Peter Bicknell
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Peter Bicknell (16 June 1907 – 31 May 1995) was a British architect, author, exhibition curator and mountaineer. He practised as an architect in
Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...
with H. C. Hughes as Hughes and Bicknell, including commissions for the
University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...
and its colleges, notably Fen Court at
Peterhouse Peterhouse is the oldest Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England, founded in 1284 by Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely. Peterhouse has around 300 undergraduate and 175 graduate stud ...
(1939) and an extension to the
Scott Polar Research Institute The Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI) is a centre for research into the polar regions and glaciology worldwide. It is a sub-department of the Department of Geography in the University of Cambridge, located on Lensfield Road in the south ...
(1968), as well as commercial buildings and private houses. His designs were predominantly
Modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...
in style. He lectured in architecture and
art history Art history is the study of Work of art, artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Tradit ...
at the Cambridge
School of Architecture This is a list of architecture schools at colleges and universities around the world. An architecture school (also known as a school of architecture or college of architecture), is a professional school or institution specializing in architectura ...
, and was a fellow of
Downing College Downing College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge and currently has around 950 students. Founded in 1800, it was the only college to be added to the university between 1596 and 1869, ...
. In the 1980s, after retiring from his architectural practice, Bicknell curated art history exhibitions at the
Fitzwilliam Museum The Fitzwilliam Museum is the art and antiquities University museum, museum of the University of Cambridge. It is located on Trumpington Street opposite Fitzwilliam Street in central Cambridge. It was founded in 1816 under the will of Richard ...
in Cambridge and elsewhere. As a mountaineer, he is remembered for his 1932 traverse of the Cuillin Ridge on
Skye The Isle of Skye, or simply Skye, is the largest and northernmost of the major islands in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The island's peninsulas radiate from a mountainous hub dominated by the Cuillin, the rocky slopes of which provide some o ...
in just over 8 hours. His books include ''British Hills and Mountains'' (1947) and ''Picturesque Scenery of the Lake District 1752–1855'' (1990).


Early life and education

Peter Bicknell was born on 16 June 1907 in Rowland Gills, County Durham, to Phillis (née Lovibond; 1877–1957) and Raymond Bicknell (1875–1927). His father was the director of Newcastle Breweries and a noted amateur mountaineer. He had an older sister and two younger brothers. He attended
Oundle School Oundle School is a public school (United Kingdom), public school (English Private schools in the United Kingdom, fee-charging boarding school, boarding and day school) for pupils 11–18 situated in the market town of Oundle in Northamptonshire ...
, Northamptonshire, and then read architecture at
Jesus College, Cambridge Jesus College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Jesus College was established in 1496 on the site of the twelfth-century Benedictine nunnery of St Radegund's Priory, Cambridge, St ...
from 1926.


Hughes and Bicknell architectural practice

Bicknell returned to Cambridge in 1935 to practise as an architect as the junior partner of
Henry Castree Hughes Henry Castree Hughes (29 May 1893 – 1 January 1976), known as H. C. Hughes or Hugh Hughes, was a British architect and conservationist. He spent his entire career in Cambridge, where he practised architecture from 1923, latterly as Hughes and B ...
(1893–1976). Many of Hughes and Bicknell's commissions were in Cambridge, including projects for the university and colleges, commercial buildingsBradley & Pevsner, pp. 35, 319 and private houses. Their works were mainly
Modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...
in style, which was unusual in Cambridge before the Second World War. Notable examples include Fen Court,
Peterhouse Peterhouse is the oldest Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England, founded in 1284 by Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely. Peterhouse has around 300 undergraduate and 175 graduate stud ...
(1939), described in its grade II listing as "the only pre-war Cambridge college accommodation building in the International Modern style and the forerunner to other college buildings constructed at both Oxford and Cambridge after the war"; as well as an extension to the
Scott Polar Research Institute The Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI) is a centre for research into the polar regions and glaciology worldwide. It is a sub-department of the Department of Geography in the University of Cambridge, located on Lensfield Road in the south ...
(1968). Commercial buildings include Essex House on
Regent Street Regent Street is a major shopping street in the West End of London. It is named after George IV of the United Kingdom, George, the Prince Regent (later George IV) and was laid out under the direction of the architect John Nash (architect), J ...
(1936) and 31–39 Fitzroy Street (1959–60).Bradley & Pevsner, p. 323 On a smaller scale, the house Bicknell designed for himself and his wife on Newton Road is described by Janet Adam Smith as a "small masterpiece" with a "cunning design" integrating the garden with the building to make it appear to be located in the countryside. Other projects within the county include works for the Dean and Chapter of
Ely Cathedral Ely Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Ely, is an Church of England, Anglican cathedral in the city of Ely, Cambridgeshire, England. The cathedral can trace its origin to the abbey founded in Ely in 67 ...
and for The King's School in Ely. Hughes and Bicknell was also employed as executant architects for the American Cemetery, near
Madingley Madingley is a small village near Cambridge, England. It is located close to the nearby villages of Coton and Dry Drayton on the western outskirts of Cambridge. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 Census was 210. The village was k ...
. Further afield, their commissions include projects for the Wildfowl Trust at
Slimbridge Slimbridge is a village and civil parish near Dursley in Gloucestershire, England. It is best known as the home of the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust's Slimbridge Reserve which was started by Sir Peter Scott. Canal and Patch Bridge The Glou ...
, Gloucestershire, including building Scott House (mid-1950s) for the conservationist
Peter Scott Sir Peter Markham Scott (14 September 1909 – 29 August 1989) was a British ornithologist, conservation movement, conservationist, painter, naval officer, broadcaster and Sportsperson, sportsman. The only child of Antarctic explorer Robert Fal ...
, a friend of Bicknell's, which Bicknell also extended in around 1977 with an observation tower. Other Hughes and Bicknell projects outside Cambridgeshire include a cricket pavilion at
Oundle School Oundle School is a public school (United Kingdom), public school (English Private schools in the United Kingdom, fee-charging boarding school, boarding and day school) for pupils 11–18 situated in the market town of Oundle in Northamptonshire ...
, Northamptonshire, and a housing estate at
Hilgay Hilgay is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The civil parish also includes the hamlet of Ten Mile Bank. Hilgay is located south of Downham Market and west of Norwich, close to the course of the River Wissey and Riv ...
, Norfolk. Bicknell also built a house in Brigsteer in the
Lake District The Lake District, also known as ''the Lakes'' or ''Lakeland'', is a mountainous region and National parks of the United Kingdom, national park in Cumbria, North West England. It is famous for its landscape, including its lakes, coast, and mou ...
for his sister Ellen.


Academia

Bicknell was an academic at the
University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...
's
School of Architecture This is a list of architecture schools at colleges and universities around the world. An architecture school (also known as a school of architecture or college of architecture), is a professional school or institution specializing in architectura ...
, where he lectured in architecture and art history, and also served as secretary to the Faculty of Fine Arts.
Andrew Saint Andrew John Saint (born November 1946) is an English architectural historian. Saint worked as the architectural editor of the Survey of London (1974–86) and as a historian for Historic England (then known as English Heritage) 1986–95, before ...
describes him as "one of the school's stalwart local practitioner–teachers" and, with David Roberts, as "the backbone of the post-war generation of teachers". He was knowledgeable about architectural history, following studies with Edward Prior and
Geoffrey Webb Geoffrey Fairbank Webb CBE (9 May 1898 – 17 July 1970) was a British art historian, Slade Professor of Fine Art and head of the Monuments and Fine Arts section of the Allied Control Commission during World War II. Early life Webb was born in ...
, and studied contemporary and historical architectural styles in Britain and elsewhere. He was a fellow of
Downing College Downing College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge and currently has around 950 students. Founded in 1800, it was the only college to be added to the university between 1596 and 1869, ...
.


Exhibitions

In 1981, around the time of his retirement from architectural practice, Bicknell curated an exhibition at the
Fitzwilliam Museum The Fitzwilliam Museum is the art and antiquities University museum, museum of the University of Cambridge. It is located on Trumpington Street opposite Fitzwilliam Street in central Cambridge. It was founded in 1816 under the will of Richard ...
in Cambridge, and wrote its catalogue. Entitled "Beauty, Horror and Immensity – Picturesque Landscape in Britain 1750–1850", the exhibition focused on the
Lake District The Lake District, also known as ''the Lakes'' or ''Lakeland'', is a mountainous region and National parks of the United Kingdom, national park in Cumbria, North West England. It is famous for its landscape, including its lakes, coast, and mou ...
. The nucleus of the exhibition was Bicknell's extensive personal collection of 18th- and 19th-century guidebooks and artworks on the Lakes – described by the art historian
John Gage John Burdette Gage (born October 9, 1942) is a retired computer scientist and technology executive. He was the 5th employee of Sun Microsystems, where he is credited with creating the phrase '' The Network is the Computer''. He served as Sun's ...
as "exceptionally fine" – which he had just donated to King's College. In a review for ''
Burlington Magazine ''The Burlington Magazine'' is a monthly publication that covers the fine and decorative arts of all periods. Established in 1903, it is the longest running art journal in the English language. It has been published by a charitable organisation si ...
'', Gage appreciates the inclusion of such unusual items as a
Claude glass A Claude glass (or black mirror) is a small mirror, slightly wikt:convex, convex in shape, with its surface tinted a dark colour. Bound up like a pocket-book or in a carrying case, Claude glasses were used by artists, travelers and connoisseurs of ...
, headed hotel notepaper and a children's game, and praises the "instructive" placement of initial sketches together with the final print. The success of this venture led to what his ''
Times Time is the continued sequence of existence and events, and a fundamental quantity of measuring systems. Time or times may also refer to: Temporal measurement * Time in physics, defined by its measurement * Time standard, civil time specificat ...
'' obituary describes as a "rewarding second career" in museum and bibliographic work, relating to his passion for depictions of mountain landscapes in art. Several further art history exhibitions followed during the 1980s, at the Fitzwilliam and at Grasmere in the Lake District, in collaboration with Robert Woof and Jane Munro. He also co-organised an exhibition of books and artworks for the
Alpine Club Alpine clubs are typically large social clubs that revolve around climbing, hiking, and other outdoor activities. Many alpine clubs also take on aspects typically reserved for local sport associations, providing education and training courses, se ...
(1981). He edited the ''Illustrated Wordsworth Guide'' (1984) and compiled the bibliography ''Picturesque Scenery of the Lake District 1752–1855'' (1990), which established itself as a definitive reference. He served as a trustee of the
Wordsworth Trust The Wordsworth Trust is an independent charity in the United Kingdom. It celebrates the life of the poet William Wordsworth, and looks after Dove Cottage in the Lake District village of Grasmere where Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy Wordswor ...
, which maintains
Dove Cottage Dove Cottage is a house on the edge of Grasmere in the Lake District of England. It is best known as the home of the poet William Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy Wordsworth from December 1799 to May 1808, where they spent over eight years of ...
, the Grasmere home of
Dorothy Dorothy may refer to: *Dorothy (given name), a list of people with that name. Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Dorothy'' (TV series), 1979 American TV series * Dorothy Mills, a 2008 French movie, sometimes titled simply ''Dorot ...
and
William Wordsworth William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poetry, Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romanticism, Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication ''Lyrical Balla ...
.


Mountaineering

Bicknell followed his father as an amateur mountaineer, with his first experiences coming on family holidays in the Alps from 1924. In 1927, he was one of a four-man climbing expedition in the French Alps led by his father, during which Raymond Bicknell died in a fall. The
Alpine Club Alpine clubs are typically large social clubs that revolve around climbing, hiking, and other outdoor activities. Many alpine clubs also take on aspects typically reserved for local sport associations, providing education and training courses, se ...
account of the accident praised Peter Bicknell's skill and bravery. This terrible experience failed to put him off mountaineering, and he continued to participate in climbing expeditions in the Alps until 1955, often with his younger brother Claud. As a mountaineer, he is best known for his 1932 complete traverse of the Cuillin Ridge on
Skye The Isle of Skye, or simply Skye, is the largest and northernmost of the major islands in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The island's peninsulas radiate from a mountainous hub dominated by the Cuillin, the rocky slopes of which provide some o ...
in under 12 hours (gaining the main ridge record of 8 hours 1 minute), beating the time of the first single-day traverse by Leslie Shadbolt and Alastair C. McLaren in 1911; he was accompanied for part of the climb by the physiologist,
Alan Hodgkin Sir Alan Lloyd Hodgkin (5 February 1914 – 20 December 1998) was an English physiology, physiologist and biophysics, biophysicist who shared the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Andrew Huxley and John Eccles (neurophysiologist) ...
. Bicknell contributed the book ''British Hills and Mountains'' (1947) to Collins' Britain in Pictures series, with his own illustrations in pen-and-ink and watercolours. He served as president of the
Climbers' Club The Climbers' Club is the senior rock-climbing club in England and Wales (outside the Lake District). The club was founded in 1898. The CC one of the largest publishers of climbing guidebooks in many of the main climbing areas of England and Wale ...
in 1951–54.


Personal life

In 1936, Bicknell married Mari Scott Henderson (1914–2003), a ballet dancer who had performed with
Sadler's Wells Ballet The Royal Ballet is a British internationally renowned classical ballet company, based at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, England. The largest of the five major ballet companies in Great Britain, the Royal Ballet was founded in ...
. Mari Bicknell founded a ballet school in Cambridge. The couple had four children, a son and three daughters. In the 1930s, Bicknell occupied a flat above Essex House on Regent Street, designed and built by Hughes and Bicknell. For forty years from around 1939, the family lived at Finella – a prominent house on
the Backs The Backs is a picturesque area to the east of Queen's Road in the city of Cambridge, England, where several colleges of the University of Cambridge back on to the River Cam with their grounds covering both banks of the river. In 2013, Nationa ...
that had been remodelled by
Raymond McGrath Raymond McGrath (7 March 1903 – 23 December 1977) was an Australian-born architect, illustrator, printmaker and interior designer who for the greater part of his career was Principal Architect for the Office of Public Works in Ireland.Nich ...
and split into two by Hughes and Bicknell – and later at a house designed by Bicknell on Newton Road. In addition to collecting books and artworks (see above), he amassed a fine collection of
lustreware Lustreware or lusterware (the respective spellings for British English and American English) is a type of pottery or porcelain with a metallic glaze that gives the effect of iridescence. It is produced by metallic oxides in an Ceramic glaze, over ...
. In May 1995, Peter Bicknell fell ill while visiting his eldest daughter Caroline in France; he died in hospital at
Avignon Avignon (, , ; or , ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of southeastern France. Located on the left bank of the river Rhône, the Communes of France, commune had a ...
on 31 May 1995.


References

Source *Simon Bradley,
Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (195 ...
. ''Cambridgeshire'' (''
The Buildings of England ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...
'' series) (Yale University Press; 2014)


External links


Hughes and Bicknell buildings
– photographs at Cambridge 2000 {{DEFAULTSORT:Bicknell, Peter 1907 births 1995 deaths People from Rowlands Gill People educated at Oundle School Alumni of Jesus College, Cambridge Fellows of Downing College, Cambridge Modernist architects from England 20th-century English architects English art historians 20th-century English non-fiction writers 20th-century English male writers English bibliographers English architecture writers English mountain climbers