No CrossRef data available.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 April 2016
In the early years of the Second World War, Leslie Martin complied a photographic album to record the architectural work done in partnership with his wife Sadie Speight since 1934. It amounted to ‘quite a lot’, he wrote to Ben Nicholson. Thirty years later, Martin — by now Professor of Architecture at Cambridge and Head of the Land Use and Built Form Studies Centre — was to dismiss his pre-war work as ‘really insignificant in scale’. Martin’s own book, Buildings and Ideas, 1933–83, contains a highly selective account of this early period. This partial view has been further obscured by the persistent misdating and misidentification of the practice’s two most substantial pre-war houses — Brackenfell in Cumberland and Four Acres, North Ferriby, near Hull — in the literature of the Modern Movement in Britain. Of the two, Brackenfell is of particular interest, as the house of Alastair Morton, design director of a textile firm and novice painter. Martin’s own brief comments and the volume of drawings which survive for Brackenfell suggest that this was an important commission for Martin and Speight, and one which precipitated a significant shift in their approach to architecture. However, our inadequate knowledge of the work of the partnership means that the house has so far eluded full analysis. This article proposes to disconnect the evidence of this building from Martin’s subsequent career and architectural theories, and to view it instead in the context of its period. Using Brackenfell as its focus, the article aims to clarify Martin and Speight’s evolution as designers, and to probe the significance of their association with a distinguished group of artists during the late 1930s.
1 Undated letter (c. 1941) from Leslie Martin to Ben Nicholson, Tate Gallery Archive, 8717.1.2.2841 (hereafter TGA). Fragments of the album are among the Martin papers and drawings in the RIBA British Architectural Library Drawings and Archives and Collections at the Victoria and Albert Museum (hereafter BAL/V&A).
2 ‘Leslie Martin on the bridges between the cultures’, RIBA Journal (August 1973), p. 381.
3 [Leslie] Martin, J. L., Buildings and Ideas 1933–83 from the Studio of Leslie Martin and his Associates (Cambridge, 1983)Google Scholar. Trevor Dannatt’s essay, ‘Early Years: Towards a New Order’, in Architecture, Education and Research: The Work of Sir Leslie Martin: Papers and Selected Articles, ed. Peter Carolin and Trevor Dannatt (London, 1996), provides the single most useful commentary on the inter-war period, to which I am much indebted.
4 Pevsner, Nikolaus, Buildings of England: Cumberland and Westmorland (Harmondsworth, 1980), p. 77 Google Scholar, dates Brackenfell to 1936; Calvocoressi, Richard, Alastair Morton and Edinburgh Weavers: Abstract Art and Textile Design, 1935–46 (Edinburgh, 1978), p. 14 Google Scholar, and Powers, Alan, Modern: The Modern Movement in Britain (London and New York, 2005), pp. 178–79 Google Scholar, date it to 1936–37. Jeremy Gould’s ‘Gazetteer of Modern Houses’, in The Modern House Revisited, Twentieth Century Architecture, 2 (1996), dates Brackenfell correctly, but mistakenly connects an article about Four Acres of 1938–40 with the Zerny house, Swanland, of 1935–37.
Until Martin’s drawings and papers have been fully catalogued and a secure documentation established of a considerable number of projects, built and unbuilt, assessment of Martin and Speight’s work during the 1930s remains difficult.
5 ‘Opus 14’ (present whereabouts unknown, 1939). See Calvocoressi, Alastair Morton, pp. 6 and 23. For Morton as painter, see Alistair Morton 1910–1963 (London, 2006).
6 Gabo, N. [Naum], ‘The Constructive Idea in Art’, Circle: International Survey of Constructive Art, ed. Martin, J. L., Nicholson, Ben and Gabo, N. (London, 1937), p. 7.Google Scholar
7 Christina Lodder defines Russian constructivism as ‘an approach to working with materials, within a certain conception of their potential as active participants in the process of social and political transformation’ (Russian Constructivism (New Haven and London, 1983), p. 1).
8 See Stephens, Chris, ‘Ben Nicholson: Modernism, Craft and the English Vernacular’, The Geographies of Englishness: Landscape and the National Past, ed. Corbett, David Peters, Holt, Ysanne and Russell, Fiona (New Haven and London, 2003)Google Scholar; and Lewison, Jeremy, ‘Ben Nicholson: Between Art and Craft’, Obscure Objects of Desire: Reviewing the Crafts in the Twentieth Century (Crafts Council, 1997).Google Scholar
9 Collins, Judith, ‘Banks Head – A Painter’s Place’, A Painter’s Place: Banks Head Cumberland 1924–31 (Kendal, 1991), p. 5.Google Scholar
10 Ibid.
11 Nicholson, Jake, ‘What Does An Artist Look for in a Painting Place?’, A Painter’s Place, p. 10.Google Scholar
12 Nicholson, Winifred, Unknown Colour: Paintings, Letters, Writings by Winifred Nicholson (London, 1987), p. 44.Google Scholar
13 See No. 16 in A Painter’s Place for Ben Nicholson’s model of a traditionally built Cumberland stone cottage.
14 Chris Stephens has stimulatingly examined the re-evaluation of traditional rural crafts and artefacts in the 1920s and points out the way in which pre-industrial artefacts came to be associated with qualities of spirituality and vitality. According to writers like Herbert Read, the vitality of native traditions of pottery-making and domestic ware in England derived from their rootedness in place, together with their maker’s close relationship to his materials. See Stephens, ‘Ben Nicholson: Modernism, Craft and the English Vernacular’, pp. 225–47.
15 Alastair Morton’s grandfather, Alexander Morton, had founded a textile weaving firm which produced silks, lace and woollen textiles in Scotland and the north of England. Thanks to the technical acumen of Alexander’s son, James, the firm introduced a range of innovative colour-fast furnishing fabrics in 1914; sold as Morton Sundour Fabrics, they brought prosperity to the firm. See Morton, James, Three Generations in a Family Textile Firm (London, 1971).Google Scholar
16 See Savage, Peter, Larimer and the Edinburgh Craft Designers (Edinburgh, 1980), pp. 120 and 132 Google Scholar. Lorimer also designed an unexecuted house for James Morton in Brampton (ibid., p. 117).
17 See Calvocoressi, Alastair Morton, p. 8.
18 See Havinden, Michael, Hollis, Richard, Simpson, Ann and Strang, Alice, Advertising and the Artist: Ashley Havinden (Edinburgh, 2003)Google Scholar.
19 Speech given at launch of Edinburgh Weavers new range of fabrics, October 1937, repr. Calvocoressi, Alastair Morton, pp. 35–36.
20 Advertisement in Architectural Review (October 1937), Decoration suppplement, p. xxvii. It was available either in an all-white version, or with coloured stripes.
21 Jake Nicholson describes the design process in ‘Ben Nicholson’s fabrics’, The Nicholsons: A Story of Four People and Their Designs (York City Art Gallery, 1988), p. 37. Lewison points out Morton’s key role: ‘By varying the weave and the textures Morton achieved what he considered to be equivalents for the changes in plane in Nicholson’s paintings and reliefs’ (Lewison, ‘Ben Nicholson: Between Art and Craft’, p. 199).
Ben Nicholson acknowledged in 1978 that Morton should take joint credit for the fabric designs for Edinburgh Weavers. See letter quoted: Calvocoressi, Alastair Morton, p. 11.
22 These included a cow byre for Banks Head farm and the extension for her brother Wilfred Roberts, at Banks House, Brampton, discussed below. Drawings for both are in BAL/V&A.
Interestingly, Kit Nicholson, Ben’s architect brother who had worked for Winifred’s family in the early 1930s, was dropped in favour of Martin.
23 ‘We lived in white houses with large windows, we ate simple foods — the fruits of the earth. We wore sandals and ran barefoot along the boulevards. We talked in the cafés of the new vision, the new scale of music, the new architecture — unnecessary things were to be done away with and art was to be functional.’ (Nicholson, Unknown Colour, p. 105). While living in Paris, Winifred was sustained by the friendship and stimulus of Hans Arp, Sophie Taeuber and Piet Mondrian.
24 A new sort of marital relationship (a triangular one which included Barbara Hepworth) was apparently proposed by Ben, but was not favoured by Winifred. See Jeremy Lewison, Ben Nicholson (London, 1993) p. 37.
25 Dannatti, , ‘Early Years’, p. 23.Google Scholar
26 Morton, , Three Generations, p. 407.Google Scholar
27 Interview with Martin quoted in Henderson, Judith, ‘How Far Does Brackenfell Represent the Modern Movement?’ (unpublished Open University dissertation, 1975), p. 3.Google Scholar
28 ‘Houses, 3: Martin and Speight’, Architectural Review (July 1939), p. 14.
29 Martin, J. L. and Speight, Sadie, The Flat Book (London, 1939).Google Scholar
30 Martin, Leslie, ‘Notes on a Developing Culture’, Architectural Review (July 1978), p. 11.Google Scholar
31 ‘Leslie Martin on the Bridges Between the Cultures’, RIBA Journal (August 1973), p. 381. Trevor Dannatt and Roger Stonehouse have pointed out in letters to the author the importance of both traditions in Martin’s early work.
32 Among Martin’s photographs in the RIBA Photograph Collection, Box 0047, is an envelope labelled ‘Paris’, containing negatives of the Pavilion Suisse of 1929–30, the Salvation Army building of 1933, and the Planeix house of 1928. In Martin’s ‘Notes on a Developing Culture’, pp. 11 and 15, he mentioned the Errazuriz house in Chile, built in local materials of stone and timber, illustrated in Yorke’s, F. R. S. The Modern House (London, 1934).Google Scholar
33 ‘Extension to Banks House Scheme A’, drawings dated June 1937 in PA 0083/3, BAL/V&A; Cumbria Record Office, Carlisle.
34 Martin, , Buildings and Ideas, pp. 6–7.Google Scholar
35 Martin and Speight’s first executed house (designed in 1935–37 with Jack Napper for Max Zerny) built on a level site in a new road in Swanland, near Hull, was also of brick but externally rendered and painted white. Designs are in PA 0083/2, BAL/V&A.
36 See Dannatt, , ‘Early Years’, p. 23.Google Scholar
37 Undated plan and sketch elevation. They correspond to layout plans labelled ‘Scheme 1’, PA 0083/3, BAL/V&A.
38 Undated plans labelled H14, and sketch perspective of south elevation. They correspond to layout plans labelled ‘Scheme 2’, BAL/V&A.
39 Undated sketch plan and two perspectives, annotated with notes of arrival times at Carlisle and of a meeting, BAL/V&A.
40 Henderson, ‘How Far Does Brackenfell Represent the Modern Movement?’, p. 10.
41 In an album containing photographs of his subsequent house, Stanegarth, Morton labelled the study window the ‘painting window’. Photograph album, collection of Alison Morton.
42 Nicholson, , Unknown Colour, p. 44.Google Scholar
43 See Pevsner, , Cumberland, pp. 74–77 Google Scholar, and Kirk, Sheila, Philip Webb, Pioneer of Arts and Crafts Architecture (Chichester, 2005), pp. 221–24 and 261–63.Google Scholar
44 Morton’s daughter Jos Tilson recalls Breuer long chairs, Aalto stools, and more traditional pieces made by Simpson’s of Kendal. Interview with the author, February 2005.
45 According to Henderson, some fabrics in the house were the work of Paul [sic] [i.e. Paule] Marrot, a French textile designer, ‘depicting flowers and butterflies’ (‘How far does Brackenfell Represent the Modern Movement?’, p. 7).
46 Henderson, ‘How Far Does Brackenfell Represent the Modern Movement?’, pp. 7–8, based on information from Jocelyn Morton (Alastair’s brother) and from a memoir of Brackenfell by Flavia Morton (Alastair’s first wife) written for Jocelyn Morton, c. 1975, Morton of Darvel papers, National Archives of Scotland, GD 326/158/1/9.
47 Ibid.
48 The magazine published only four photographs of the interior. Morton’s art collection included a water colour of c. 1920 by Fernand Léger; Ben Nicholson’s ‘George and Rufus’ of 1938, a gouache of St Ives of the early 1930s, and a painted relief of 1939; Mondrian’s ‘Composition’ of 1932–36; and two drawings by Barbara Hepworth. See Calvocoressi, Alastair Morton, pp. 13 and 23.
49 Photographs and negatives from Martin’s collection show the studio and the reception rooms apparently just complete and in a sparsely furnished state. RIBA Library Photograph Collection, Box 0047.
50 Martin, J. L., ‘Architecture and the Painter with Special Reference to the Work of Ben Nicholson’, Focus, 2 (1939), pp. 60–65 Google Scholar. Ben Nicholson was interested in shaping and customizing his own environment, and that of his friends. Herbert Read recalled an episode which occurred when he and his second wife took possession of 3 The Mall Studios: ‘we had just moved into the studio and freshly decorated it, woodwork pale blue, walls white, Ben Nicholson came in to see the result. “Wait a minute” he said, and retired, coming back a few minutes later with a round cork table-mat which he had painted scarlet. He seized a ladder and nailed the scarlet disc high up on the white wall. The whole place was transformed by this accent of colour, perfectly placed.’ (Herbert Read, ‘A nest of gentle artists’, Art in Britain 1930–40 centred around Axis Circle Unit One (London, 1965), p. 7).
51 Architectural Review (1939), p. 14.
52 Dannatt, , ‘Early Years’, p. 22.Google Scholar
53 Dacre, W., ‘Unknown Colour’, Circle, p. 60.Google Scholar
54 Cyril Reddihough to Ben Nicholson, 8 April [1939], TGA 8717.1.2.3869. Reddihough, a friend and patron of Nicholson, had recently built a house called Solway at Ilkley, where he claimed that Nicholson advised him on the interior colour scheme.
55 ‘Living Art in England and other contributions’, London Bulletin, nos 8–9 (January-February 1939). Intriguingly, the same Mondrian painting, ‘Composition’ (1932–36), acquired by Morton around 1937, was photographed around this time hanging on the wall of Winifred Nicholson’s Banks Head kitchen where, together with her own Mondrian, it functioned as the tutelary deity of the domestic hearth (repr. in Unknown Colour, p. 203).
56 Ben Nicholson to Leslie Martin, letter of 19 May [1936], Circle papers, BAL/V&A. He was referring to the Stather wallpaper showroom in Hull designed by Martin and Speight in 1936.
57 The plan of Brackenfell, with its service rooms arranged along the north side of the house and the living rooms along the south, was reworked and simplified at Four Acres. See ‘Two Country Houses’, Architectural Review (May 1941), pp. 106–08; ‘House at North Ferriby Yorkshire’, Architects’ Journal, 31 July 1941, pp. 77–78.
58 This phrase is borrowed from Muthesius, Stefan (The English Terraced House (New Haven and London, 1990), p. 257).Google Scholar
59 Letters from Leslie Martin to Ben Nicholson, n.d., TGA 8717.1.2.2847, and Ben Nicholson to Alastair Morton, 17 October 1939, TGA 8722. According to Trevor Dannatt, although Martin designed the Swiss house, it was not built to his plans because Vogler and Nicholson failed to understand it.
60 See Corbett, Val, A Rhythm, a Rite and a Ceremony: Helen Sutherland at Cockley Moor 1939–1965 (Penrith, 1996).Google Scholar
61 Ede, Jim in Kettle’s Yard: An Illustrated Guide (Cambridge, 1991), n.p.Google Scholar