Charles William Hutton, architect; born July 28, 1905, died September
11, 1995
THE architect Charles William Hutton, who died aged 90, was born in
Annan, Dumfriesshire. His father was a ship-building engineer and Hutton
spent his early years in Sheffield, then in Glasgow, where he attended
Bellahouston Academy.
His early talent for art was encouraged at Bellahouston and he
subsequently became apprenticed to a Bolton architect and successfully
gained a scholarship to study architecture at the Liverpool School under
Professor Charles Reilly.
The emphasis in the school was on the classicising tendency of the
Ecole des Beaux Arts, an influence which is evident in his war memorial
at Rawmarsh, Yorkshire, which was built in 1926. However, this work also
presaged a more progressive tendency which would find its expression in
his subsequent London works.
From 1929 to 1936 he was chief assistant to Doctor Charles Holden.
Holden, steeped in the English Arts and Crafts tradition, was also
heavily influenced by his visits to Holland, Germany, and Scandinavia
which brought a clarity and power of expression, evident in the large
number of underground stations which the practice created for the
Piccadilly Line and elsewhere.
Perhaps the best-known of these is Arnos Grove Station, a composition
of brick, reinforced concrete, and metal windows, in the form of a drum
upon a block, which powerfully exhibits the influence of Gunnar Asplund,
the most important Swedish architect of the twentieth century.
While he was heavily involved in the creation of underground stations,
Hutton's most notable work from this period with Holden is the
spectacular Senate House at London University.
During the late 1930s Charles Hutton returned to Liverpool to teach in
the Architectural School and he also taught in what is among the most
internationally known of architecture schools, the Architectural
Association of London.
The level of respect in which Hutton was held is indicated by his
subsequent position as deputy to Sir William Holford (later Lord
Holford). He worked with Holford to create munitions factories in Kirby,
Walsall, and Wolverhampton. Just before the end of the War, Hutton
opened his own practice in Welwyn Garden City.
His subsequent practice created the Murphy Radio Factory at Welwyn,
the Oxford University Field Station, and a number of notable industrial
and school buildings. In all of these, Hutton's translation of
traditional idioms and building techniques into carefully balanced and
more contemporary forms is apparent, his eye for detail always to the
fore.
In his late years, Hutton spent a great deal of time at the Art
Workers' Guild which he had joined in 1951. He was made Master in 1968,
and worked for a further 20 years as the guild's honorary architect.
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