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Henry Castree Hughes
Henry Castree Hughes (29 May 1893 – 1 January 1976), known as H. C. Hughes or Hugh Hughes, was a British architect and conservationist. He spent his entire career in Cambridge, where he practised architecture from 1923, latterly as Hughes and Bicknell with Peter Bicknell, and lectured in design at the School of Architecture of the University of Cambridge (1919–32). As an architect, he is best known for his Modernist buildings of the 1930s, particularly the Mond Building (1931–32) and Fen Court, Peterhouse (1939–40), although much of his output was traditional in style. He also carried out restoration work on cottages, Cambridge college buildings, and churches, including the Lady Chapel of Ely Cathedral. He was an elected fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects.
He lobbied on issues relating to the conservation of the countryside surrounding Cambridge, and was instrumental in the foundation of the Cambridge Preservation Society in 1928.
Henry Castree Hughes was born on 29 May 1893 to William Hughes, who served as Chief Secretary for Irrigation in Madras, India. He was educated at Sherborne School (1907–11) and then went up to Peterhouse, Cambridge, where in 1913 he became one of the earliest students at the University of Cambridge's School of Architecture, graduating in 1914. His tutors included Edward Prior, Charles Waldstein and D. H. S. Cranage.
During the First World War, he joined the Royal Artillery and served with Anglo-Indian forces in India and Iraq, where he kept a journal, and in France, where he was wounded.
After the war, Hughes joined the Cambridge School of Architecture to lecture in design (1919–32), under T. H. Lyon. He worked as an architect in the office of T. D. Atkinson and later in that of Lyon. In 1923, he established his own architectural practice in Cambridge, with offices at Tunwell's Court, off Trumpington Street. Much of his business was designing private houses and conservation projects. Peter Bicknell later joined the practice, becoming a partner in 1936, under the name Hughes and Bicknell. Hughes continued his work at the practice until around 1975.
Some of Hughes's work during the 1930s was Modernist in design; these buildings are described in his obituary in The Times as "outstanding for their simple modernity", and include his best-known works, the Mond Building on the New Museums Site (1931–32) and Fen Court, Peterhouse (1939–40; with Bicknell). The Mond Building, a white-brick laboratory featuring a rotunda decorated with a carved crocodile by Eric Gill, together with its adjacent workshop (also by Hughes), are the earliest university buildings in Cambridge designed in the Modernist style. Fen Court, Peterhouse, is described in its grade II listing as "the only pre-war Cambridge college accommodation building in the International Modern style and the forerunner to other college buildings constructed at both Oxford and Cambridge after the war".
Although Hughes designed no other works for the colleges, one of his Modernist private houses (Postan, 2 Sylvester Road; 1939), was subsumed into Robinson College. Two further private houses from this period are also Modernist in style: 19 Wilberforce Road (1933–34), described in Bradley and Pevsner as "rather heavily done", and the grade-II-listed Brandon Hill (now Salix) on Conduit Head Road (1933–34), an L-shaped building with corner windows and a roof terrace, designed for the Australian physicist Mark Oliphant. Along with examples from this decade by George Checkley, Marshall Sisson, Justin Blanco White and others, they number among the earliest Modernist houses in Cambridge.
Many of Hughes's houses were in a vernacular style. They were influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement but unusually incorporated modern materials such as concrete. Examples in Cambridge include 102 Long Road (c. 1936), which reuses the timber frame from a Tudor building on Market Hill; 173 Huntingdon Road (1930), a "quirky" house with a prominent staircase window built for the Russian physicist Peter Kapitza; and a house with Italianate decoration on Buckingham Road (c. 1933), later adapted to form part of the Blackfriars Dominican Priory. Hughes also designed seven or more houses in the nearby village of Grantchester, including Manor Field and Orion.
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Henry Castree Hughes
Henry Castree Hughes (29 May 1893 – 1 January 1976), known as H. C. Hughes or Hugh Hughes, was a British architect and conservationist. He spent his entire career in Cambridge, where he practised architecture from 1923, latterly as Hughes and Bicknell with Peter Bicknell, and lectured in design at the School of Architecture of the University of Cambridge (1919–32). As an architect, he is best known for his Modernist buildings of the 1930s, particularly the Mond Building (1931–32) and Fen Court, Peterhouse (1939–40), although much of his output was traditional in style. He also carried out restoration work on cottages, Cambridge college buildings, and churches, including the Lady Chapel of Ely Cathedral. He was an elected fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects.
He lobbied on issues relating to the conservation of the countryside surrounding Cambridge, and was instrumental in the foundation of the Cambridge Preservation Society in 1928.
Henry Castree Hughes was born on 29 May 1893 to William Hughes, who served as Chief Secretary for Irrigation in Madras, India. He was educated at Sherborne School (1907–11) and then went up to Peterhouse, Cambridge, where in 1913 he became one of the earliest students at the University of Cambridge's School of Architecture, graduating in 1914. His tutors included Edward Prior, Charles Waldstein and D. H. S. Cranage.
During the First World War, he joined the Royal Artillery and served with Anglo-Indian forces in India and Iraq, where he kept a journal, and in France, where he was wounded.
After the war, Hughes joined the Cambridge School of Architecture to lecture in design (1919–32), under T. H. Lyon. He worked as an architect in the office of T. D. Atkinson and later in that of Lyon. In 1923, he established his own architectural practice in Cambridge, with offices at Tunwell's Court, off Trumpington Street. Much of his business was designing private houses and conservation projects. Peter Bicknell later joined the practice, becoming a partner in 1936, under the name Hughes and Bicknell. Hughes continued his work at the practice until around 1975.
Some of Hughes's work during the 1930s was Modernist in design; these buildings are described in his obituary in The Times as "outstanding for their simple modernity", and include his best-known works, the Mond Building on the New Museums Site (1931–32) and Fen Court, Peterhouse (1939–40; with Bicknell). The Mond Building, a white-brick laboratory featuring a rotunda decorated with a carved crocodile by Eric Gill, together with its adjacent workshop (also by Hughes), are the earliest university buildings in Cambridge designed in the Modernist style. Fen Court, Peterhouse, is described in its grade II listing as "the only pre-war Cambridge college accommodation building in the International Modern style and the forerunner to other college buildings constructed at both Oxford and Cambridge after the war".
Although Hughes designed no other works for the colleges, one of his Modernist private houses (Postan, 2 Sylvester Road; 1939), was subsumed into Robinson College. Two further private houses from this period are also Modernist in style: 19 Wilberforce Road (1933–34), described in Bradley and Pevsner as "rather heavily done", and the grade-II-listed Brandon Hill (now Salix) on Conduit Head Road (1933–34), an L-shaped building with corner windows and a roof terrace, designed for the Australian physicist Mark Oliphant. Along with examples from this decade by George Checkley, Marshall Sisson, Justin Blanco White and others, they number among the earliest Modernist houses in Cambridge.
Many of Hughes's houses were in a vernacular style. They were influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement but unusually incorporated modern materials such as concrete. Examples in Cambridge include 102 Long Road (c. 1936), which reuses the timber frame from a Tudor building on Market Hill; 173 Huntingdon Road (1930), a "quirky" house with a prominent staircase window built for the Russian physicist Peter Kapitza; and a house with Italianate decoration on Buckingham Road (c. 1933), later adapted to form part of the Blackfriars Dominican Priory. Hughes also designed seven or more houses in the nearby village of Grantchester, including Manor Field and Orion.