March 30, 2023 – Charles Holden, an Architect of Many Styles and Subtle Forms

Speaker: Elain Harwood, Architectural Historian
Interlocutor: David Frazer Lewis, Professor and Architectural Historian, University of Oxford

The architect Charles Holden (1875-1960) worked through the first half of the twentieth century, mainly in the London area. Charles Reilly, professor of architect and a leading critic, described him as ‘austere and fine .. though he is not a tall man physically, one feels he is spiritually’, and his simple habits and modesty are reflected in his buildings. Stylistically, he bridged the gap between the Arts and Crafts Movement and modernism, and was confident in a classical idiom where he thought it appropriate, in a range of mainly public buildings from libraries and hospitals to many of the stations for London’s Underground. He also worked for the Imperial War Graves Commission. Operating slightly outside the architectural mainstream, Holden produced some of the finest buildings in Britain built between 1900 and 1950.