Sir Raymond Unwin (2 November 1863 – 29 June 1940) was a prominent and influential English engineer, architect and town planner, with an emphasis on improvements in working class housing.
Early years
Raymond Unwin was born in
Rotherham
Rotherham () is a large minster and market town in South Yorkshire, England. The town takes its name from the River Rother which then merges with the River Don. The River Don then flows through the town centre. It is the main settlement of ...
, Yorkshire and grew up in
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
, after his father sold up his business and moved there to study. He was educated at
Magdalen College School, Oxford
Magdalen College School (MCS) is a public school (English independent day school) in Oxford, England, for boys aged seven to eighteen and for girls in the sixth form. It was founded by William Waynflete about 1480 as part of Magdalen College ...
. In 1884 he become an apprentice engineer for Stavely Iron & Coal Company near Chesterfield.
Unwin had become interested in social issues at an early age and was inspired by the lectures and ideals of
John Ruskin
John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English writer, philosopher, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and pol ...
and
William Morris
William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He w ...
. In 1885 he moved to
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...
and became secretary of Morris's local Socialist League. He wrote articles for the League's newspaper and spoke on street corners for its cause and for the
Labour Church The Labour Church was an organization intended to give expression to the religion of the labour movement. It had a Christian socialist outlook, specifically called theological socialism.
History
The first Labour Church was founded at Manchester in ...
. He also became a close friend of the socialist philosopher Edward Carpenter, whose
Utopia
A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book '' Utopia'', describing a fictional island soc ...
n community ideas led to his developing a small commune at Millthorpe near
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire ...
.
In 1887 he returned to Staveley Iron as an engineer, working on development of mining townships and various other buildings, and joined the
Sheffield Socialist Society
The Sheffield Socialist Society was an early revolutionary socialist organisation in Sheffield, England.
The Society was founded in 1886 on the initiative of Edward Carpenter.Edward Carpenter, My Days and Dream' Carpenter was influenced by Henry ...
.
In 1893 he married Ethel Parker and formed an architectural partnership with her brother, Richard Barry Parker in
Buxton
Buxton is a spa town in the Borough of High Peak, Derbyshire, England. It is England's highest market town, sited at some above sea level.Edgar Wood (1860–1935) the leading
Arts and Crafts
A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated re ...
architect in the North of England and a founding member of the group.
Planning career
In their various writings, including their book ''The Art of Building a Home'' (1901), Parker and Unwin aimed to popularise the Arts and Crafts Movement, and as a result of their success thousands of homes were built on their pattern in the early part of the 20th century.
A notable example of one of their earliest collaborations at Clayton, Staffordshire, is dated to 1899, and was originally called the Goodfellow House after the man who commissioned it. Parker and Unwin were involved in designing many of the interior fittings, which remain in the house to this day, and the initial layout of the large gardens. Goodfellow sold the house in 1926 to Colley Shorter who ran the nearby pottery works of Wilkinson's and Newport. He renamed it Chetwynd House and when he married his star designer Clarice Cliff in 1940, she moved into the house and lived there until 1972. It is her association that has made the house particularly famous since.
In 1902 Parker and Unwin were asked to design a model village at
New Earswick
New Earswick is a model village and civil parish in the unitary authority of City of York in North Yorkshire, England, near the River Foss, north of York and south of Haxby. According to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 2,812, redu ...
near
York
York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...
for
Joseph
Joseph is a common male given name, derived from the Hebrew Yosef (יוֹסֵף). "Joseph" is used, along with "Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the m ...
and Benjamin Seebohm Rowntree, and the following year they were given the opportunity to take part in the creation of Letchworth (loosely based on the Utopian plan of Ebenezer Howard), when the First Garden City Company asked them to submit a plan.
In 1903 they were involved with the "Cottages Near a Town Exhibit" for the Northern Art Workers Guild of Manchester. In 1904 after their plan was adopted they opened a second office at Baldock. In 1905
Henrietta Barnett
Dame Henrietta Octavia Weston Barnett, DBE (''née'' Rowland; 4 May 1851 – 10 June 1936) was an English social reformer, educationist, and author. She and her husband, Samuel Augustus Barnett, founded the first "University Settlement" at To ...
asked them to plan the new garden suburb at
Hampstead
Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the London Borough o ...
, now known as
Hampstead Garden Suburb
Hampstead Garden Suburb is an elevated suburb of London, north of Hampstead, west of Highgate and east of Golders Green. It is known for its intellectual, liberal, artistic, musical and literary associations. It is an example of early twentie ...
.
Unwin moved from Letchworth to Hampstead in 1906, and lived there for the rest of his life at the farmstead Wyldes Farm.
In 1907, Ealing Tenants Limited, a progressive cooperative in west London, appointed him to take forward the development of Brentham garden suburb.
Unwin joined the
Local Government Board
The Local Government Board (LGB) was a British Government supervisory body overseeing local administration in England and Wales from 1871 to 1919.
The LGB was created by the Local Government Board Act 1871 (C. 70) and took over the public health a ...
in December 1914. In 1915 he was seconded to the
Ministry of Munitions
The Minister of Munitions was a British government position created during the First World War to oversee and co-ordinate the production and distribution of munitions for the war effort. The position was created in response to the Shell Crisis ...
Eastriggs
Eastriggs is a small village located in Dumfries and Galloway in the south of Scotland, the village is located around north of the mud and sandbanks of the channel of the River Eden, which extends west into the Solway Firth.
Travelling by roa ...
and supervise others. From 1917 he had an influential role at the Tudor Walters Committee on working-class housing whose report was published in 1919, the year in which he was appointed Chief Architect to the newly formed Ministry of Health. That post had evolved into the Chief Technical Officer for Housing and Town Planning by the time of his retirement in November 1928.
His demonstration during the
Great War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
of the principles of building homes rapidly and economically whilst maintaining satisfactory standards for gardens, family privacy and internal spaces, gave him great influence over the Tudor Walters Committee and hence, indirectly, over much inter-war public housing. This report marked Unwin's definitive break from the traditional 'garden city' concept, as it proposed that the new developments should be peripheral 'satellites' rather than fully-fledged garden cities. Unwin became technical adviser to the Greater London Regional Planning Committee in 1929 and largely wrote its two reports, the first published in that year and the second in 1933.
Unwin was President of the
Royal Town Planning Institute
The Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) is the professional body representing planners in the United Kingdom, and Ireland. It promotes and develops policy affecting planning and the built environment. Founded in 1914, the institute was gra ...
(RTPI) from 1915 to 1916, President of the
Royal Institute of British Architects
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three supp ...
(RIBA) from 1931 to 1933, was knighted in 1932 and consulted by United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt on the
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Con ...
in 1933. In 1936 he was appointed visiting Professor of Town Planning at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
and in 1937 he received the
RIBA
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three supp ...
Royal Gold Medal for architecture. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by
Norwegian Institute of Technology
The Norwegian Institute of Technology ( Norwegian: ''Norges tekniske høgskole'', NTH) was a science institute in Trondheim, Norway. It was established in 1910, and existed as an independent technical university for 58 years, after which it was ...
in 1935 and by
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...
in 1937.
Death and legacy
Raymond Unwin died at Lyme, Connecticut at the home of his daughter on 29 June 1940. His great-great-grandson has unveiled multiple roundabouts in his memory, one of which is in Siddington, Gloucestershire