1. Charles Holden created many war cemeteries in Belgium and northern France for the Imperial War Graves Commission.
54 Facts About Charles Holden
1. 2.
Charles Holden believed strongly that architectural designs should be dictated by buildings' intended functions.
3.
Charles Holden was a member of the Design and Industries Association and the Art Workers' Guild.
4.
Charles Holden produced complete designs for his buildings including the interior design and architectural fittings.
5.
Charles Holden was awarded the Royal Institute of British Architects' Royal Gold Medal for architecture in 1936 and was appointed a Royal Designer for Industry in 1943.
6.
Charles Holden's childhood was marred by his father's bankruptcy in 1884 and his mother's death when he was fifteen years old.
7.
Charles Holden briefly had jobs as a laboratory assistant and a railway clerk in St Helens.
8.
About this time Charles Holden was introduced to the writings of Walt Whitman and became friends with James William Wallace and a number of the members of Bolton's Whitman society known as the "Eagle Street College".
9.
Charles Holden incorporated many of their philosophies and principles into his style of living and method of working.
10.
In 1895 and 1896 Charles Holden submitted designs to Building News Designing Club competitions using the pseudonym "The Owl".
11.
Charles Holden described the design as being inspired by the work of John Belcher, Edgar Wood and Arthur Beresford Pite.
12.
Around 1898 Charles Holden began living with Margaret Steadman, a nurse and midwife.
13.
Steadman and her husband were never divorced and, though she and Charles Holden lived as a married couple and Charles Holden referred to her as his wife, the relationship was never formalised, even after James Steadman's death in 1930.
14.
Around 1906, they moved to Harmer Green near Welwyn, where Charles Holden designed a house for them.
15.
Charles and Margaret Holden lived at Harmer Green for the rest of their lives.
16.
Charles Holden soon took charge of most of the practice's design work.
17.
From 1900 to 1903, Charles Holden studied architecture in the evenings at the Royal Academy School.
18.
Charles Holden continued to produce designs in his spare time for his brother-in-law and Jonathan Simpson.
19.
In 1902, Charles Holden won the architectural competition to design the Bristol Central Library.
20.
At Midhurst, West Sussex, Charles Holden designed Tudor-style facades for the Sir Ernest Cassel-funded King Edward VII Sanatorium.
21.
Charles Holden designed the sanitorium's V-shaped open-air chapel so that it could be used for both outdoor and indoor worship.
22.
In 1906, Charles Holden won the architectural competition to design a new headquarters for the British Medical Association on the corner of The Strand and Agar Street.
23.
In 1909, Charles Holden won the design competition for an extension to the Bristol Royal Infirmary.
24.
Subsequently, dedicated to the memory of King Edward VII, the extension was built on steeply sloping ground for which Charles Holden designed a linked pair of Portland stone-faced blocks around a courtyard.
25.
Charles Holden travelled to America in April 1913 and studied the organisation of household and social science departments at American universities in preparation for his design of the Wren-influenced Kings College for Women, Kensington.
26.
Charles Holden worked with Epstein on the tomb of Oscar Wilde at Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris.
27.
Charles Holden served with the Red Cross's London Ambulance Column as a stretcher-bearer transferring wounded troops from London's stations to its hospitals.
28.
Charles Holden served on the fire watch at St Paul's Cathedral between 1915 and 1917.
29.
On 3 October 1917, Charles Holden was appointed a temporary lieutenant with the army's Directorate of Graves Registration and Enquiries.
30.
Charles Holden travelled to the French battlefields for the first time later that month and began planning new cemeteries and expanding existing ones.
31.
In September 1918, Charles Holden transferred to the Imperial War Graves Commission with the new rank of major.
32.
Charles Holden worked on the experimental war cemetery at Louvencourt and, according to Geurst and Karol, probably on the one at Forceville that was selected as the prototype for all that followed.
33.
Charles Holden's designs were stripped of ornament, often using simply detailed masses of Portland stone in the construction of the shelters and other architectural elements.
34.
In 1922, Charles Holden designed the War Memorial Gateway for Clifton College, Bristol, using a combination of limestone and gritstone to match the Gothic style of the school's buildings.
35.
Charles Holden advised Heaps on new facades for a number of the existing stations on the line and produced the design for a new entrance at Bond Street station on the Central London Railway.
36.
At Piccadilly Circus, one of the busiest stations on the system, Charles Holden designed a spacious travertine-lined circulating concourse and ticket hall below the roadway of the junction from which banks of escalators gave access to the platforms below.
37.
In 1926, Charles Holden began the design of a new headquarters for the UERL at 55 Broadway above St James's Park station.
38.
In 1930, Charles Holden and Pick made a tour of Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden to see the latest developments in modern architecture.
39.
Also notable on the northern extension is Southgate station; here Charles Holden designed a single-storey circular building with a canopied flat roof.
40.
Charles Holden was a member of the RIBA's twelve-man committee which formulated the institute's policy for post-war reconstruction.
41.
Charles Holden's town planning ideas involved the relocation of industry out of towns and cities to new industrial centres in the style of Port Sunlight or Bournville where workers could live close to their workplace.
42.
Charles Holden was approached, and he accepted provided that William Holford be appointed.
43.
In 1947, Charles Holden planned a scheme on behalf of the London County Council for the South Bank of the River Thames between County Hall and Waterloo Bridge, including a plan for a concert hall with the council's architect Edwin Williams.
44.
Charles Holden was architectural and planning consultant to the University of Edinburgh and to the Borough of Tynemouth.
45.
Charles Holden did not formally retire until 1958, but even then he visited occasionally.
46.
The last project that Charles Holden worked on was a much criticised headquarters building for English Electric in Aldwych, London.
47.
Charles Holden was cremated at Enfield Crematorium and his ashes were spread in the garden of the Friends' Meeting House in Hertford.
48.
On 2 June 1960 a memorial service was held at St Pancras New Church, where Charles Holden had designed the altar in 1914.
49.
Charles Holden won the RIBA's London Architecture Medal for 1929 for 55 Broadway.
50.
Charles Holden was Vice President of the RIBA from 1935 to 1937 and a member of the Royal Fine Art Commission from 1933 to 1947.
51.
Charles Holden was awarded honorary doctorates by Manchester University in 1936 and London University in 1946.
52.
Many of Charles Holden's buildings have been granted listed status, protecting them against demolition and unapproved alteration.
53.
Charles Holden declined the invitation to become a Royal Academician in 1942, having previously been nominated, but refused because of his connection to Epstein.
54.
Charles Holden twice declined a knighthood, in 1943 and 1951, as he considered it to be at odds with his simple lifestyle and considered architecture a collaborative process.