The Other Architects Who Made London: Building Applications in Richmond 1886 -1939.” between Architecture and Engineering

Abstract

Successive house building booms from the late 19th century until the Second World War shaped London’s built environment decisively. In terms of the sheer size of area covered, the dispersed, suburban London of terraced, semi- and detached houses that we know today was to a large extent created then, and much of it was built speculatively - by private firms for an assumed demand. Despite this legacy, the questions of who those involved in the design were and how they did it is an under-researched topic surrounded by assumptions that are often difficult to substantiate. Speculative housing of the period has long been regarded as an example of vernacular architecture, made by craftsmen using standard templates, so-called pattern books, without architect’s or otherwise professional involvement. The idea – in its extreme, ‘ultra’ form - is that designers were hardly necessary, as builders could simply copy house designs found in popular books and build from these. This idea of house building without architects or designers is also reflected in some of the literature but has been questioned more recently in academic research. This paper will discuss the key occupations involved in the design and planning of speculative housing 1880s – 1939 through a survey of Building Applications for Richmond. These can only be understood in the context of its working world where boundaries between building and design roles were often less specialized than today. The evidence suggests that housing design was not as standardised as it appears, by simply reusing templates, but that much of it was in fact designed, usually for a number of dwellings at a time - by builders, architects and also by other professionals. These were the other ‘architects’ who made the London we know today.