Larger versions of these images are located at the foot of the page. Basic Biographical Details Name: | Edwin Landseer Lutyens | Designation: | Architect | Born: | 29 March 1869 | Died: | 1 January 1944 | Bio Notes: | Edwin Landseer Lutyens was born in London on 29 March 1869, eleventh of the fourteen children of Captain Charles Henry Augustus Lutyens of the XX Foot (Lancashire Fusiliers) who had retired early to become a landscape and sporting painter; his mother, Mary Galloway, born an Irish Catholic, was also of a military family. His forenames commemorated his father's friendship with Sir Edwin Landseer.
As a child Landseer suffered from poor health and was partly educated by his mother at Thursley, Surrey. His father, his elder brother Fred and another of this father's artist friends, Randolph Caldecott, all taught him drawing, and like Lorimer he learned about traditional crafts by observing builders at work in his home village. In 1885 he entered the South Kensington Schools to study architecture, and in 1887 he obtained a place in the office of Ernest George & Peto, working under their assistant, Herbert Baker: E Guy Dauber was also in the office at the time, and either in twos or threes they went on sketching trips in Surrey, Sussex and Wales. Early in 1889 he received the commission for a large house at Crooksbury and set up his own practice, based at Farnham at the age of twenty, and early became acquainted with the gardener Gertrude Jekyll for whom he built Munstead Wood in 1896. She developed his ideas on the relationship of house and garden and introduced him to many of his early clients and to Lady Emily Lytton, daughter of a former Viceroy to India. Her mother was a lady in waiting at The Court, and it was through her that he was introduced to HRH Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll, who commissioned the Inn in her estate at Roseneath in 1896.
Further commissions from within the Jekyll and Lytton circles enabled him to marry Lady Emily in 1897 and his work attracted the attention of 'Country Life,' building Deanery Garden for its proprietor Edward Hudson in 199-1902, and its offices in Covent Garden in 1904. Lutyens neither had the time nor the inclination to take the qualifying exam. He was admitted FRIBA on 8 January 1906, his proposers being the leaders of the profession, John Belcher, Aston Webb and Sir John Taylor.
Lutyens's practice assumed a monumental Imperil dimension when he was commissioned to design the Johannesburg Art Gallery in 1910 and the Rand Regents Memorial in 1911. In the following year he was appointed architect to the Delhi Planning Commission, an appointment that caused John Begg Counselling Architect to the Government of India, considerable disappointment and led to a difficult relationship between them. For this he worked in collaboration with Herbert Baker.
Lutyens was elected ARA a year later in 1913, and Knighted in 1918. Election to the RA followed after the war in 1920; the Royal Gold Medal in 1921; the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal in 1924; the Presidency of the Royal Academy in 1938; and the OM in 1942. Lutyens died of cancer on 1 January 1944.
(Select bibliography only included here.) | Private and Business AddressesThe following private or business addresses are associated with this architect: | | Address | Type | Date from | Date to | Notes |  | 28, Craven Street, Charing Cross, London, England | Business | 1890 * | | |  | 16, Onslow Street, London, England | Private(?) | 1890 * | | |  | 29, Bloomsbury Square, London, England | Private(?) | c. 1908 | c. 1914 | |  | 17, Queen Anne's Gate, Westminster, London, England | Business | 1914 * | | |
* earliest date known from documented sources.
Employment and TrainingEmployersThe following individuals or organisations employed or trained this architect (click on an item to view details): | | Name | Date from | Date to | Position | Notes |  | (Sir) Herbert Baker | 1887 | c. 1889 | Apprentice | Lutyens worked under Baker, chief assistant to George & Peto |  | Ernest George & Peto | 1887 | c. 1889 | Apprentice | Under Herbert Baker |  | Lutyens & Baker | 1912 | 1913 | Partner | |
Employees or Pupils
RIBARIBA ProposersThe following individuals proposed this architect for RIBA membership (click on an item to view details): | | Name | Date proposed | Notes |  | John Belcher | 8 January 1906 | for Fellowship |  | (Sir) John Taylor | 8 January 1906 | for Fellowship |  | Aston Webb | 8 January 1906 | for Fellowship |
RIBA Proposals
Buildings and DesignsThis architect was involved with the following buildings or structures from the date specified (click on an item to view details): | | Date started | Building name | Town, district or village | Island | City or county | Country | Notes |  | 1886 | The Hirsel | Coldstream | | Berwickshire | Scotland | Scheme drawn up for remodelling the entire house |  | 1893 | Holy Trinity Parish Church, reredos | Berwick-upon-Tweed | | Northumberland | England | |  | 1896 | Ferry Inn, Rosneath Point | Rosneath | | Dunbartonshire | Scotland | Extension |  | 1896 | Rosneath Inn | Rosneath / Roseneath | | Dunbartonshire | Scotland | Extension |  | 1901 | High Walls | Gullane | | East Lothian | Scotland | With Gertrude Jekyll |  | 1910 | Theosophical Society Headquarters | | | London | England | |  | 1911 | High Walls | Gullane | | East Lothian | Scotland | Additions (Kitchen and dining room on north since burnt out) with Lorimer |  | c. 1920 | Lews Castle, hotel in grounds | Stornoway | Lewis | Ross & Cromarty | Scotland | Designs drawn up |  | 1921 | Glasgow Cenotaph | | | Glasgow | Scotland | Invited to submit design in limited competition - unsuccessful |  | 1926 | Grosvenor House | Park Lane | | London | England | as consultant architect to Wimperis, Simpson & Guthrie |  | 1928 | Rosehaugh Estate, new Fletcher burial enclosure | Avoch | | Ross and Cromarty | Scotland | |  | 1935 | Villa for David McKenna Soutar | Hampstead Garden Suburb | | London | England | Lutyens designed facade, J C S Soutar designed house |  | 1942 | City Plan, Hull | | | Yorkshire East Riding | England | |  | 1943 | Dunrobin, Sutherland family burial ground, gravestone to Eileen, 5th Ducchess | Dunrobin | | Sutherland | Scotland | |  | Mid 1900s | Corgarff Cemetery, gravestones to the Tennants of Edinglassie | Corgarff | | Aberdeenshire | Scotland | |
ReferencesBibliographic ReferencesThe following books contain references to this architect: | | Author(s) | Date | Title | Part | Publisher | Notes |  | Arts Council | 1981 | Lutyens: The Work of the English Architect Sir Edwin Lutyens | | Arts Council Catalogue, 1981 | |  | Brown, Jane | | Garden of a Golden Afternoon: The Story of a Partnership: Edwin Lutyens and Gertrude Jekyll | | | |  | Brown, Jane | | Lutyens and the Edwardians: an English Architect and his Clients | | | |  | Butler, A S G | | The Architecture of Sir Edwin Lutyens | | | |  | Hussey, Christopher | | The Life of Sir Edwin Lutyens | | | |  | Irving, Robert Grant | 1981 | Indian summer: Lutyens Baker and Imperial Delhi | | | |  | Lutyens, Edwin (check) | | The Letters of Edwin Lutyens to his wife Lady Emily | | | |  | Weaver, Lawrence | 1921 | Lutyens Houses and Gardens | | | |
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