Stephen Gardiner (architect)
Encyclopedia
Stephen Gardiner OBE
(25 April 1924 - 15 February 2007) was a British
architect, teacher and writer.
Gardiner was born and raised in Chelsea
in London
. He was the younger son of Clive Gardiner, painter and principal of Goldsmiths College
from 1929 to 1958, and Lily Lancaster, also a painter and one of Walter Sickert
's favourite pupils at the Slade. His paternal grandfather was the journalist A. G. Gardiner. His elder brother, Patrick Gardiner, became a professor of philosophy at the University of Oxford
.
He was educated at Dulwich College
, and served in the Royal Navy
from 1942. He studied at the Architectural Association and qualified as an architect in 1948. He then worked for Wells Coates
, then for short periods with Richard Blow and Peter Dickinson
, and with Maxwell Fry
and Jane Drew
. He worked with Richard Sheppard form 1951 to 1957, working mainly on schools.
He founded his own practice in 1957, and was in partnership with Christopher Knight in the 1960s. Perhaps his crowning achievement was designing a new house at Stratton Park
in Hampshire
for Sir John Baring, replacing a late 18th century house by George Dance
with a modern building largely in brick with a steel conservatory. The original building was demolished, but the Tuscan
portico
was left standing as an architectural feature in front of the house. He also worked on many school buildings in and around London. He became a business partner of Joan Scotson in 1970, who later became his wife. He received the OBE in 2002 for his contribution to community architecture.
Concerned at the precarious nature of his profession, and the number of projects that were never built, he also taught architecture. He taught at the Architectural Association from 1955 to 1956, and at the Oxford School of Architecture (now part of Oxford Brookes University
) from 1957 to 1968, at the University of Westminster
from 1970 to 1974, at Washington University in St Louis in 1978, at Cheltenham College
from 1979 to 1981, and at the University of London
from 1981 to 1986.
Gardiner was also a writer. He wrote a thriller, Death of an Artist in 1958. He wrote for the London Magazine
for 37 years, from 1964 to 2001, and was architectural correspondent for The Observer
for 23 years, writing a weekly column from 1970 to 1993. He also wrote for The Spectator
, The Times
, the Architectural Review
, and the RIBA Journal.
He also wrote several books on architectural subjects, including Evolution of the House (1974), a monongraph on Le Corbusier (Fontana Modern Masters
, 1974), Kuwait
: The Making of a City (1984) and The House: Its Origins and Evolution (2002). He wrote two biographies, Epstein: Artist Against the Establishment (1992), and Frink, a life of the sculptor Elisabeth Frink (1997). Le Corbusier
was a significant influence on his professional work, and he knew both Jacob Epstein
and Elisabeth Frink
. He also published poetry, and exhibited paintings and drawings.
He married four times. His first marriage, to Shirley Warwick, second marriage, to Lucy Ward, and third marriage, to Shirley Blomfield, all ended in divorce. He married Joan Scotson in 1979, living on the King's Road
in Chelsea
until 2002, when they moved to Tunbridge Wells
. He died at Pembury
in Kent
. He was survived by his fourth wife, and a son and daughter from his third marriage.
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...
(25 April 1924 - 15 February 2007) was a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
architect, teacher and writer.
Gardiner was born and raised in Chelsea
Chelsea, London
Chelsea 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...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. He was the younger son of Clive Gardiner, painter and principal of Goldsmiths College
Goldsmiths College
Goldsmiths, University of London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom which specialises in the arts, humanities and social sciences, and a constituent college of the federal University of London. It was founded in 1891 as Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute...
from 1929 to 1958, and Lily Lancaster, also a painter and one of Walter Sickert
Walter Sickert
Walter Richard Sickert , born in Munich, Germany, was a painter who was a member of the Camden Town Group in London. He was an important influence on distinctively British styles of avant-garde art in the 20th century....
's favourite pupils at the Slade. His paternal grandfather was the journalist A. G. Gardiner. His elder brother, Patrick Gardiner, became a professor of philosophy at the University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
.
He was educated at Dulwich College
Dulwich College
Dulwich College is an independent school for boys in Dulwich, southeast London, England. The college was founded in 1619 by Edward Alleyn, a successful Elizabethan actor, with the original purpose of educating 12 poor scholars as the foundation of "God's Gift". It currently has about 1,600 boys,...
, and served in the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
from 1942. He studied at the Architectural Association and qualified as an architect in 1948. He then worked for Wells Coates
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...
, then for short periods with Richard Blow and Peter Dickinson
Peter Dickinson
Peter Malcolm de Brissac Dickinson OBE is an English author and poet who has written a wide variety of books, notably children's books and detective stories, over a long and distinguished career.-Life and work:...
, and with Maxwell Fry
Maxwell Fry
Edwin Maxwell Fry, CBE, RA, FRIBA, FRTPI, known as Maxwell Fry , was an English modernist architect of the middle and late 20th century, known for his buildings in Britain, Africa and India....
and 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....
. He worked with Richard Sheppard form 1951 to 1957, working mainly on schools.
He founded his own practice in 1957, and was in partnership with Christopher Knight in the 1960s. Perhaps his crowning achievement was designing a new house at Stratton Park
Stratton Park
Stratton Park, in East Stratton, Hampshire, was an English country house, built on the site of a grange of Hyde Abbey after the dissolution of the monasteries; it was purchased with the manor of Micheldever in 1546 by Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton...
in Hampshire
Hampshire
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...
for Sir John Baring, replacing a late 18th century house by George Dance
George Dance the Younger
George Dance the Younger was an English architect and surveyor. The fifth and youngest son of George Dance the Elder, he came from a distinguished family of architects, artists and dramatists...
with a modern building largely in brick with a steel conservatory. The original building was demolished, but the Tuscan
Tuscan order
Among canon of classical orders of classical architecture, the Tuscan order's place is due to the influence of the Italian Sebastiano Serlio, who meticulously described the five orders including a "Tuscan order", "the solidest and least ornate", in his fourth book of Regole generalii di...
portico
Portico
A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls...
was left standing as an architectural feature in front of the house. He also worked on many school buildings in and around London. He became a business partner of Joan Scotson in 1970, who later became his wife. He received the OBE in 2002 for his contribution to community architecture.
Concerned at the precarious nature of his profession, and the number of projects that were never built, he also taught architecture. He taught at the Architectural Association from 1955 to 1956, and at the Oxford School of Architecture (now part of Oxford Brookes University
Oxford Brookes University
Oxford Brookes University is a new university in Oxford, England. It was named to honour the school's founding principal, John Brookes. It has been ranked as the best new university by the Sunday Times University Guide 10 years in a row...
) from 1957 to 1968, at the University of Westminster
University of Westminster
The University of Westminster is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom. Its origins go back to the foundation of the Royal Polytechnic Institution in 1838, and it was awarded university status in 1992.The university's headquarters and original campus are based on Regent...
from 1970 to 1974, at Washington University in St Louis in 1978, at Cheltenham College
Cheltenham College
Cheltenham College is a co-educational independent school, located in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England.One of the public schools of the Victorian period, it was opened in July 1841. An Anglican foundation, it is known for its classical, military and sporting traditions.The 1893 book Great...
from 1979 to 1981, and at the University of London
University of London
-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...
from 1981 to 1986.
Gardiner was also a writer. He wrote a thriller, Death of an Artist in 1958. He wrote for the London Magazine
London Magazine
The London Magazine is a historied publication of arts, literature and miscellaneous interests. Its history ranges nearly three centuries and several reincarnations, publishing the likes of William Wordsworth, William S...
for 37 years, from 1964 to 2001, and was architectural correspondent for The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
for 23 years, writing a weekly column from 1970 to 1993. He also wrote for The Spectator
The Spectator
The Spectator is a weekly British magazine first published on 6 July 1828. It is currently owned by David and Frederick Barclay, who also owns The Daily Telegraph. Its principal subject areas are politics and culture...
, 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...
, the Architectural Review
Architectural Review
The Architectural Review is a monthly international architectural magazine published in London since 1896. Articles cover the built environment which includes landscape, building design, interior design and urbanism as well as theory of these subjects....
, and the RIBA Journal.
He also wrote several books on architectural subjects, including Evolution of the House (1974), a monongraph on Le Corbusier (Fontana Modern Masters
Fontana Modern Masters
The Fontana Modern Masters was a series of pocket guides on the writers, philosophers, and other thinkers and theorists whose ideas were shaping the intellectual landscape of the twentieth century. The first five titles were published on 12 January 1970 by Fontana Books, the paperback imprint of...
, 1974), Kuwait
Kuwait
The State of Kuwait is a sovereign Arab state situated in the north-east of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south at Khafji, and Iraq to the north at Basra. It lies on the north-western shore of the Persian Gulf. The name Kuwait is derived from the...
: The Making of a City (1984) and The House: Its Origins and Evolution (2002). He wrote two biographies, Epstein: Artist Against the Establishment (1992), and Frink, a life of the sculptor Elisabeth Frink (1997). 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...
was a significant influence on his professional work, and he knew both Jacob Epstein
Jacob Epstein
Sir Jacob Epstein KBE was an American-born British sculptor who helped pioneer modern sculpture. He was born in the United States, and moved to Europe in 1902, becoming a British citizen in 1911. He often produced controversial works which challenged taboos on what was appropriate subject matter...
and Elisabeth Frink
Elisabeth Frink
Dame Elisabeth Jean Frink, DBE, CH, RA was an English sculptor and printmaker...
. He also published poetry, and exhibited paintings and drawings.
He married four times. His first marriage, to Shirley Warwick, second marriage, to Lucy Ward, and third marriage, to Shirley Blomfield, all ended in divorce. He married Joan Scotson in 1979, living on the King's Road
Kings Road
King's Road or Kings Road, known popularly as The King's Road or The KR, is a major, well-known street stretching through Chelsea and Fulham, both in west London, England...
in Chelsea
Chelsea, London
Chelsea 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...
until 2002, when they moved to Tunbridge Wells
Royal Tunbridge Wells
Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in west Kent, England, about south-east of central London by road, by rail. The town is close to the border of the county of East Sussex...
. He died at Pembury
Pembury
Pembury is a large village in Kent, in the south east of England, with a population of around 6,000. It lies just to the north-east of Tunbridge Wells.The village centre, including the village green and High Street area is a conservation area.-History:...
in Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
. He was survived by his fourth wife, and a son and daughter from his third marriage.