HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Richard Alfred Hardwick Livett (1898–1959), known as R.A.H. Livett, was an
architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
and pioneer of
modernist Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...
social housing Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the details, terminology, d ...
.


Early life

Livett was born at 59 Sistova Road,
Balham Balham () is an area in south London, England, mostly within the London Borough of Wandsworth with small parts within the neighbouring London Borough of Lambeth. The area has been settled since Saxon times and appears in the Domesday Book as ...
, London in early 1898, the only son of
undertaker A funeral director, also known as an undertaker (British English) or mortician (American English), is a professional involved in the business of funeral rites. These tasks often entail the embalming and burial or cremation of the dead, as ...
and valuer Harry Clayton Livett (1863–1936) and his wife Ada Hardwick, who had married in
Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city anc ...
in 1893. He trained as an architect at the
Architectural Association The Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, commonly referred to as the AA, is the oldest independent school of architecture in the UK and one of the most prestigious and competitive in the world. Its wide-ranging programme ...
in London before working for a number of private firms; for while, he was employed as an assistant by Paul and Michael Waterhouse. He later served as Chief Housing Assistant to TC Howitt in Nottingham. In June 1928 he married Violet Lauretta Victoria Bennett (1900–82) in Barnet, London. They had at two children, David Buteux Livett (1929–2003) and Jill H Livett (b.1933).


Career

In around 1930 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 City of Salford, Salford to ...
and became Deputy Housing Director to Leonard Heywood. Here he designed the initial part of
Wythenshawe Wythenshawe () is a district of the city of Manchester, England. Historically in Cheshire, Wythenshawe was transferred in 1931 to the City of Manchester, which had begun building a massive housing estate there in the 1920s. With an area of approx ...
, the
Dewsbury Dewsbury is a minster and market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It lies on the River Calder and on an arm of the Calder and Hebble Navigation waterway. It is to the west of Wakefield, east of Hudder ...
Estate and Manchester's first major post-war housing block, the modernist Kennet House in
Cheetham Cheetham may refer to: People * Cheetham (surname) Places * Cheetham and Altona Important Bird Area, Melbourne, Australia * Cheetham Close, a megalith and scheduled ancient monument located in Lancashire, very close to the boundary with Greater ...
(1933–1935). Since demolished, the flat-roofed block was nicknamed the "ocean liner". It consisted of 181 flats and was built at a cost of £83,000. In February 1934 he was appointed, by the incoming Labour administration, as Housing Director for
Leeds Leeds () is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the thi ...
; his annual salary began at £700 and eventually rose to £1,000. His selection for the post may have been assisted by the Revd Charles Jenkinson who remarked rthat “When we obtained Mr Livett’s services we struck oil”. Jenkinson (1887–1949), was Leeds’s innovative chairman of the Housing Committee from 1933 to 1936. Both men were keen to provide high-density housing for the working classes and travelled Europe looking for designs to emulate. In 1934 Livett designed the
Quarry Hill Estate A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their envi ...
(demolished in 1978), modelled on the
Karl Marx Hof Karl may refer to: People * Karl (given name), including a list of people and characters with the name * Karl der Große, commonly known in English as Charlemagne * Karl Marx, German philosopher and political writer * Karl of Austria, last Austr ...
in
Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...
. This major estate, built at a cost of over £500,000, consisted of six to eight storey blocks housing 938 flats over 29 acres. Like its European precursors, it contained communal open ground and amenities including a nursery, shops and a day centre. It was built using the French Mopin concrete building method used on the
Cité de la Muette Drancy internment camp was an assembly and detention camp for confining Jews who were later deported to the extermination camps during the German occupation of France during World War II. Originally conceived and built as a modernist urban com ...
at
Drancy Drancy () is a commune in the northeastern suburbs of Paris in the Seine-Saint-Denis department in northern France. It is located 10.8 km (6.7 mi) from the center of Paris. History Toponymy The name Drancy comes from Medieval Lat ...
. Livett's flats had lifts, and utilised the
Garchey The Garchey System was an early refuse disposal system in the United Kingdom. Devised by Louis Garchey, a Frenchman, it was first installed in blocks of flats in France during the 1930s.
sink A sink is a bowl-shaped plumbing fixture for washing hands, dishwashing, and other purposes. Sinks have a tap (faucet) that supply hot and cold water and may include a spray feature to be used for faster rinsing. They also include a drain ...
-based waste disposal system. His department often used innovative forms of concrete construction, some of which he invented and patented. In 1936 he appointed
George Clark Robb George may refer to: People * George (given name) * George (surname) * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Washington, First President of the United States * George W. Bush, 43rd Presiden ...
(1903–80), from
Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
Council, as his Senior Architectural Assistant. Robb designed housing, and
Shaftesbury House Greenhouse is an eight-storey, mixed-use block of eco-flats in Beeston, Leeds. The building took its present form in 2010, after renovation of a 1938 development, Shaftesbury House. As Shaftesbury House, the building was noted for its technologic ...
(1936), a hostel for over 300 men and 100 women in Beeston, now remodelled by
Citu CITU may stand for: * Cebu Institute of Technology – University, educational institution in the Philippines * Centre for Islamic Thought and Understanding (CITU), academic centre for Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia * The Centre of Indian T ...
as the Green House. Another architect who worked for Livett was
C W Brown C, or c, is the third letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''cee'' (pronounced ), plural ''cees''. History "C ...
who designed the Bronte House women's hostel. Levitt was also responsible for the Gipton Estate (1934–1935), containing almost 3,500 dwellings. He also designed the
Halton Moor Estate Halton may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Borough of Halton, Cheshire ** Halton (UK Parliament constituency) ** Halton, Runcorn * Halton, Buckinghamshire ** RAF Halton * Halton, Lancashire * Halton, Leeds * Halton, Northumberland * Halt ...
, more traditional council housing, in February 1938. Other housing developments completed before the war include the Sandford House Estate and Sweet Street, a development of 366 flats. March Lane, a development of over 11 acres, was suspended on the outbreak of war. After the war, in January 1948, Livett was appointed Leeds's City Architect. He remodelled York Road Library (1949) alongside the Civic Theatre (1949). In 1953 he designed Skelton Grange Power Station, and in the following year the Central Ambulance Station in Leeds. He designed several schools including Halton Moor Primary School (1948), Parklands / Seacroft Primary School (1950) and Allerton Grange Secondary Modern School in Talbot Avenue (1955). Towards the end of his career, he designed the College of Technology, Art and Commerce (1956) and the Temple Moore Grammar School (1957) in conjunction with Yorke, Rosenburg & Mardall. In 1939 work began on the Saxton Gardens development, but it was delayed by the war. Construction started again in 1954 with a slab block modelled on Le Corbusier's Unité d'Habitation in Marseilles. The development contained 471 flats in blocks of five to ten storeys. Despite a view that many of Leeds citizens favoured houses over flats, Livett "insisted that the multi-storey block was the only way forward if the cities serious housing policies were to be met."''Family Britain 1951-7'', by
David Kynaston David Thomas Anthony Kynaston (; born 30 July 1951 in Aldershot) is an English historian specialising in the social history of England. Early life and education Kynaston was educated at Wellington College, Berkshire and New College, Oxford, f ...
His Ireland Wood housing estate was awarded a Ministry Housing medal in 1949. By the late 1950s, Livett was designing 10 storey point blocks at Clayton Court (1958) and 8 storey blocks at Carlton Towers in the Camp Road redevelopment (1959). He was awarded an OBE for his wartime work in Leeds. On 20 September 1959 he died suddenly in Leeds aged 61. His acting replacement was Deputy City Architect PB Haswell, and thereafter J.R. Sheridan-Shedden was appointed City Architect in 1959.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Livett, R. A. H. Architects from London 1898 births 1959 deaths People from Balham Officers of the Order of the British Empire Leeds Blue Plaques