Edwin Lutyens - imaginative architect who made his own memorial
Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens was a leading late-Victorian and early-20th century British architect, known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era.
He designed many English country houses, but was also behind many significant public buildings, including memorials following the First World War.
Lutyens has been referred to as "the greatest British architect” and his significance includes playing an instrumental role in designing and building a section of the metropolis of Delhi, known as New Delhi, which would later on serve as the seat of the colonial Government of India.
He was born in London in 1869 and grew up in Thursley, Surrey. He was named after a friend of his father's, the painter and sculptor, Edwin Landseer. For many years he worked from offices in Bloomsbury Square, London. He studied architecture at South Kensington School of Art.
He began his own practice in 1888, his first commission being a private house at Crooksbury, Farnham, Surrey. During this work, he met the garden designer and horticulturalist Gertrude Jekyll. In 1896 he began work on a house for Jekyll at Munstead Wood, Godalming, Surrey. It was the beginning of a fruitful professional partnership that would define the look of many Lutyens country houses. This combined style of the formal with the informal, exemplified by brick paths, softened by billowing herbaceous borders was a pioneering alternative to the very formal bedding schemes favoured by the earlier Victorian era.
Lutyens' fame grew largely through the popularity of the new lifestyle magazine Country Life created by Edward Hudson, which featured many of his house designs. Hudson was a great admirer of Lutyens' style and commissioned Lutyens for a number of projects, including Lindisfarne Castle and the Country Life headquarters building in London, at 8 Tavistock Street.
Initially, his designs all followed the Arts and Crafts style, but in the early 1900s his work became more classical. His commissions ranged from private houses to two churches for the new Hampstead Garden Suburb in London, to Julius Drewe's Castle Drogo near Drewsteignton in Devon, the imposing Midland Bank headquarters in Manchester (pictured) and on to his contributions to India's new imperial capital New Delhi.
Before the end of World War I, he was appointed one of three principal architects for the Imperial War Graves Commission and was involved with the creation of many monuments to commemorate the dead. The best known of these is probably the Cenotaph in Whitehall, Westminster. The design took less than six hours to complete. Many local war memorials (such as the one at All Saints', Northampton) are Lutyens designs — based on the Cenotaph. He also designed the War Memorial Gardens in Dublin and the Tower Hill memorial. Lutyens also refurbished Lindisfarne Castle for its wealthy owner.
He designed a number of hotels where it is possible to still stay and enjoy his design, and a number of other commercial buildings he designed have subsequently been converted into accommodation. He was knighted in 1918, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy in 1921. In 1924, he was appointed a member of the newly created Royal Fine Art Commission, a position he held until his death in 1944.
Further reading
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