(b Alton, Hants, 16 July 1875; d London, 26 March 1960). English architect and watercolourist. After studying engineering and architecture, he was articled to John Belcher. He then entered the Royal Academy schools in London and won the Bidlake Gold Medal and a travelling studentship. After extensive study tours of Spain and Italy developing his drawing skills, he returned to England in 1897. For a short period he was employed as draughtsman for The Builder before setting up his own practice in 1898. Initial commissions included a number of structures for power stations, for example Bristol Tramways Power Station (1898–9) and Chiswick (1904; destr.), which he designed in a classical style. He acquired a reputation for houses and contributed designs to Hampstead Garden Suburb (from 1905), Letchworth Garden City (from 1902) and municipal housing at Winchester (1919). In 1917 he became a partner in the firm of Dunn & Watson, and his work in the 1920s and 1930s was much concerned with large, mostly classically inspired office developments. He also designed a number of branches for Lloyds Bank and Barclays Bank (e.g. one in Piccadilly, London, 1922). His Wolseley House and showrooms (1921) for the Wolseley Motor Co. at 160 Piccadilly, London, won the first RIBA medal for street architecture in 1922. His largest project (1930) was the Dorchester Hotel, Park Lane, London, where he added coy Art Deco detail to the advanced reinforced-concrete structure designed by Owen Williams as well as radically altering the interior decoration. He was president of the Architectural Association (1913–14), vice-president of the RIBA (1923–4) and was elected a Royal Academician in 1933. An accomplished watercolourist, he exhibited repeatedly at the RA summer exhibitions and published collections of his drawings.

• Green, William Curtis
  • England, §II, 6: Architecture, after c 1914
  • Williams, Owen