Sir William Whitfield
Born(1920-10-21)21 October 1920
Stockton-on-Tees, England
Died16 March 2019(2019-03-16) (aged 98)
Alma materKing's College, Durham University
Occupation(s)Architect and town planner

Sir William Whitfield CBE (21 October 1920 – 16 March 2019)[1] was a British architect and town planner.

Early life

Whitfield was born in Stockton-on-Tees into a coal-owning family and studied architecture at King's College, Newcastle (later the Newcastle University School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape), where he was admitted by a special dispensation at the unusually early age of 15,[1][2] and where he later studied Town Planning after the Second World War.[1]

Career

Whitfield designed the Glasgow University Library (1968) and the Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery Extension at the University of Glasgow (1962–81), as well as an extension to the Newcastle University Students' Union building (1964) and University Theatre (now unrecognisable and called the Northern Stage). He designed the Business School and the Science Library at Durham University (both now extended). In 1970 a major bush-hammered concrete Brutalist extension to Whitfield's design was opened[3] at Arthur Beresford Pite and John Belcher's 1890-1893 Institute of Chartered Accountants headquarters, Chartered Accountants' Hall, including a new entrance; as well as the 1987 Department of Health building, Richmond House in Richmond Terrace, Whitehall, London.[2] He designed the Chapter House at St Albans Cathedral, the Catheral Lodge in the close at Canterbury Cathedral and the new Mappa Mundi Library at Hereford Cathedral in a free gothic style.

Tusmore Park

With Andrew Lockwood he designed the neo-Palladian mansion Tusmore Park in Oxfordshire for the Saudi Arabian financier Wafic Saïd.[4]

He was Surveyor of the Fabric of St Paul's Cathedral from 1985 to 1990,[5] architect for the restoration of Christ Church Spitalfields, a Commissioner of English Heritage, Commissioner of the Royal Fine Art Commission and a Trustee of the British Museum.[1] He was awarded CBE in the 1976 Birthday Honours and knighted in the 1993 New Year Honours.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Jeffery, Roland (3 April 2019). "Sir William Whitfield obituary". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 3 April 2019.
  2. ^ a b "Sir William Whitfield". Oxford Index. OUP. Retrieved 30 November 2014.
  3. ^ Historic England. "Chartered Accountants' Hall, One Moorgate Place (1064586)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 10 October 2018.
  4. ^ Worsley, Giles (2 November 2004). "The English country house rises once more". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 30 November 2014.
  5. ^ Burman, Peter (2004). "Chapter 23: Decoration, Furnishings and Art since 1900". In Keene, Derek; Burns, R. Arthur; Saint, Andrew (eds.). St. Paul's: The Cathedral Church of London, 604-2004. Yale University Press. p. 264. ISBN 9780300092769.
  6. ^ "No. 53153". The London Gazette (1st supplement). 31 December 1992. p. 2.

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