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Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. BRITISH ARCHITECTURAL CRITICISM OF THE 1930S REACTIONS TO MODERNISM by Catherine F. A. Croit A thesis submitted to the Faculty of the University of Delaware in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Early American Culture August 1991 Copyright 1991 Catherine F. A. Croft Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. BRITISH ARCHITECTURAL CRITICISM OF THE 1930S REACTIONS TO MODERNISM by Catherine F. A. Croft Approved: ____________________________________________ Damie Stillman,A Ph.D. Professor in charge of thesis on behalf of the Advisory Committee Approved: d, C. Curtis, Ph.D. :or, Winterthur Program in Early American e Approved: d&A&t*! .___ Carol E. Hoffeck Ph.D. Acting Associate for Graduate Studies Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. PREFACE During 1988 I was involved in the preparation of two exhibitions to be held in London at the Royal Institute of British Architects' Heinz Gallery. One of these planned to examine a single building form, the airport terminal, as it evolved during one decade— the 1930s. The other offered a retrospective of the work of the prolific ecclesiastical architect Sir Ninian Comper (1864-1960). Perhaps inevitably, I was prompted to attempt to compare Camper's work of the 1930s with the airport buildings and also with the contemporary designs for London Transport underground stations, as Charles Holden's drawings for these were being prepared concurrently for a subsequent exhibition. Thus, for example, Comper's St. Philip's, Cosham, Portsmouth, 1935-39,1 and Ramsgate Municipal Airport, 'This building was selected by both Lord Berners and Sir John Betjeman as one of the best recent British buildings in an opinion poll organized in 1939 by Architects' Journal. See p. 51. Another example of Comper's work, St. Mary's, Wellingborough (1904-1931), was included in the R. I. B. A . ’s Centennial Exhibition, 1934. It was seen as encouraging evidence of plurality of approach? the catalogue included the following comment: iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. iv 1936/' by David Pleydell-Bouverie were both public buildings in southern coastal towns less than one-hundred-and-fifty miles apart going up at the same time- Both made use of modern building methods and materials/ yet the fusion of English Gothic and Mediterranean forms of the former seemed to have nothing in common with the latter’s sleek lines and wrap-around glazing. Whilst St. Peter’s is remarkable for its revival of the central plan of the Renaissance church, Ramsgate airport epitomized the machine aesthetic, with its swept-back plan deliberately airplane-shaped (a conceit that could only fully be appreciated from the air). At the Winterthur Museum, my growing interest in material culture methodology prompted me to re-examine British architecture of the 1930s. If, as Jules David Prawn concluded, artifacts are "excellent and special indexes of culture, concretations of the realities of belief of other It is to be hoped that such beautiful work on such sound traditional lines will be studied and admired alongside the more daring adventures in what we know as modern art (p. 147). *Now demolished. 3The columns and vaults of St. Peter’s are of fibrous plaster on steel and concrete; the windows are cast in artificial stone. Anthony Symondson, The Life and Work of Sir Ninian Comper (London: Royal Institute of British Architects, 1988), p. 25. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. V people in other times and places,"* what were the important beliefs in Britain in this period and why could I identify no coherent "cultural stylistic fingerprint"51. If the diversity that puzzled me was symptomatic of a diversity of ideals, I wanted to discover a method of understanding the relationship between these conflicting value systems. This led me to carry out a study of the architectural literature of the period, both in specialist and more general newspapers and magazines. I wanted to discover not only what opinions were held by contemporary critics, but what audience they appeared to believe themselves to be addressing and whether, in fact, they were successful in communicating with that audience. I should like to thank the many members of staff and fellow students at the Winterthur Museum and the University of Delaware who offered me advice and encouragement in connection with my thesis. I am particularly grateful to my adviser, Dr. Damie Stillman, to Amy Weisser, John Bacon and, in England, to Mark Turner of the Silver Studio and to my father, Roy Croft. ''"Mind in Matter," Winterthur Portfolio 17 (1982): 16. 5Jules David Prown, "Style as Evidence," Winterthur Portfolio 15 (1980): 200. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract........................................... vii Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION....................................... 1 2. THE 1930S— A DECADE OF CHANGE AND DIVISION.......... 7 3. THE 1930S— A DECADE OF ARCHITECTURAL REJUVENATION. 19 4. ARCHITECTURAL CRITICS OF THE 1930S................. 26 5. LEARNING ABOUT ARCHITECTURE— ALTERNATIVES TO WRITTEN CRITICISM.................. 36 6. THE AUDIENCE FOR ARCHITECTURAL CRITICISM........... 44 7. THE IMPORTANCE OF LINGUISTIC STYLE................. 54 8. HUMOR IN ARCHITECTURAL CRITICISM................... 66 9. CONCLUSION........................................ 73 Bibliography................ 80 vi Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT This thesis analyses British architectural criticism of the 1930s in both specialist and general-interest books and periodicals. It concentrates on the reactions to European modernism, noting that the evident split between modernists and traditionalists is symptomatic of a universal polarity of opinion during this decade. Both modernist and traditionalist critics reinforced their arguments through the deliberate exploitation of linguistic style, paralleling the stylistic diversity of built form. The humor of architectural criticism and its intended audience are also examined. It is concluded that both traditionalists and,more surprisingly, modernists were writing for a middle-class intellectual elite. It is proposed that the discontinuity of architectural discourse caused by World War II allowed for a subsequent de-contextualized reading of 1930s criticism. vii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. viii Two myths were thus established— that modernism was understood and admired by the whole population during the 1930s and that modernism was perceived as suitable for domestic buildings. Evidence indicates that neither was true. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION The architectural literature of the 1930s is remarkable for a diversity similar to that exhibited by actual buildings erected during the period. There is a parallel split in both linguistic style and subject matter between those works that sought to promote International Style architecture and those that gave voice to more conservative opinions.