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A Monument to Humanism: Pilkington Brothers’ Headquarters (1955–65) by Fry, Drew and Partners

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 January 2016

Jessica Holland  and
Iain Jackson
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Extract

The architect Maxwell Fry (1899–1987) is widely recognized as one of the key protagonists in the development of Modernist architecture in Britain. Discussion of this role perhaps inevitably tends to focus on Fry's early involvement in the Modern Architectural Research (MARS) Group and his inter-war work, particularly his prestigious partnership with the Bauhaus-founder Walter Gropius. Post-war, emphasis shifts to Fry's advancement of ‘Tropical Architecture’ in former British colonies with his wife and partner, the architect Jane Drew (1911–96). Despite a string of important commissions on home soil, their post-war work in Britain has been sidelined due to a historical narrative focused on the rise of ‘New Brutalism’. This article contributes to a reassessment of Fry, Drew and Partners’ work in 1950s and 1960s Britain. It uses the Pilkington Brothers’ Headquarters (1955–65) in St Helens as a case study to examine post-war industrial patronage and how this affected the architectural approach of the project's lead designer, Maxwell Fry. In particular, it investigates his background in civic design at Charles Reilly's Liverpool School of Architecture. Furthermore, it examines Fry's reassessment of pre-war Modernist theory and practice during the mid-1950s and his response to the younger generation of MARS members, such as the Smithsons and Denys Lasdun.

Type
Research Article
Information
Architectural History , Volume 56 , 2013 , pp. 343 - 386
Copyright
Copyright © Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain. 2013

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References

Notes

1 See, inter alia, Darling, Elizabeth, Re-forming Britain: Narratives of Modernity Before Reconstruction (London, 2007)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Powers, Alan, Britain: Modern Architectures in History (London, 2007).Google Scholar

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22 PEP was founded in 1931 and many of Fry's friends were members, including Elizabeth Denby, Jack Pritchard, Leonard Elmhirst, Ben Nicholson, Henry Moore and Ove Arup.

23 Fry, , Autobiographical Sketches, p. 165.Google Scholar

24 Fry, , ‘Humanism: Testament for a Future’, p. 5.Google Scholar

25 London, RIBA, Fry & Drew Papers, F&D/18/14, Letter Maxwell Fry, Accra, to Jane Drew, Chandigarh, 23 May 1954.

26 Huxley, Julian, ‘The Goal of Fulfilment’, The Sunday Times, 7 September 1958.Google Scholar

27 St Helens, Pilkington Brothers Archives (PBA), PB547/2 Press Release Papers, ‘Pilkington Brothers Limited. St Helens, Lancashire. New Head Office Project’, Press Information Booklet, 1964.

28 Victoria, McPherson Library, University of Victoria (UVic), Herbert Read Papers, Letter Maxwell Fry to Herbert Read, 9 October 1955.

29 For a full account of Pilkington Brothers’ history, see Barker, T. C., The Glassmakers, Pilkington: 1826–1976 (London, 1977).Google Scholar

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31 Ibid., p. 395.

32 Doncaster was the site of Pilkington's new plate glass works, established after World War One and fully operational by the end of 1922. See Barker, , The Glassmakers, p. 264.Google Scholar

33 Barbara Penny, ‘Pilkington Brothers’ Garden Village Ventures: The End of the Garden City/Suburb Movement’ (Working Paper, Liverpool University Department of Civic Design, 1976), p. 7.

34 Ibid., pp. 9, 12, 14.

35 Ibid., p. 5.

36 Ibid., p. 20.

37 See, for example, Swenarton, Mark, Homes Fit For Heroes: The Politics and Architecture of Early State Housing in Britain (London, 1981).Google Scholar

38 Penny, ‘Pilkington Brothers’ Garden Village Ventures', pp. 3-5.

39 For detailed discussion of Pilkington Brothers’ inter-war patronage of architecture and design, see Holder, Julian, ‘Reflecting Change: Pilkington as a Patron of Modern Architecture and Design’, Twentieth Century Society Journal, 1 (1994), pp. 67–76 (p. 70).Google Scholar

40 Ibid.

41 Hector Whistler, Edward Carter Preston, Richard Sheppard and Raymond McGrath were also employed by the department: Ibid., p. 71.

42 London, RIBA, Oliver Hill Papers, HiO/79/1, ‘Boudoir with walls, floor and furniture entirely of glass. Designed by Oliver Hill’ (typescript issued to the architectural press, undated).

43 Pollitzer created a brilliant-cut figure to the rear wall of Hill's bedroom exhibit. Holder, ‘Reflecting Change’, p. 71.

44 Rowse's building extended the existing Neo-Georgian offices (1924) by Sir Arnold Thornley; other existing buildings were demolished before construction of Rowse's horseshoe-plan extension. The Grove Street offices are now Grade II listed and converted into flats and business units.

45 Rowse's design may be seen as a precursor to his Royal Philharmonic Hall in Liverpool (1939).

46 St Helens, PBA, Executive Committee: Minutes of Meetings, March 1936-September 1938, ‘Office Plans. 2nd December 1936’.

47 Barker, , The Glassmakers, p. 408 Google Scholar. ‘[V]ery remarkable growth in productivity even after the declining value of money over the period (about five-fold) is taken into account’, as Barker notes.

48 The number of Pilkington employees abroad rose from under 1,000 in 1946 to over 6,000 twenty years later. Ibid.

49 St Helens, PBA, PB702 2/8 Group Executive: Prescot Road Site Development 27.10.54-25.2.66 (PB702 2/8 Site Development), ‘Head Office and Research Development Plans. 15th June 1955’.

50 St Helens, PBA, PB702 2/8 Site Development, ‘P.B. Development Proposals. Notes of Meeting at Town Hall on 9th December, 1954’.

51 St Helens, PBA, PB702 2/8 Site Development, ‘Head Office and Research Development Plans. 15th June 1955’.

52 Ibid.

53 For discussion of commercial buildings in this period, see, for example, Bullock, Nicholas, Building the Post- war World: Modern Architecture and Reconstruction in Britain (London, 2002), pp. 252–60.Google Scholar

54 Although the latter two were unbuilt during Gardner-Medwin's scheme development of 1953-55. Liverpool, Special Collections & Archives, University of Liverpool (UoL), Robert Gardner-Medwin Papers, D688/4/2/7, Pilkington Brothers Limited: The New Head Office (St Helens, 1965), p. 6.Google Scholar

55 London, RIBA, Fry and Drew Papers, F&D/18/15, Letter Maxwell Fry to Jane Drew. Although undated, Fry's letter was sent during Drew's first period in Iran and therefore must have been written between late August and early October 1955. Fry wrote: ‘I am on my way back from Pilkingtons and the whole job agreed with the directors and a very pleasant lot.’

56 Victoria, UVic, Herbert Read Papers, Letter Maxwell Fry to Herbert Read, 9 October 1955.

57 Thorp, J. P., ‘R.A Exhibition of British Art in Industry’, Architects’ Journal, 81 (10 January 1935), pp. 45–48 (p.45).Google Scholar

58 Pilkington Brothers also commissioned designs by Raymond McGrath and Oliver Bernard, see ‘Design for Rebuilding the Crystal Palace’, The Builder, 152 (4 June 1937), pp. 1166–67.Google Scholar

59 For an image of Fry's scheme, see ‘Mums', ‘Diary of an Architect’, The Builder, 157 (21 July 1939), pp. 96–97 (p. 96).Google Scholar

60 London, RIBA, Fry and Drew Papers, F&D/12/1, Letter Alan Hudson-Davies to Maxwell Fry, 2 April 1943.

61 London, RIBA, Fry and Drew Papers, F&D/12/7, ‘Alan Meredyth Hudson-Davies. Address by Sir James Mountford. Formerly Vice Chancellor of the University of Liverpool at a Service of Thanksgiving in the Anglican Cathedral, Liverpool’.

62 Maxwell Fry, E., ‘The Aesthetics of University Buildings’, Higher Education Quarterly, 18 (1964), pp. 341–51 (p. 344).Google Scholar

63 For further discussion of the Civil Engineering Building, see Jackson, , ‘Post-War Modernism’, pp. 694–98.Google Scholar

64 Liverpool, UoL, Civil Engineering Building Sub-Committee, S167, E. Maxwell Fry, ‘Engineering Building Committee’, 31 May 1958.

65 Minutes of this meeting form the first entry of the folder PB702 2/8 Committee Minutes; the earlier briefing of which Fry refers in 1955 is not documented. See n. 55.

66 Member of Pilkington Board of Directors cit. in Smith, Ron, ‘Pilkingtons say “We stay here” and build. A modern palace to work in’, Evening Post and Chronicle, 29 July 1964.Google Scholar

67 Liverpool, UoL, Robert Gardner-Medwin Papers, D688/4/2/7, Pilkington Brothers Limited, p. 7.

68 St Helens, PBA, PB702 2/8 Committee Minutes, ‘Minutes of a Meeting held in Mr. D.V. Phelps’s Office at 2.30 p.m. on 14th August, 1956’.

69 St Helens, PBA, PB 157 Notes on History of Prescot Road Site, Untitled typescript, undated.

70 Maxwell Fry, E., Fine Building (London, 1944), p. 12.Google Scholar

71 Read, Herbert, The Grass Roots of Art (London, 1955), p. 13.Google Scholar

72 Victoria, UVic, Herbert Read Papers, Letter Maxwell Fry to Herbert Read, 9 October 1955.

73 The memo was circulated amongst the committee and retains handwritten notes by the members, including a notable ‘Oh no!’ next to Fry's suggestion to employ Henry Moore as the associate artist.

74 St Helens, PBA, PB702 2/8 Committee Minutes, Maxwell Fry, ‘Pilkington Brothers Ltd: New Head Offices. Memorandum on the Employment of [a] Sculptor’, 24 October 1956.

75 Ibid. Fry does not name the building, but refers to ‘the new store in Rotterdam for which Mr. Naum Gabo is making a very large abstract design in metal’.

76 Ibid. Fry does not name the building, but refers to ‘an office building in Poole with a large semi-sculptural panel done by the Bournemouth [sic] Art school’.

77 Ibid.

78 London, RIBA, Ove Arup Papers, ArO/1/4/13, ‘Report on [MARS Group] ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING held on Monday October the 15th 1956 at the Architectural Association’.

79 MARS Group, Turn Again: An Exhibition Presented by the MARS Group, Royal Exchange, 12-30 July 1955 (London, 1955).Google Scholar

80 For further discussion of the exhibition, see Gold, John R., The Practice of Modernism: Modern Architects and Urban Transformation, 1954-1972 (Abingdon, 2007), pp. 89–93.Google Scholar

81 MARS Group cit. in ibid., p. 92.

82 Denys Lasdun cit. in ibid., p. 93.

83 Victoria, UVic, Herbert Read Papers, Letter Maxwell Fry to Herbert Read, 9 October 1955.

84 St Helens, PBA, PB702 2/8 Site Development, ‘Report. Proposed Head Offices for Pilkington Brothers Ltd. & Fibreglass Ltd. January 1958’, p. 2.

85 Ibid.

86 Reilly, C. H., Scaffolding in the Sky (London, 1938), p. 129.Google Scholar

87 See Adams, Thomas, Longstreth Thompson, F., Maxwell Fry, E. and Adams, James W. R., Recent Advances in Town Planning (London, 1932).Google Scholar

88 Mozingo, Louise A., Pastoral Capitalism: A History of Suburban Corporate Landscapes (Cambridge, MA, 2011), p. 112.Google Scholar

89 Cambridge, MA, Frances Loeb Library, Harvard University, The GSD History Collection, Student Affairs-Student Work: An Inventory, CA137, ‘Headquarter Office and Welfare Group for a Large Industrial Corporation’ typescript, January 1957.

90 Jellicoe, Geoffrey, Studies in Landscape Design - Vol. I (Oxford, 1960), p. 90.Google Scholar

91 Jellicoe, Geoffrey, Studies in Landscape Design - Vol. II (Oxford, 1966), pl. 34 Google Scholar; ibid., p. 92.

92 Jellicoe, , Studies in Landscape Design - Vol. I, p. 90.Google Scholar

93 Ibid.

94 St Helens, PBA, PB702 2/8 Site Development, ‘Report. Proposed Head Offices for Pilkington Brothers Ltd. & Fibreglass Ltd. January 1958’, p. 8.

95 With the exclusion of the theatre from the Prescot Road complex, Pilkington invested £100,000 in the renovation of the town's Theatre Royal, which had stood empty since 1957. The Victorian facade was replaced with a glass front and the building was used by local groups, including the ‘Pilkington Players’ dramatic society. See ‘The Theatre Royal at St Helens’, Architect and Building News, 225 (29 July 1964), p. 258.Google Scholar

96 St Helens, PBA, PB702 2/8 Site Development, ‘Report. Proposed Head Offices for Pilkington Brothers Ltd. & Fibreglass Ltd.’, 12 August 1958.

97 Ibid.

98 London, RIBA, Fry and Drew Papers, F&D/18/14, Letter Maxwell Fry to Jane Drew, 9 June 1954; Letter Maxwell Fry to Jane Drew, 2 September 1954; ‘News of Architecture Abroad’, Architectural Record, 125 (May 1959), p. 34.

99 London, RIBA, Fry and Drew Papers, F&D/18/14, Letter Maxwell Fry to Jane Drew, 25 August 1954.

100 This combines rough brick, blue-glazed tiles, opaque vitreous glass panels and sliding metal windows: Maxwell Fry cit. in Powers, Britain, p. 71.

101 St Helens, PBA, PB702 2/8 Committee Minutes, ‘Minutes of Meeting held in the Research Conference Room 27th February, 1957’.

102 Sert, J. L., ‘Centres of Community Life’, in The Heart of the City: Towards the Humanization of Urban Life, ed. Tyrwhitt, J., Sert, J. L. and Rogers, E. N. (London, 1952), pp. 3–16.Google Scholar

103 St Helens, PBA, PB702 2/8 Committee Minutes, ‘Extract from Draft Unconfirmed Minutes of Prescot Road Building Committee held — 15.7.63’.

104 St Helens, PBA, PB702 2/8 Committee Minutes, ‘Extracts from Minutes of Meeting of Prescot Road Building Committee held on 15.2.63’.

105 St Helens, PBA, PB702 2/8 Committee Minutes, ‘Report to Group Executive on Increased Cost of Prescot Road Offices. 3rd March 1964’.

106 For an image of the corner detail to the canteen building that uses this glass block ‘special’, see Hitchins, Stephen (ed.), Fry, Drew, Knight, Creamer: Architecture (London, 1978), p. 27.Google Scholar

107 St Helens, PBA, PB547/1 Prescot Road Head Office - Miscellaneous Correspondence I, May 1957-May 1964 (PB547/1 Miscellaneous Correspondence I), Letters ‘WHP’ to Monsieur Grandgeorge, St Gobain, Paris, 9 and 27 October 1959.

108 St Helens, PBA, PB547/2 Artists Materials and Sundry Papers, Internal Memorandum ‘Visit to St Gobain Building in Paris on 6th July 1960’.

109 Peter Bond, A.R.I.B.A, became a partner at Fry, Drew and Partners following restructuring in early 1960, with Denys Lasdun setting up his own office and the retirement of Lindsey Drake.

110 Bligh, Graham interviewed by Macarthur, John, Riddel, Robert and Gosseye, Janina, ‘Graham Bligh on working at Maxwell Fry's', Digital Archive of Queensland Architecture, 20 August 2012, at http://www.qldarch.net (accessed on 8 January 2013).Google Scholar

111 A fixed fee of £300 plus expenses was agreed for Drew's work. St Helens, PBA, PB547/1 Miscellaneous Correspondence I, Letter Douglas Phelps to Jane Drew, 27 July 1961.

112 Spencer, Robin (ed.), Eduardo Paolozzi: Writings and Interviews (Oxford, 2000), p. 78.Google Scholar

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114 The remaining six rooms were to named after ‘South Africa, New Zealand, Rhodesia, India, The Argentine, Brazil’. St Helens, PBA, PB702 2/8 Committee Minutes, ‘Extract of Minutes of a Meeting of the Prescot Road Building Sub-Committee held on 10.4.63’.

115 St Helens, PBA, PB547/1 Miscellaneous Correspondence I, Letter unknown building committee member [illegible] to Maxwell Fry, 28 June 1963.

116 Pilkington's Board of Directors also decided that the decorative windows in the new canteen, in the entrance hall overlooking the lake, should include pieces of glass from each of the Pilkington overseas works. Gardner was asked to suggest how the inscription on the glass in these windows might be done. The board suggested that a national emblem or similar motif should be incorporated in the inscription. St Helens, PBA, PB547/1 Miscellaneous Correspondence I, ‘Memo from A. F. Bennett to Bldg Committee members, 19.8.63’.

117 St Helens, PBA, PB547/3, ‘Minutes of a Meeting of the Prescot Road Building Committee held on Friday, 22nd June, 1962’.

118 St Helens, PBA, PB547/2 Press Release Papers, ‘Pilkington Brothers Limited. St Helens, Lancashire. New Head Office Project’, Press Information Booklet, 1964.

119 St Helens, PBA, PB547/3, ‘Minutes of Meeting of Prescot Road Building Committee. Held on Friday, 12th January, 1962’.

120 St Helens, PBA, PB547/3 Building and Sub. Committee Minutes, April 1959-February 1962 (PB547/3), ‘Prescot Road Building. Minutes if Meeting held on Tuesday, the 27th, 1962’.

121 St Helens, PBA, PB547/1 Miscellaneous Correspondence I, Letter Lord Cozens-Hardy to A. F. Bennett, 19 July 1961.

122 Fry's desire to use furniture by the designer Gordon Russell for the Directors’ Lunch Room was also curtailed by the cost cutting exercise. St Helens, PBA, PB547 /1 Miscellaneous Correspondence I, Letter Gordon Russell to L. R. Percival, 25 November 1963.

123 St Helens, PBA, PB157 Notes on History of Prescot Road Site, ‘Living in the Prescot Road Offices’, Brochure for Staff, August 1964.

124 St Helens, PBA, PB547 / 2 Press Release Papers, ‘Pilkington Brothers Limited. St Helens, Lancashire. New Head Office Project’, Press Information Booklet, 1964.

125 Fry worked for Adams and Thompson briefly after graduating from Liverpool School of Architecture in 1924; he rejoined the practice as a named partner in 1927. Fry, , Autobiographical Sketches, pp. 120–26.Google Scholar

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127 St Helens, PBA, PB157 Notes on History of Prescot Road Site. ‘Mr. Maxwell Fry's Notes for Publicity Material Regarding Prescot Road’, 15 April 1964.

128 St Helens, PBA, PB702 2/8 Committee Minutes, ‘Extract from Minutes of a Meeting of the Prescot Road Building Committee 20.12.63’.

129 Ibid.

130 ’Glass HQ: Industrial Offices, St Helens, Lanes’, Architectural Review, 136 (1964), pp. 206–12 (p. 206).Google Scholar

131 This decision to omit the proposed perimeter railings also resulted in cost savings of an estimated £14,000. St Helens, PBA, PB702 2/8 Committee Minutes, ‘Minutes of Meeting held in the Conference Room at 2.0 p.m. on 10th January, 1958’.

132 Building committee member Douglas Phelps also attended the meeting with Clark. St Helens, PBA, PB547/1 Miscellaneous Correspondence II, Letter Douglas Phelps to Kenneth Clark, 21 May 1964.

133 Clark, Kenneth, ‘Ornament in Modern Architecture’, Architectural Review, 94 (December 1943), pp. 147–50 (P. 147).Google Scholar

134 St Helens, PBA, PB547/1 Miscellaneous Correspondence II, Letter Douglas Phelps to Kenneth Clark, 21 May 1964.

135 St Helens, PBA, PB702 2/8 Site Development, ‘Mr. Fry’s Memorandum on an International Competition to select a Sculptor for Prescot Road. 13.3.62’.

136 Pilkington committee member Alan Hudson-Davies was an ally of Fry, and perhaps the most progressive and informed Pilkington building committee member regarding art. For example, he wrote to Jane Drew regarding the possibility of a ‘bold’ modern tapestry in the manner of Jean Lurcat for the Fibreglass offices. St Helens, PBA, PB547/1 Miscellaneous Correspondence I, Letter Alan Hudson-Davies to Jane Drew, 11 December 1962.

137 St Helens, PBA, PB702 2/8 Site Development, ‘Mr. Fry's Memorandum on an International Competition to select a Sculptor for Prescot Road. 13.3.62’.

138 Other artists proposed by Fry include Terry Frost, Brian Winter, Patrick Heron, Roger Hilton, Alan Davie, Adrian Heath, Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, Alexander McKenzie, Ceri Richards, Sandra Blow, Peter Collingwood, David Gillespie, Robert Nicholson and Kenneth Armitage. St Helens, PBA, PB547/1 Miscellaneous Correspondence I, Letter Maxwell Fry to Douglas Phelps, 24 November 1959; Letter Alan Hudson-Davies to Jane Drew, 11 December 1962; Maxwell Fry, ‘Memorandum on choice of artist for decorative mirrors and wall panels. 26th August, 1963’; PB702 2/8 Committee Minutes, ‘Minutes of Meeting held in the Head Office Conference Room on 15th August [1957]’.

139 See, for example, Frayling, Christopher, The Royal College of Art: One Hundred & Fifty Years of Art & Design (London, 1987).Google Scholar

140 St Helens, PBA, PB702 2/8 Committee Minutes, Maxwell Fry, ‘Pilkington Brothers Ltd: New Head Offices. Memorandum on the Employment of [a] Sculptor’, 24 October 1956.

141 Gardner, James, ‘Battersea Pleasures. Interview with James Gardner’, in A Tonic to the Nation, ed. Banham, Mary and Hillier, Bevis (London, 1976), pp. 118–22 (p. 122).Google Scholar

142 St Helens, PBA, PB547/1 Miscellaneous Correspondence I, Letter L. R. Percival to Maxwell Fry, 27 November 1963.

143 Fry and Drew perhaps knew of Chandra from his first exhibition in England, hosted by the Royal India, Pakistan and Ceylon Society and held at the Commonwealth Institute (then the Imperial Institute) in 1957; a catalogue from the exhibition is present amongst the Pilkington papers. St Helens, PBA, PB547/2 Artists Materials and Sundry Papers.

144 A mural for the Indian High Commission in Lagos (1962) and a Fibreglass mural for the Indian Tea Centre, Oxford Street, London (1964) were also undertaken.

145 St Helens, PBA, PB157 Notes on History of Prescot Road Site, ‘Pilkington Head Office — Works of Art’, undated.

146 St Helens, PBA, PB702 2/8 Committee Minutes, ‘Minutes of Meeting held in the Head Office Conference Room on 15th August [1957]’.

147 St Helens, PBA, PB547/1 Miscellaneous Correspondence I, Letter Douglas Phelps to Kenneth Clark, 21 May 1964; PB702 2/8 Committee Minutes. ‘G.E. Minutes — 12.3.63’.

148 St Helens, PBA, PB547/1 Miscellaneous Correspondence I, Letter Victor Pasmore to Pilkington Brothers, 17 October 1961.

149 St Helens, PBA, PB547/1 Miscellaneous Correspondence II, Letter Douglas Phelps to Victor Pasmore, 16 December 1964.

150 Simpson graduated from the RCA in 1954 with a DesRCA Diploma in Wood, Metal & Plastics. Correspondence with RCA Archivist Neil Parkinson, 19 December 2011.

151 Drummond was Tutor and subsequently Senior Tutor in the RCA's Department of Printing, from 1956 to 1968. Correspondence with RCA Archivist Neil Parkinson, 2 February 2012.

152 Spender discusses the processes involved in these pieces in detail, see National Life Stories, The British Library, C466/101/01-26, Humphrey Spender, interviewed by Cathy Courtney, 1999-2002, pp. 374-75.Google Scholar

153 St Helens, PBA, PB547/1 Miscellaneous Correspondence II, Letter Alan Hudson-Davies to Sir Jules Thorn, 15 April 1965.

154 Goodden's decorative mirror remains in situ. Author site visit, 27 February 2013.

155 Kempster graduated from the RCA in 1942 with an ARCA Diploma in Design. Correspondence with RCA Archivist Neil Parkinson, 19 December 2011.

156 Paul Mount graduated from the RCA in 1948. Correspondence with RCA Archivist Neil Parkinson, 19 December 2011.

157 Charles de Vic Carey graduated in 1953 with an ARCA Diploma in Stained Glass. See de Vic Carey, Charles, ‘The Influence of France’, Ark, 12 (1957), pp. 16–19.Google Scholar

158 Foster graduated from the RCA in 1958 with an ARCA Diploma in Graphic Design. Correspondence with RCA Archivist Neil Parkinson, 19 December 2011.

159 Trevor Long graduated the year after the Pilkington Headquarters opened in 1966 with a DesRCA Diploma. Correspondence with RCA Archivist Neil Parkinson, 19 December 2011.

160 Liverpool, UoL, Robert Gardner-Medwin Papers, D688/4/2/7, Pilkington Brothers Limited, p. 15.

161 Drew, Spender and Goodden were all involved in the annual AA Pantomime; while Goodden preferred a role behind the scenes, the more gregarious Drew and Spender appeared together in ‘British Goods’, a sketch co-written by Spender for the 1931 production. Correspondence with AA Archivist Edward Bottoms, 7 November 2011.

162 National Life Stories, Humphrey Spender, pp. 373–74.Google ScholarPubMed This commission led to further work in glass for Spender as Margaret Casson asked him to undertake a glass mosaic for the Pilkington Brothers’ showroom in London, p. 375.

163 Holder, , ‘Reflecting Change’, p. 71.Google Scholar

164 Robert Nicholson declined the commission ‘on account of having too much else to do’. St Helens, PBA, PB547/1 Miscellaneous Correspondence I, Letter Maxwell Fry to A. F. Bennett, 9 October 1963.

165 For Pilkington's subsequent press promotion of their patronage, see, for example, ‘Today’s Patrons of the Arts in Britain: 4. Pilkington Brothers', The Connoisseur, January 1965.

166 St Helens, PBA, PB547/1 Miscellaneous Correspondence I, Letter ‘A.H.D.’ to Maxwell Fry, 24 October 1963.

167 St Helens, PBA, PB157 Museum, Letter L. R. Percival to John Gloag, 23 July 1959.

168 St Helens, PBA, PB702 2/8 Site Development, ‘Suggestions for Museum: Prescot Road Development’, 16 September 1958.

169 St Helens, PBA, PB157 Museum 1954-31.3.1963 File no. 1 (PB157 Museum), Extract from Minutes of Group Executive, 20 November 1956.

170 Gardner, James, The ARTful Designer (London, 1993), p. 269.Google Scholar

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172 St Helens, PBA, PB702 2/8 Site Development, ‘The Glass Centre at Prescot Road (A.H.D)’, 10 March 1959.

173 Gardner, , ARTful Designer, p. 271.Google Scholar

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175 St Helens, PBA, PB702 2/8 Site Development, ‘The Glass Centre at Prescot Road (A.H.D)’, 10 March 1959.

176 St Helens, PBA, PB702 2/8 Committee Minutes, ‘Copy of Letter from Mr. James Gardner’, 4 July 1963.

177 St Helens, PBA, PB547/1 Miscellaneous Correspondence I, Letter L. H. A. Pilkington to F. J. Hargreaves, 19 May 1959.

178 St Helens, PBA, PB702 2/8 Committee Minutes, ‘Copy of Letter from Mr. James Gardner’, 4 July 1963.

179 St Helens, PBA, PB702 2/8 Committee Minutes, ‘Extract from Minutes of a Meeting of the Museum Committee held on 28th June, 1963’.

180 Gardner, , ARTful Designer, pp. 272–73.Google Scholar

181 See The Cultures of Collecting, ed. Eisner, John and Cardinal, Roger (London, 1994).Google Scholar

182 St Helens, PBA, PB702 2/8 Site Development, ‘The Glass Centre at Prescot Road (A.H.D)’, 10 March 1959.

183 St Helens, PBA, PB702 2/8 Committee Minutes, ‘Report to Group Executive on Increased Cost of Prescot Road Offices. 3rd March 1964’.

184 Ibid.

185 St Helens, PBA, PB702 2/8 Committee Minutes, ‘Minutes of Meeting held in the Conference Room at 2.0 p.m. on 10th January, 1958’; ‘Minutes of Meeting held in the Conference Room at 2.0 p.m. on 6th February, 1958’.

186 St Helens, PBA, PB702 2/8 Committee Minutes, ‘Report to Group Executive on Increased Cost of Prescot Road Offices. 3rd March 1964’.

187 St Helens, PBA, PB547/1 Miscellaneous Correspondence II, Letter Alan Hudson Davies to Maxwell Fry, 4 September 1964.

188 St Helens, PBA, PB702 2/8 Site Development, ‘Prescot Road Project — Costs on Completion’; PB702 2/8 Committee Minutes, ‘Extract from Draft Unconfirmed Minutes of a Meeting of the Prescot Road Building Committee held on 2nd April 1965’.

189 Knight, Frank, ‘Designing for Computers: Design Problems and Solutions by Frank S. Knight of Fry, Drew & Partners’, Building, 215 (11 October 1968), pp. 87–91.Google Scholar

190 Liverpool, UoL, Robert Gardner-Medwin Papers, D688/4/2/7, Pilkington Brothers Limited.

191 Victoria, UVic, Herbert Read Papers, Letter Maxwell Fry to Herbert Read, 9 October 1955.

192 Fry, , Fine Building, p. 2.Google Scholar

193 Author site visit, 27 February 2013.