Sam Scorer
| Sam Scorer | |
|---|---|
| Born |
2 March 1923 Lincoln |
| Died |
6 March 2003 Lincoln |
| Alma mater | Corpus Christi College, Cambridge and the Architectural Association |
| Occupation | Architect |
| Practice | Scorer and Bright and Partners |
| Buildings | Markham Moor Little Chef |
| Design | Hyperbolic paraboloids |
Hugh Segar "Sam" Scorer FRSA (2 March 1923 - 6 March 2003) was an architect from Lincolnshire.
Early life
He was brought up in Lincoln, one of five children. His father was a senior partner in a firm of solicitors, and later became clerk to Lindsey County Council. His mother was a lecturer at Bishop Grosseteste College, a teacher training college. He went to the independent Repton School in south Derbyshire, where he became Head Boy, and excelled at drawing.
He read Mechanical Sciences at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge in 1941, and enjoyed painting as well. He volunteered for the Fleet Air Arm and met his wife in Canada, when training to be a pilot. He served as a fighter pilot until 1945, but was invalided out of service, having attempted to land on a moving carrier in the Baltic Sea.
Combining his interest in artwork and mechanical design, he decided to become an architect. He entered the Architectural Association School of Architecture (AA) in the second year in 1946, and graduated in 1949. He changed his name by statutory declaration to Sam.
Career
He worked for a year as assistant to George Grey Wornum. In 1950, he began work for Denis Clarke Hall (son of Edna Clarke Hall). Clarke Hall designed two Lincolnshire schools in the early 1950s. His consultancy firm, Denis Clarke Hall, Scorer and Bright and Partners, based on Lindum Terrace in Lincoln, began in 1954. They did a lot of work for county council buildings (new schools).
He designed these schools:
- William Farr School (1952)
- Riddings Comprehensive School, Scunthorpe (1958)
He was the Chairman of the RIBA East Midlands planning committee. He was the first Chairman of the East Midlands Group of The Victorian Society. In 2000 he founded The Gallery, now known as the Sam Scorer Gallery in Lincoln.
Hyperbolic paraboloid structures
These structures were built with the engineer Dr K. Hajnal-Kónyi:
- In 1962 he designed the St John the Baptist church in Ermine, Lincoln. Its aluminium roof is the shape of a hyperbolic paraboloid, and the building has a hexagonal floor plan and concrete walls. It is a Grade II* listed building.[1]
- This same type of design was used for a petrol station (became a Little Chef restaurant in 1989 but now disused) at Markham Moor on the south-bound A1/A57 near Retford in the late 1950s.[2] The shell canopy was designated Grade II listed on 27 March 2012.[3]
- On Lincoln's Brayford Pool a building, currently housing a Nando's, Prezzo and Handmade Burger Co. restaurants, that he designed in 1959 was originally a car showroom for the Lincolnshire Motor Company and then the music library for Lincolnshire County Council. The building was listed in August 2000 by Alan Howarth.[4]
Personal life
He married Anna Humphrey in 1943. They had a son and a daughter (who died in April 1986). He lived on Gibraltar Hill in Lincoln.
He died in Lincoln County Hospital in March 2003, aged 80.
Notes
- ↑ http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1388800
- ↑ Martin Wainwright Preservation bid for innovative 1950s motorway cafe, The Guardian, 5 January 2004. Retrieved 2011-12-11.
- ↑ "The National Heritage List for England | English Heritage". List.english-heritage.org.uk. 2012-03-27. Retrieved 2012-05-08.
- ↑ http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1392689
References
- Times Obituary, April 9, 2003, page 30
External links
- Sam Scorer Gallery
- His death in Architects Journal
- Sam Scorer; A lesser known architect of the twentieth century; Karolina Szynalska (2010)
- Flickr group of his buildings
- Blog description of several buildings, including Damon's restaurant