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 university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
with
H. C. Hughes as Hughes and Bicknell, including commissions for the
University of Cambridge
, mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts.
Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge.
, established =
, other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
and its colleges, notably Fen Court at
Peterhouse (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 o ...
(1968), as well as commercial buildings and private houses. His designs were predominantly
Modernist in style. He lectured in
architecture
Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...
and
art history
Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today ...
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 an institution specializing in architectural education.
Africa
...
, and was a fellow of
Downing College.
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 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 FitzWilliam, 7th Vis ...
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 (; gd, An t-Eilean Sgitheanach or ; sco, Isle o 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 b ...
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
County Durham ( ), officially simply Durham,UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. is a ceremonial county in North East England.North East Assembly �About North East E ...
,
to Phillis (née Lovibond; 1877–1957) and Raymond Bicknell (1875–1927). His father was the director of
Newcastle Breweries
Scottish & Newcastle plc was a brewing company headquartered in Edinburgh, Scotland, which expanded from its home base to become an international business with beer volumes growing almost tenfold.
The company was listed on the London Stock Ex ...
and a noted amateur mountaineer. He had an older sister and two younger brothers.
He attended
Oundle School,
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by
two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...
, and then read architecture at
Jesus College, Cambridge
Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's full name is The College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist and the glorious Virgin Saint Radegund, near Cambridge. Its common name comes fr ...
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 buildings
[Bradley & Pevsner, pp. 35, 319] and private houses.
Their works were mainly
Modernist in style, which was unusual in Cambridge before the Second World War.
Notable examples include Fen Court,
Peterhouse (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 o ...
(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, the Prince Regent (later George IV) and was laid out under the direction of the architect John Nash and James Burton. It runs from Waterloo Place ...
(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, is an Anglican cathedral in the city of Ely, Cambridgeshire, England.
The cathedral has its origins in AD 672 when St Etheldreda built an abbey church. The presen ...
and for
King's School in
Ely Ely or ELY may refer to:
Places Ireland
* Éile, a medieval kingdom commonly anglicised Ely
* Ely Place, Dublin, a street
United Kingdom
* Ely, Cambridgeshire, a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, England
** Ely Cathedral
Ely Cathedral, formal ...
.
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 kno ...
.
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 WWT Slimbridge, Slimbridge Reserve which was started by Sir Peter Scott.
Canal and Patch Bridg ...
,
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean.
The county town is the city of Gl ...
,
including building Scott House (mid-1950s) for the conservationist
Peter Scott, 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,
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by
two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...
,
and a housing estate at
Hilgay
Hilgay is a village and civil parish in Norfolk, England, from Downham Market.
It covers an area of and had a population of 1,341 at the 2011 Census.
For local government purposes, it falls within the district of King's Lynn and West Norfolk. ...
,
Norfolk
Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...
.
Bicknell also built a house in
Brigsteer
Brigsteer is a village in Cumbria, England.
On 1 August 2016 it was included in the Lake District National Park.
Politics
In 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, Brigsteer became part of the South Lakeland district, the administrative ...
in the
Lake District
The Lake District, also known as the Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous for its lakes, forests, and mountains (or ''fells''), and its associations with William Wordswor ...
for his sister Ellen.
Academia
Bicknell was an academic at the
University of Cambridge
, mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts.
Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge.
, established =
, other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
'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 an institution specializing in architectural education.
Africa
...
, 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 and Professor at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College, London.
Saint worked as the architectural editor of the Survey of London (1974–86) and then a ...
describes him as "one of the school's stalwart local practitioner–teachers" and, with
David Roberts David or Dave Roberts may refer to:
Arts and literature
* David Roberts (painter) (1796–1864), Scottish painter
* David Roberts (art collector), Scottish contemporary art collector
* David Roberts (novelist), English editor and mystery writer ...
, 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.
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 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 FitzWilliam, 7th Vis ...
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 in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous for its lakes, forests, and mountains (or ''fells''), and its associations with William Wordswor ...
.
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 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 sin ...
'', Gage appreciates the inclusion of such unusual items as a
Claude glass, 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'' 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 (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 Wordswort ...
, which maintains
Dove Cottage, the Grasmere home of
Dorothy
Dorothy may refer to:
*Dorothy (given name), a list of people with that name.
Arts and entertainment
Characters
*Dorothy Gale, protagonist of ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' by L. Frank Baum
* Ace (''Doctor Who'') or Dorothy, a character playe ...
and
William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication ''Lyrical Ballads'' (1798).
Wordsworth's ' ...
.
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 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 (; gd, An t-Eilean Sgitheanach or ; sco, Isle o 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 b ...
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.
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.
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, their grounds covering both banks of the river.
National Trust chairm ...
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 (respectively the spellings for British English and American English) is a type of pottery or porcelain with a Metal, metallic glaze that gives the effect of iridescence. It is produced by metallic Oxide, oxides in an Cer ...
.
In May 1995, Peter Bicknell fell ill while visiting his eldest daughter Caroline in France; he died in hospital at
Avignon
Avignon (, ; ; oc, Avinhon, label=Provençal dialect, Provençal or , ; la, Avenio) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Vaucluse Departments of France, department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region of So ...
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'' (1 ...
. ''Cambridgeshire'' (''
The Buildings of England'' 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