The Bartlett History Project

Welcome to The Bartlett History Project! We're aiming to write a personal history of the faculty, with the help of archive material from UCL's collections, along with stories, photos and drawings from our former students. This blog is a record of our archive discoveries and alumni contributions so far. Visit The Bartlett website for more information: bit.ly/bartletthistory

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The Bartlett Begins

We've had a bit of a revelation here at The Bartlett in terms of unravelling the murky beginnings of the School of Architecture. 

Alan Powers' PhD Thesis 'Architectural Education in Britain: 1880-1914' written in 1982 has unlocked a few of the mysteries of the School's past, and we've now been able to fill in the gaps that predate our alumni's memories!

Excitingly, the thesis also includes three photographs of the newly built Bartlett building, including the studio, cast room and a museum which housed Sir Banister Fletcher's collection of wood and stone models.

1841 

Architectural teaching began at University College London with a series of evening lectures by T.L Donaldson, the first Chair of Architecture at the university.

1892 

The Carpenters' Company began sponsoring lectures in Building Construction. 

Ethel and Bessie Charles, the first women to study architecture at University College, begin their studies.  

1904

F.M Simpson was appointed Professor and day-time teaching was adopted, although the fledgling department still lacked proper premises, which hindered its development.

1910

The University of London was formed and the courses, previously shared between King's College and University College, merged into one. Soon after, the College received the funding it needed to build a home for the new School of Architecture. Sir Herbert Bartlett was a civil engineer and contractor, who donated £30,000 to build what would become the Bartlett building, which completed the north part of the Gower Street facade of University College after the original Wilkins building.

1913

The new building, the first purpose-built School of Architecture in the country, was occupied in October under the management of an 'Architectural Education Committee' including Herbert Bartlett, S.D Adshead (who would later go on to become Professor of Planning at the new Department of Town Planning at UCL), Reginald Blomfield, J.J. Burnet, Ernest Newton and E.P. Warren, along with Elsey Smith and Arthur Stratton from King's.

1915

Gertrude Leverkus, first official woman student at The Bartlett, enrols. 

According to Powers, the School became known as the Bartlett after the war, when Albert Richardson was appointed as Professor of Architecture in 1919. He remained until 1946, when he was succeeded by Hector Corfiato, who carried on his classical principles until his retirement in the late 1950s, when the R.I.B.A insisted the School take on a more modern programme of teaching. 

Photographs taken from 'Architectural Education in Britain: 1880-1914' by Alan Powers

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Mr Casey - The Bartlett Beadle

The Bartlett School of Architecture used to have its very own Beadle, like the one who sat at UCL's main gates welcoming visitors.

Mr Casey, whose time at UCL seems to have spanned many decades and passed almost into legend, is a fixture of alumni recollections from the 50s and 60s. Remembered as a friendly, helpful 'sergeant major of the establishment', Casey was, amongst other things projectionist for Corfiato's Magic Lantern slides of ancient Greek buildings. 

His longevity was a source of exciting gossip and once, according to alumnus Michel La Rue, after students got carried away with their 'redecoration' efforts in the studios and were hauled in front of the Professor, Casey declared "what you did wasn't much - you should have seen what that Basil Spence did...!".

On his eventual retirement The Bartlett threw a huge party in his honour. Let's hope he wore his debonair Beadle uniform to the celebration!

Photo courtesy of John Starling

Photo courtesy of John Pountney

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Outlet - Bartlett Student Magazine: 1959-1962

In 1959, The Bartlett School of Architecture was on the cusp of a complete overhaul in its management and teaching, with the retirement of Professor Corfiato and the introduction of a new regime imminent. 

Yet students had long since left the principles of Classicism behind and were busy cutting a path through modern architecture independent of their lecturers. In 1959 a group of students set up Outlet, a magazine clearly influenced by New Brutalism, a movement that many of the students at the time were eager to engage with. 

Outlet 1 was painstakingly printed by hand using a Gestetner machine, a type of stencil duplicator, but the editions became glossier as the years went past, with the introduction of advertising from trade companies and architecture journals.

Here is a selection of images from the four issues, stay tuned for more!

Outlet copies courtesy of Bill Ungless and Michael Turner

Outlet covers - Clockwise: 1959, 1960, 1962, 1961

Outlet 1- 'Natter' collage

Outlet 4 - Cartoon by Louis Hellman

Letter from Richard Llewelyn-Davies to students 

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Reyner Banham 'Giant of a Man'

Photo courtesy of Graham Waterhouse - Banham's Bus Trip

Peter Reyner Banham stands out as one of The Bartlett's most interesting and well-liked lecturers. Characterised as much by his striking appearance as his dogged devotion to the Modern period, Banham was undoubtedly the School of Architecture's star academic in the 1960s, and something of a scoop for the newly hired Professor, Richard Llewelyn-Davies, who was charged with hauling The Bartlett out of the 19th century. He began lecturing at The Bartlett School of Architecture in 1960, became senior lecturer in 1964 and Professor in 1969. 

Alumni recollections of Banham have been a pleasure to read, many recalling him with genuine warmth, although some weren't entirely convinced by his restricted view of architectural history. 

'... seeing Reyner Banham fold up his micro urban bike and drag it up the Gower Street stairwell to his office. I thought at the time that he seemed like a combination of Moses, Karl Marx and a travelling salesman.' - Kent Spreckelmeyer

'Professor Rayner Banham was head of the undergraduate course. I had never met anyone so larger than life – a complete giant of a man with his big black beard, black leather-strap tie with a silver buffalo design clasp. He often spoke of Buffalo in America where he was a visiting professor. He was very erudite. We students were transfixed when he lectured, fascinated and absorbing everything he said, trying to make sense of it: from the architecture of the road side hot-dog stands he had seen in America, to the architecture of Jaywick Sands, and the architecture of the motorways.'  - Richard Litherland

'Reyner Banham above all - a man whose lectures were so entertaining that the lecture theatre was frequently filled with students from the whole School.'  -Michel La Rue

'Banham, on the other hand, was unswerving in his outlook on the built environment and was, although captivating as a lecturer, most disagreeable as a theorist.' - Marek Janota Bzowski

'Professor Reyner Banham was the most inspiring individual I met. I was privileged to be interviewed by him when I applied from school. I knew little of him then but he was welcoming and enthusiastic, placing me at ease and enabling me to talk of my aspirations in architecture. He was always the most inspiring lecturer.' - Andy Thompson

Banham had a great love for the USA, particularly Los Angeles. In 1972 he produced the documentary Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles for the BBC, and, amongst other positions, became Professor of Art History at the University of California. 

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Open House - the fifth floor Atelier

Image courtesy of Peter Campbell

Before The Bartlett School of Architecture moved into Wates House it occupied what is now the Pearson Building, home to UCL Geography. Its entrance was a discreet door in the corner where the Bartlett building joined the Slade School of Fine Art, with a lecture theatre clad in dark brown wood on the ground floor and large, bright studios throughout. 

As someone used to the university being a high-security space, with strict opening and closing times, one of the most surprising details of life at The Bartlett in the 50s and 60s were the stories of the fifth floor Atelier. 

The top floor of the old Bartlett building served as studios for final year students, with large slanting windows looking out over the rooftops of UCL. It was accessed by a back staircase with a door leading onto Gower Street, next to what is now the Lewis' Building, formerly a medical bookshop.

Final year students were given a key to this door, meaning they could come and go as they pleased, day or night, and some took the concept of the 'all-nighter' to its natural conclusion by treating the atelier as a part-time home. 

This freedom, according to alumni, contributed to a real feeling of ownership and belonging in the space. Naturally, it was open to abuse, as illustrated by the tale of a former student, who never gave up his key, coming into Euston station one night in need of a place to sleep, and using the atelier as a convenient hotel.

There'll be more tales from the atelier in our upcoming film!

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Hector Corfiato 'Extraordinary Man'

Image courtesy of Dr Philip Whitbourn - The Bartlett School of Architecture school photo 1950-1951

Hector Othon Corfiato, Professor of Architecture at The Bartlett between 1946-1959, cuts an enigmatic figure through this project. Little biographical information exists about him, even the matter of his nationality remains a contested subject. Some alumni claim he was Greek, others Egyptian, while an Architects' Journal article describes him as a 'relatively unknown French architect'. Whatever his provenance, he was certainly memorable. 

Corfiato trained at the Beaux Arts in Paris and joined The Bartlett in 1922 under Sir Albert Richardson, whom he succeeded as head in 1946. His stubborn dedication to the neo-classical produced an atmosphere of frustration amongst many of his students, which comes across in their recollections. Bartlett alumnus, Louis Hellman, noted that 'History according to Corf, stopped in 1908.' 

Image courtesy of Peter Campbell - Professor Corfiato's retirement party

Other alumni memories paint him as a cartoonish figure, distinguished by his clothing and strange habits: 

‘The oddest character was Professor Corfiato with a thick accent and an equally thick cigar who would walk past our pinned-up efforts on a Crit muttering incomprehensibly.’ - Mary Calwell

‘Professor Corfiato, at the end of his career, memorable for the three piece suits, the miasma of cigar smoke and ash, the gravelly, heavily accented voice and the repeated,”wrong slide, Mr Casey”, or, “upside down, Mr Casey”. The last two directed at the Bartlett Beadle, showing Bannister Fletcher’s original glass slides in a magic lantern in the lecture theatre.’ - John Pountney

‘Prof Corfiato would famously come and lean on our boards, scattering cigar ash. He would also draw on our actual drawings which annoyed us intensely.’ - Alison Curtis  

'The smoke from his cigar always preceded him and was the signal for the Modern Architecture students to grab up their drawings and flee before he could draw all over their precious work with his fat black pencil discovering symmetries out of thin air.’ - Anthony Vogt

However other conversations with alumni have made it clear that, while students didn't necessarily enjoy his lectures, he was a somewhat endearing character. He stood up for Bartlett students in front of University College elders when they were caught graffitiing university property, and didn't seem to take it too personally when they petitioned for his early retirement.

He retired in 1959 and a new era of architectural training was ushered in with the arrival of his successor, Richard Llewelyn-Davies, the next academic year.

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Would you have guessed that these Bartlett School of Architecture exam papers were published 114 years apart? 

UCL Records hold exam papers for the whole College dating back over a hundred years, providing a fascinating insight into past curricula. Some serve to show just how little the syllabus has really changed over the years!

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Department of Town Planning - 1939 Public Lectures

Courtesy of UCL Records

What were the pressing issues facing town planners in the late 1930s? This poster advertising the Department of Town Planning's Lecture series in 1939 gives us some clues. It seems that regeneration, less euphemistically named 'Slum Clearance' here, was, as it is now, an important point of discussion. 

Interestingly, the Slum Clearance lecture is given here by Maitland Radford, a practising doctor and Medical Officer of Health for St. Pancras. In the 1930s housing and urban regeneration was still considered a question of public health, and a medical doctor would have been a natural choice of speaker at such events. Nowadays Dr Radford seems rather out of place on a bill alongside architects and planners. 

Another speaker, Geoffrey Jellicoe, was a renowned landscape architect and designer of the brilliant Motopia. Unfortunately a letter I found suggests Jellicoe had to cancel his lecture due to a bout of influenza!

Courtesy of UCL Records

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Courtesy of UCL Records

As George Osborne announces plans for a new Garden City in Ebbsfleet, here's another UCL Records gem from The Garden Cities & Town Planning Association in 1941. 

F.J Osborn was Secretary to the GCTPA, and was an early champion of the New Towns movement. This letter, addressed to Professor Patrick Abercrombie from the Department of Planning at UCL, regards the creation of a school of planning in Welwyn Garden City. 

What could Abercrombie have said about Eric Gill to prompt such vitriol from Osborn? Also interesting to note is the fact that Raymond Unwin is still listed as Vice-President at the top of the page despite having died 6 months earlier. Time to print some new letterheads, perhaps. 

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A letter from Raymond Unwin

Courtesy of UCL Records

Rifling through Bartlett correspondence in UCL Records produced some famous names in the architecture and planning world, one particularly exciting find was this hand-written letter from Raymond Unwin to Sir Allen Mawer, Provost of UCL between 1930-1942. 

Unwin was a prominent town planner and engineer, known for his plans for Hampstead Garden Suburb and his promotion of quality housing for working class people. In 1914, the year the Department of Town Planning (now The Bartlett School of Planning) was created at UCL, Unwin ran a planning Summer School with J.S. Rathbone.

Thanks to Unwin's scrawling hand the contents remain a mystery, if any readers are adept at deciphering handwriting, please get in touch!

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Douie vs. Claughton

I found this amusing series of letters in a collection of pre-war Bartlett correspondence in UCL Records, between Charles Douie, the then secretary to UCL and H. Claughton, an unknown.

They concern the temporary relocation of the Atelier (5th year Architecture studio) to Malet Place, but in amongst the serious business of organising planning permission these two appear to have taken the time to have a friendly squabble. 

(courtesy of UCL Records)

While trying to find out some more about the dry wit that was Charles Douie, I came across this pencil sketch in the UCL Art Museum, along with one of his wife. It seems he was enough of a University College institution to earn his own portrait. 

Charles G. Douie, secretary to University College by Allan Gwynne-Jones (courtesy of UCL Art Museum, University College London)

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More war-time correspondence

(courtesy of UCL Records)

Here is another interesting war-time artefact. This letter from F.H Carr, an academic at UCL, to E. Tanner, Secretary to UCL makes reference to Sir Patrick Abercrombie, then Head of the Department of Town Planning. 

'Dear Mr. Tanner,

Thank you for your letter dated 31st July which I received yesterday.

I should have very much liked to have accepted the offer of the University College Committee, but unfortunately I am not likely to return from India within the next year.

I do not know whether the College or Sir Patrick Abercrombie could obtain my early release.

If this is not possible, perhaps an opportunity would arise for a similar appointment next year.

Yours very truly,

F. H Carr'

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The Bartlett History Project Interviews - late 1960s-1970s group

From left: Martin Cook, John Melvin, Robin Nicholson

On Thursday we heard from Martin and Robin, who studied Architecture in the late 1960s and 70s, and John, who studied at the Department of Planning in 1965. 

Bartlett students were, it seems, a rebellious bunch! We heard all about mischievous 'redecoration' schemes and student take-overs, along with the rather more genteel environment that was Planning at its former home in Flaxman Terrace. 

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The Bartlett History Project Interviews - 1960s group

From left: Chris Blow, Robert Shaw, Chris Stone, Graham Clarke, Michel La Rue

This week was the turn of our 1960s alumni, who saw the faculty shift from the Beaux-Arts teaching model to a radical new emphasis on technology and construction brought in by Richard Llewelyn-Davies. 

They told us all about being a student in swinging London, being taught by the likes of Reyner Banham and Buckminster Fuller and being the guinea pigs for a mysterious psychologist called Jane Abercrombie. 

Stay tuned for a teaser behind-the-scenes video!

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Ethel & Bessie Charles

Thomas Leverton Donaldson, the first secretary of RIBA and UCL’s first Professor of Architecture declared his aim “To uphold ourselves the character of Architects as men of taste, men of science, men of honour.” (Lynne Walker- Golden Age or False Dawn? Women Architects in the Early 20th century) This announcement betrays Donaldson’s vision of the heroic and, importantly, masculine, figure of the Architect, an attitude that would see the first 50 years of architecture teaching at UCL remain a completely male field.

 Charles sisters entry card (courtesy of UCL Records)

Ethel Mary Charles and her sister Bessie Ada, who began at The Bartlett in 1892, were the first women to study architecture at University College, and the first female members of RIBA. The sisters were barred from entering the Architectural Association (AA) but were allowed to audit the courses at The Bartlett, without officially enrolling.

Ethel and Bessie practised together, but found themselves with few opportunities. Women architects seemed forced into a ‘domestic ghetto’, wherein they were resigned to leave the bombastic and lucrative public designs to the men, and deemed the appropriate architects of quiet, domestic buildings. 

RIBA has a collection of some of Ethel's plans and sketches for Labourer's cottages, designed in an Old English style and in keeping with an Arts and Crafts style. 

You can see them here: http://www.architecture.com/LibraryDrawingsAndPhotographs/OnlineWorkshops/DrawingOutMeaning/13EthelMaryCharles.aspx#.UwIGeUJ_vWE

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The Bartlett History Project Interviews - 1950s group

From left: Mike Sutcliffe, Bill Ungless, Mary Calwell (Webber), Mike Finbow, Alison Curtis (Fennell), Norman Franklin

A key part of this project has been the fantastic written responses from The Bartlett's alumni network. 

We decided it would be a great idea for them to expand on their stories, so we invited our contributors along to be interviewed on camera, to create a series of short films and a longer documentary. 

Last Wednesday was our first day of shooting, with a group of alumni from the 1950s. We began by filming Mike Finbow, Mary and Alison in the old Bartlett building, now the Pearson, where the alumni guided us round their old studio spaces and lecture hall.

After meeting up with the rest of the group, we made our way to the Master's Room at the Art Worker's Guild, and spent a fascinating couple of hours discussing everything from the idiosyncrasies of the teaching staff to the chimpanzees in the old Eugenics department next door. 

Next week we'll be interviewing alumni from the 1960s and 70s, who'll be able to give us a very different perspective on life at The Bartlett after a radical shift in the teaching culture from Beaux-Arts to a focus on environmental studies, planning and psychology. 

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The Bartlett decamps

(courtesy of UCL Records)

In 1939 University College London was forced to evacuate its students to the University of Wales in Aberystwyth, with the School of Architecture and Department of Town Planning moving to St. Catharine's College Cambridge soon after. This letter, dated 8th September 1939, shows how quickly the evacuation procedures were put into place after the outbreak of war.

We’re lucky enough to have had three alumni from this period contact us, including Beryl Trevor-Roberts (née Couch), who sent in a class photo taken outside St. Catharine’s in 1939. Beryl started at The Bartlett in 1939, and was immediately evacuated to Cambridge, where she studied alongside Cambridge Architects in Scroop Terrace under Sir Albert Richardson and Professor Corfiato. 

'By the end of the third year the students had mostly been called up but I was young enough to be able to stay at the college as a student and remained so until the end of the war.  Near the end of the war I fire watched on the roof of the Fitzwilliam Museum. 

 I was given the Donaldson medal in 1944 without ceremony by Professor Corfiato in Scroop Terrace as everyone else had been called up.'

- Beryl Trevor-Roberts

(courtesy of Beryl Trevor-Roberts)

Another alumna, Julia Spence, describes her time studying at Cambridge:

'We shared the premises Scroop Terrace with the Cambridge School of Architecture. This was unconverted 2 or possibly 3 terrace houses, stripped of furnishing and only trestle tables in the studios (so called) and chairs in the ground floor large room which served as a lecture theatre. I remember it as bare, dusty and ‘gloomy’.

We shared lecturers, for Maths a professor Kessleman from the Engineering School next door – so advanced it was hard to understand. His explanation for a difficult question was ‘But this is a fundamental notion’.

For Latin a very elderly professor who believed that Latin was not a dead language and should be spoken. This he proceeded to do, accompanied by physical actions. The lectures on ‘Structures’ were given by our tutor from the Bartlett, Stuart Stanley, who loved making risky puns and embarrassing the female students.'

- Julia Spence

The effect of the war on UCL continued long after the students returned. A search for 'bomb damage' on the UCL Special Collection's Digital Images database shows the extent of the destruction in Bloomsbury, and conversations with alumni from the 1950s and 60s reveal that the temporary buildings erected in the aftermath were still around many years later.