent suburban town and unparished area in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in Berkshire, England. It is widely known as the site of Windsor Castle, one of the official residences of the British Royal Family....
(with Walter GropiusWalter GropiusWalter Adolph Georg Gropius was a German architect and founder of the Bauhaus School who, along with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modern architecture....
) - 1935 The Sun House, 9 Frognal Way, Frognal, HampsteadHampsteadHampstead is an area of London, England, north-west of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Camden in Inner London, it is known for its intellectual, liberal, artistic, musical and literary associations and for Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland...
, London - 1936 Levy House, 66 Old Church Street, ChelseaChelsea, LondonChelsea is an area of West London, England, bounded to the south by the River Thames, where its frontage runs from Chelsea Bridge along the Chelsea Embankment, Cheyne Walk, Lots Road and Chelsea Harbour. Its eastern boundary was once defined by the River Westbourne, which is now in a pipe above...
, London (with Gropius) - 1936 House at ChipperfieldChipperfieldChipperfield is a village and civil parish in the Dacorum district of Hertfordshire, England, about 5 miles southwest of Hemel Hempstead and 5 miles north of Watford. The parish includes the hamlet of Tower Hill....
Common, Hertfordshire - 1936 Miramonte, house in Coombe, New MaldenNew MaldenNew Malden is a town and shopping centre in the south-western London suburbs, mostly within the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames and partly in the London Borough of Merton, and is situated from Charing Cross...
, Kingston, SurreyKingston upon ThamesKingston upon Thames is the principal settlement of the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames in southwest London. It was the ancient market town where Saxon kings were crowned and is now a suburb situated south west of Charing Cross. It is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the... - 1936 Sassoon House (workers' flats), St. Mary's Road, Peckham, South-East London, Fry's first building in reinforced concrete, in collaboration with Elizabeth Denby
- 1937 Kensal House, Ladbroke GroveLadbroke GroveLadbroke Grove is a road in west London, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is also sometimes the name given informally to the immediate area surrounding the road. Running from Notting Hill in the south to Kensal Green in the north, it is located in North Kensington and straddles...
, Kensington, London, in collaboration with Elizabeth Denby - 1938 Showrooms for Central London Electricity, Regent StreetRegent StreetRegent Street is one of the major shopping streets in London's West End, well known to tourists and Londoners alike, and famous for its Christmas illuminations...
, London - 1938 Village College, HistonHistonHiston and Impington are villages in Cambridgeshire, England, They are situated just north of Cambridge with the main bulk of the settlements being separated from the city by the A14 road ....
(with Gropius) - 1938 Flats at 65 Ladbroke Grove, London
- 1939 Impington Village College, Cambridge (with Gropius)
- 1949–60 University of IbadanUniversity of IbadanThe University of Ibadan is the oldest Nigerian university, and is located five miles from the centre of the major city of Ibadan in Western Nigeria...
, Nigeria - 1950 St. Francis College, Ho Hoe, Togoland
- 1951 Work for the Festival of BritainFestival of BritainThe Festival of Britain was a national exhibition in Britain in the summer of 1951. It was organised by the government to give Britons a feeling of recovery in the aftermath of war and to promote good quality design in the rebuilding of British towns and cities. The Festival's centrepiece was in...
- 1951 Adisadel CollegeAdisadel CollegeAdisadel College is an Anglican school for boys in Cape Coast, Ghana, modelled on the English public school.-History:Adisadel was established in 1910 in a building at Topp Yard, near Christ Church and Cape Coast Castle...
, Ghana - 1951–54 Housing in ChandigarhChandigarhChandigarh is a union territory of India that serves as the capital of two states, Haryana and Punjab. The name Chandigarh translates as "The Fort of Chandi". The name is from an ancient temple called Chandi Mandir, devoted to the Hindu goddess Chandi, in the city...
, Punjab, India - 1951–54 Ramsay HallRamsay HallRamsay Hall is a building located in London, England, used primarily as a hall of residence for students of University College London. It contains around 450 bedrooms, a dining hall and a number of common rooms and surrounds a central courtyard.- Overview :...
, London - 1952 Passfield House and other flats in LewishamLewishamLewisham is a district in South London, England, located in the London Borough of Lewisham. It is situated south-east of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.-History:...
, south-east London - 1953 School at Mawuli, Ghana
- 1954 School and College at AburiAburiAburi is a town north east of Accra, the capital city of Ghana. It is famous for the Aburi Botanical Gardens. Aburi is home to Aburi Presbyterian Technical Secondary School, which is linked to The Sixth Form College, Farnborough in Hampshire, England. Aburi has a relatively small population and is...
, Ghana - 1955–58 Design of the Usk Street Housing Estate at Bethnal GreenBethnal GreenBethnal Green is a district of the East End of London, England and part of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, with the far northern parts falling within the London Borough of Hackney. Located northeast of Charing Cross, it was historically an agrarian hamlet in the ancient parish of Stepney,...
, London (with Denys LasdunDenys LasdunSir Denys Lasdun CH was an eminent English architect. Probably his best known work is the Royal National Theatre, on London's South Bank of the Thames, which is a Grade II* listed building and one of the most notable examples of Brutalist design in the United Kingdom.Lasdun studied at the...
) - 1956 Co-operative Bank at IbadanIbadanIbadan is the capital city of Oyo State and the third largest metropolitan area in Nigeria, after Lagos and Kano, with a population of 1,338,659 according to the 2006 census. Ibadan is also the largest metropolitan geographical area...
, Nigeria - 1958 Teacher Training College in WudilWudilWudil is a Local Government Area in Kano State, Nigeria. Its headquarters are in the town of Wudil on the A237 highway.It has an area of 362 km² and a population of 185,189 at the 2006 census.The postal code of the area is 713....
, Nigeria - 1958 Oriental Insurance Building, Calcutta, India
- 1959 Schools in LagosLagosLagos is a port and the most populous conurbation in Nigeria. With a population of 7,937,932, it is currently the third most populous city in Africa after Cairo and Kinshasa, and currently estimated to be the second fastest growing city in Africa...
, Nigeria - 1960 PilkingtonPilkingtonPilkington Group Limited is a multinational glass manufacturing company headquartered in St Helens, United Kingdom. It is a subsidiary of the Japan-based NSG Group...
Bros. (Glass), office and social housing, St. Helens, Lancashire - 1960 BP office in Lagos, Nigeria
- 1960 Office building for Dow Agrochemicals Ltd., King's LynnKing's LynnKing's Lynn is a sea port and market town in the ceremonial county of Norfolk in the East of England. It is situated north of London and west of Norwich. The population of the town is 42,800....
, Norfolk - 1970 Crematorium at CoychurchCoychurchCoychurch is a small village that sits between Pencoed and Bridgend in Wales, bordering with Bridgend Industrial Estate.It has a longstanding religious association, with an early Christian church having been built there possibly as long ago as the 8th century CE. The current church of St...
, Mid-Glamorgan
Books
- (with Thomas Adams, Francis Longstreth Thompson and James W. R. Adams) Recent Advances in Town Planning. London: J. & A. Churchill, 1932. OCLC 4377060
- Fine Building. London: Faber & Faber, 1944. OCLC 1984391
- (with Jane Drew) Architecture for Children. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1944. OCLC 559791804 (Republished 1976 as Architecture and the Environment)
- (with Jane Drew and Harry L. Ford) Village Housing in the Tropics: with special reference to West Africa. London: Lund Humphries, 1947. OCLC 53579274
- (with Jane Drew) Tropical Architecture in the Humid Zone. London: Batsford, 1956. OCLC 718056727
- (with Jane Drew) Tropical Architecture in the Dry and Humid Zones. London: Batsford, 1964. OCLC 155707318
- Art in a Machine Age: A Critique of Contemporary Life through the Medium of Architecture. London: Methuen, 1969. ISBN 978 4016040807
- Tapestry and Architecture: An Address Given at the Opening of an Exhibition of Tapestries by Miriam Sacks at the Ben Uri Gallery October 22, 1969. London: Keepsake P., 1970. ISBN 0901924091
- Autobiographical Sketches, London: Elek, 1975. ISBN 0 236 40010 X
- (with Jane Drew) Architecture and the Environment, London: George Allen and Unwin, 1976. ISBN 978-0047200205 (Republication of 1944 Architecture for Children)
Articles
- "African experiment – building for an educational programme in the Gold Coast". London: The Architectural Review, No. 677 Vol. CXIII, May 1953, pp. 299–310. OCLC 638313897
- (with Jane Drew) "Chandigarh and Planning Development in India." I. The Plan, by E. Maxwell Fry, II. Housing, by Jane B. Drew. London: Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, No.4948, 1 April 1955, Vol.CIII, pp. 315–333. OCLC 34739832
Further reading
- From Here to Modernity: Maxwell Fry
- Kiran Joshi, Documenting Chandigarh: The Indian Architecture of Pierre Jeanneret, Edwin Maxwell Fry, Jane Beverly Drew, Grantha Corporation, 1999 ISBN 1-890206-13-X
External links
- (Edwin) Maxwell Fry (1899-1978), Architect, painter and writer - bronze head and photographs