Charles Voysey (architect)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Charles Francis Annesley Voysey
Personal information
Name Charles Francis Annesley Voysey
Nationality English
Birth date 1857
Birth place Yorkshire, England
Date of death 1941
Place of death Winchester, England
Work
Significant buildings Broad Leys, Windermere (Cumbria)
Norney Grange (Surrey)
Significant design designer of textiles and furniture
Awards and prizes RIBA Gold Medal, 1940

Charles Francis Annesley Voysey (1857 - 1941), an English architect and furniture designer, was one of the first people to understand and appreciate the significance of industrial design. He is particularly noted for his design of English cottages, the designs of which were heavily influenced by the ideas of Herbert Tudor Buckland (1869 - 1951).

Contents

[edit] Early career

Born in Yorkshire in 1857, he studied with J.P. Seddon until 1874, studied for a year under George Devey, and established his own practice in 1882. By 1894 he practiced from Melina Place, St John's Wood, London, next door to Edward Schroeder Prior, resulting in the development of a long term friendship and exchange of ideas between the two men. Voysey's early work was as a designer of wallpapers, fabrics and furnishings in a simple Arts and Crafts style but he is renowned as the architect of a number of notable country houses.

[edit] Architectural work

His houses featured white rough rendered walls with horizontal ribbon windows and huge pitched roofs, and are recognised for their simplicity, originality and total abandonment of historical tradition. His style and works are considered formative works in the evolution of the Modern Movement in architecture - although Voysey himself abhorred the idea, having a strong dislike of "modern" architecture, and especially of its use in England.

Examples of his completed architectural works are: Perrycroft, Colwall, Herefordshire 1893; Annesley Lodge, Hampstead, London, 1896; Merlshanger, Hog's Back, Guildford, 1896; Norney, Shackleford, 1897; Spade House, Sandgate, Kent (the home of the writer H.G.Wells); The Pastures, North Luffenham, Rutland 1903; The Orchard, Chorleywood, 1900, which he designed for himself.

There are several examples of Voysey's design near Bowness-on-Windermere, Cumbria, with roughcast walls and massive rendered stacks on sweeping slate roofs. Broad Leys was Voysey's masterpiece according to Pevsner. It is now the headquarters of the Windermere Motor Boat Club, and featured in the film 'The French Lieutenant's Woman'.

Voysey received the RIBA Royal Gold Medal in 1940, and died in Winchester in 1941.

[edit] Legacy

Although Voysey was influenced by the work of William Morris, the Arts and Crafts Movement and Art Nouveau, he was concerned with form and function rather than ornamental complexities. His furniture designs were simple and functional, and only sparingly decorated. He particularly advocated that wood should be left with its natural finish, contrary to the popular techniques which covered wood with paint and stain. He eschewed the complexities identified with late Victorian design.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links


 This English biographical article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
Languages