David Winpenny, the speaker at the September u3a meeting, spoke about the architect Sir Edwin Lutyens, and described him as ‘a Singular and Delightful Man’. Lutyens was born in London in 1869. As a child, he suffered from rheumatic fever and could not attend normal school. He was educated at home and displayed a talent for drawing and mathematics. At the age of 15 he attended the Royal College of Art, but left without completing the course, and yet at the age of 19, he established his own architectural practice. His early houses were strongly influenced by traditional English architecture, particularly the Arts and Crafts movement. He developed a friendship and professional collaboration with the garden designer Gertrude Jekyll, and they designed many country houses and gardens together, including the conversion and refurbishment of Lindisfarne Castle on Holy Island. Gertrude was a very practical gardener and was nicknamed ‘the Queen of Spades’. Lutyens collaborated with her until her death in 1889.
In 1911, George V visited India and announced that the Indian capital would move from Calcutta to Delhi, leading to the development of New Delhi. Lutyens and Herbert Baker were appointed the principal architects. The site was enormous, accommodating civic buildings, open gardens and a new house for the Viceroy, which was larger than the palace of Versailles. The design for the house also incorporated Buddhist stupa forms.
After WW1 Lutyens was asked to design some of Britain’s war memorials, the most famous being the Cenotaph in Whitehall. It represents an empty tomb, originally built in wood, which was subsequently rebuilt permanently in Portland Stone. He designed many other memorials outside Britain, including the Thiepval Memorial in Northern France, dedicated to the missing of the Somme.
A miniature mansion doll’s house was built for Queen Mary, which includes fully functioning miniature objects made by British manufacturers, incorporating a library with real books written by well-known authors, and flushing toilets.
He designed a proposal for the Roman Catholic Cathedral in Liverpool, intended to rival St Peter’s in Rome, but only the crypt was built to his plan. Lutyens supposedly said that the spiral staircase should be built so there was nothing to stop choirboys sliding down.
Lutyens died in 1944 and his ashes were interred in the crypt of St Paul’s Cathedral. The next meeting will be held on Thursday 22nd October when Gordon Hetherington will be speaking on ‘Gertrude Bell, the uncrowned Queen of Iraq’.
Ian Reid