Peter Yates (19 July 1920 – 16 November 1982) was a British born artist and architect. He was best known for his partnership with Gordon Ryder in the North of England architectural firm, Ryder and Yates.[1]

Biography

Early life and education

Peter Yates was born in Leytonstone, East London in 1920. He was attracted to the visual arts at an early age, winning a painting competition in Chicks' Own in 1925.[2] Whilst at Wanstead School from September 1934 to July 1936, he painted a mural, Events at Sea.

He worked as a furniture and model maker during 1937 before attending the London Polytechnic School of Architecture, studying under Sir Hubert Bennett, Peter Moro and Robin Day from January 1938 to April 1941.

Career

War years

Yates served as a fireman on the St Paul's Watch in early 1941, during which he painted Wren's churches during the London Blitz. He met the antiquary and architectural historian, Gerald Cobb, while drawing in Ludgate Circus and they became lifelong friends. He joined the Royal Air Force in July 1941 and was stationed in Wales and Ireland before going to Versailles in 1944 with the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Forces.

He lived in Paris following the war where he met many artists and writers, including Georges Braque,[3] Édouard Pignon, Jaime Sabartes, Juliette Gréco, Leon Gischia, Gertrude Stein, Alice Toklas, Andre L'Hote, Sylvia Beach and Le Corbusier.

Early practice

Yates was invited, with Clive Entwistle, to work on plans for a new United Nations building in New York by Le Corbusier.[4] He worked on the Pyramid Project for the New Crystal Palace with Entwhistle at Ove Arup's office in Soho during 1947.[5]

He completed a masterplan for Peterlee new town with Berthold Lubetkin in 1948, where he first met his subsequent business partner, Gordon Ryder.[6]

Yates returned to Paris in 1950 as Chief Designer at Unité d’Informations Visuelles,[7] a commercial art studio located in the Old Alhambra night club in the gardens of the Champs Élysées. From here, he contributed to exhibitions across Europe, including Europa Zug [8] and Atoms for Peace. In Paris, he collaborated with Pierre Boucher (photographer) [fr] from whom Ryder and Yates later commissioned murals for Norgas House, Killingworth.

Ryder and Yates

In 1953, after a chance meeting in London, Yates moved to Newcastle upon Tyne to form an architectural practice with Gordon Ryder. Initial work included exhibition design, which progressed onto a series of private domestic architectural commissions. A new multidisciplinary approach which included engineers fuelled their progress. Their buildings were highly regarded and large scale commissions for industrial complexes for British Gas, Sterling Organics and others followed. The company designed buildings for social projects in Newcastle and Sunderland for the Salvation Army, a large social housing project in Kenton as well as various local government and healthcare projects.

Ryder and Yates' extensive portfolio of acclaimed buildings won numerous architectural awards over the following three decades from their inception in 1953.[9] John Allan, director of Avanti Architects, said that 'Ryder and Yates were Lubetkin's sole professional heirs – a legacy mutually recognised – and their work is a compelling reminder of Lubetkin's lesson that the poetic and the rational were inextricable impulses in modern architecture's original vision.'[10]

A book about the partnership was published as part of the RIBA 20th Century Architects series.[11]

Personal life and death

Yates married musician Helen Maud Southgate, from New Zealand, in 1958 with whom he had five children. Helen died in 1972. He married his second wife, Gillian Jessica Eden, in 1976. She died in 2015.

Yates died in 1982.

Influences

Peter's main influences were Le Corbusier and Berthold Lubetkin. In 1976, he curated an exhibition of Le Corbusier Lithographs at the Ferens Art Gallery, Hull. He nominated and successfully campaigned for Lubetkin to be awarded the Royal Gold Medal for Architecture in 1982.

Other influences were though his friendships with Austin Wright, Kenneth Rowntree and Diana Rowntree, Dennis Flanders and others.

Ryder and Yates buildings

Notable Ryder and Yates buildings include:

Murals

Like Le Corbusier before him, Yates hand painted murals in many buildings. Printed murals also appeared in several commercial interiors.

Public

Domestic

Exhibitions

One man exhibitions

Group exhibitions

His works are also held in private collections in Great Britain, Europe, USA and New Zealand.

Further reading

References

  1. ^ Ryder and Yates became Ryder Nicklin after the death of Peter Yates in 1982 and then Ryder Architecture in 1997
  2. ^ Children's comic from 1920 – 1957. Held at the British Library (Ref PP6964.g)
  3. ^ "Cinema's classic pictures see the light". Newcastle Journal. Retrieved 2 September 2023.
  4. ^ Letter dated 21 March 1947, held by the Yates family
  5. ^ After Peter's employment with Arup, Peter was requested to design Ove Arup's Christmas cards. Letters and cards archived.
  6. ^ Allan, J. (1992) Bertold Lubetkin: Architecture and the Tradition of Progress, RIBA Publications, pp. 449–518.
  7. ^ A. Peter Fawcett – Learning from Le Corbusier and Lubetkin: the work of Ryder and Yates. The Journal of Architecture, Volume 6, Issue 3 September 2001, pages 225 – 248
  8. ^ Seen by 2.5 million people, Europa Zug was a rail-based trans European travelling exhibition, starting from Munich in May 1951. Part of the European Recovery Program, it travelled through 17 countries to encourage cooperation and trade following WWII.
  9. ^ Among the Awards: multiple Financial Times Industrial Architecture Awards; RIBA Architecture Awards; Civic Trust Awards
  10. ^ Allan, J. Monographs, The Magazine of the Twentieth Century Society, Autumn 2009, p.42
  11. ^ Carroll, R. (2009) Ryder and Yates, RIBA Publishing.
  12. ^ a b "Ryder and Yates: Twentieth Century Architects". Archived from the original on 27 July 2009. Retrieved 2 September 2023.
  13. ^ Engineering Gas Research Station was Grade II* listed on 27 January 1997
  14. ^ Held in the RIBA Library, Portland Place, London
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