Building On Our Values

On our 60th anniversary, we talk to Lady Grenfell Baines, the widow of our founder Sir George (GG), about the history of the practice since its establishment in Preston in 1961. She talks about GG’s relationship with Walter Gropius, the cultural significance of BDP in the north of England and the influence of the practice on modern architectural and engineering methods today.

Hello Milena and thank you for taking the time to speak with us. You met GG in the 1950s, before BDP was established, so how did you meet and what was life like in the early days of the practice?

In the Jewish religion it is common to have a shadchan, a matchmaker who introduces the bride to the bridegroom. Funnily enough, it was my father who introduced me to George. I had just come back from France, where I had worked as an au pair for two years. My father said he had met a man at the Preston film society who I might quite like and it took a couple of years before he proposed but the rest is history!

At the time the practice was known as Grenfell Baines and Hargreaves and the studio was in a narrow street in Preston above a row of shops – and it was all open plan. Even back then George was very keen on natural health and he organised a masseur to come to the studio on a weekly basis. Some people might have thought it a bit odd but George was way ahead of his time when it came to the wellbeing of his people.

Lady Grenfell Baines

The practice was always very sociable. In the summers there were regular picnics, and in those days, the young members of staff would go out the day before and lay a trail out into the countryside, which usually led to a place by a river where we would all meet to swim and play games. Everyone was given a map and brought their families along. We had some wonderful times!

GG and the founding partners famously met at Bryn Mor in Anglesey to officially launch Building Design Partnership, as it was then. Do you recall this moment?

Yes indeed – George and all the partners met at Bryn Mor, the holiday home for the practice, in April 1961. Thoughts about a new name for the practice were being aired and a decision was made to call it Design Partnership, but it was discovered there was another company with an identical name. I don’t know who had the idea to add the Building but that’s what it became. Some members did not want to change the name as Grenfell Baines and Hargreaves was already well known. However George knew that there were many gifted people in the practice and didn’t want to attribute the work to just one or two single names. Everyone was to be recognised as an individual in an environment which brought everybody together.

Younger George with beer

Back then GG said that they were planning for the future. Do you think he would be pleased with the direction of the practice today?

It was always about continual improvement and growing the business as a collective. George was always confident, very optimistic and would always say “keep going, getting better.” He had tremendous faith in the practice and its people and he would certainly be proud now.

Published 1965

What was BDP like during the 1960s - the people, the ethos, and the atmosphere of the practice?

The studios were always busy and bustling. For a time, I worked in the print shop below the studio in Vernon Street in Preston and you can only imagine how active it was. You don’t get ‘double elephant’ sized paper anymore but that was what I used to work with, printing, folding, and rolling drawings. It was so successful that occasionally we were printing drawings for other firms! Vernon Street was a meeting place for the great and good of architecture and engineering in the north of England.

In the mid-sixties Frank Lord made a number of films about the practice. Once they closed Fishergate for about ten minutes so that he could film a car driving down the road with a group of smartly dressed BDP architects running after it – I’d love to see those films today; they really gave a sense of what it was like to be part of the BDP team.

We have copies of letters to GG from other famous architects. What relationship did GG have with other firms – was it competitive or collaborative?

I remember when we would holiday at Bryn Mor, we were quite close to the architect Donald Gibson and his family, we would often go for walks together.

Everyone was in competition but over the years we met a lot of the UK’s eminent architects. The RIBA in London has names on a plaque of all of the past presidents and I knew many of them. George set up regular visits for famous architects to the school of architecture in Sheffield, so they would often come and stay with us. George was a very good after dinner speaker and was very much in demand amongst his peers so he made many connections.

I’ve kept a wonderful letter from Hugh Casson to George thanking him for his visit, the concert he attended in Preston - and the Lancashire cheese I gave him! George was invited to design the Power and Production Pavilion for the Festival of Britain, the only northern architect asked to do so, and met the engineer Felix Samuely – who designed the Skylon. Felix was also a refugee, originally from Vienna, and from that meeting they collaborated together on a number of buildings. Eventually Felix became godfather to our son George.

Power and Production Pavilion, Festival of Britain

What relationship did GG and BDP have with the RIBA?

Well, the idea to create a interdisciplinary practice didn’t go down too well with the RIBA. I’m not saying the relationship was standoffish but George knew that many architects thought of themselves with a capital ‘A’.

He learned about construction and building before he learned about architecture and he always felt that builders and engineers and clients should be involved together from the outset. He was influenced by Walter Gropius, his style and the idea of merging professions. George met Walter in Cambridge when he was giving lectures in various universities throughout the USA. George asked Gropius’ secretary for a meeting and was told he could have ten minutes. They spent more than three hours together that day!

What was it like when Preston Bus Station was being built and how did you feel all those years later when the local and national community stepped in to prevent its demolition?

Charlie Wilson and Keith Ingham were the lead architects and although George was absolutely involved, the ethos of the practice was such that these talented architects were given free reign over the design. They used to have design sessions on every building but ultimately, the lead designer would have the final say.

Very sadly, soon after the bus station opened it was the victim of vandalism. There was a splendid carpeted waiting room and glass showcases along the length of the station where local shops could display their goods. Unfortunately they were all smashed and never replaced. I’m so glad to see that the building has been so well restored. There is a splendid piazza outside – the council has excelled itself in making the bus station the most popular building in Preston.

People are starting to realise what a splendid building this is, even though now only half of it is being used as an actual station. It has stood the test of time and I am proud that the local community feels a sense of ownership. It has also been classed as one of the thousand buildings one should see in one’s lifetime.

George Grenfell Baines, centre, with colleagues (1959)

BDP built a new studio in Vernon Street in 1968 which was modelled on the radical Bürolandschaft open plan idea. What impact did that have on the teams?

When the practice outgrew the original studio in Preston we found the ex-furniture store at Vernon Street, but we couldn’t afford it as the bank would not lend us the extra money. George had the idea to ask if any member of the firm would like to contribute towards costs with, of course, a very good interest in return. Within a week staff had offered £25,000, which was enough to buy the premises.

At that time Vernon Street was the first Bürolandschaft office space in Britain. It was quite a radical open plan format but George made sure he had his own office – the only one! I remember vividly that we had a lovely green carpet and a lot of plants. Fashion flourished and there was a good feeling of camaraderie.

Vernon Street also became a cultural venue – can you tell us more about some of the performers who came there?

When past chairman Keith Scott was travelling around the United States, he discovered that the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright would regularly organise classical music sessions in his office. The BDP partners agreed to Keith’s proposal and purchased a particularly good piano - a must to attract top musicians. We became known as the BDP Music Society, hosting some of the most famous musicians in the world. Roger Park, father of Nick Park of Wallace and Gromit fame, was our photographer and he captured every visiting artist. Keith would offer excellent hospitality, including a stay at his own holiday home in the Lake District. Violinist Nigel Kennedy played, as did pianists such as Alfred Brendel, András Schiff, and Dimitri Alexeev; 40 years of international performers visited Preston to play and enjoy an evening socialising afterwards. Once a month I took charge of preparing supper for our audience of 200+ who, having invariably enjoyed the evening, would depart only when we switched the lights off.

What aspect of architecture today would GG be most interested in?

Well, he was always thinking with a socialist and progressive hat on. He designed a lot of housing in the early days but winning the Pilgrim Hospital in Boston in 1961 really pushed the practice in a new direction. With healthcare, he always believed that there should be a doctor or nurse on the design team to steer the architects in the right direction and stimulate new ideas. He needed to hear from the people who were going to use the building day in, day out.

George Grenfell Baines at a music society event

You and GG travelled quite a lot and must have met some people and seen some buildings which inspired you both – can you tell us any that particularly stood out?

George Grenfell Baines at a music society event George was quite impressed and surprised when we travelled through old Czechoslovakia. We saw buildings by Adolf Loos, designs by Mies van der Rohe and he was amazed and surprised by some of the very modern architecture in Russia, where he went on a two month lecture tour. He returned from that trip with 2,000 slides of buildings which had never been illustrated in any architectural magazines in the UK. This was in 1971 and unbelievably at no time was he ever stopped from taking a photo.

GG was a trailblazer. One of the things he did was set up the Design Teaching Practice in Sheffield. Why did he do this?

It was pioneering. He felt students needed to get experience working on real buildings, so he opened a small studio in Sheffield. He had an architect in charge but the staff were students working on real projects; he called it Design Teaching Practice. The BDP studio in Sheffield grew from that.

Having worked from the age of 14 for a quantity surveyor, attending night school to learn about buildings, working as a draughtsman in the county architects’ office and not starting university until he was 25, he found himself streets ahead on some subjects. He achieved three years’ study in just two, went on to win the Heyward Medal and for his final thesis entered a global competition for Parliament buildings in what was then Rhodesia – much against the advice of his tutor. He won the third prize of £350, which as he said, was enough to open his own studio in his parents’ front room. He was brilliant at mental arithmetic, using his slide ruler, (I wonder if anyone knows what that is) and had absolutely no trouble in converting inches to centimetres.

GG said, “Take responsibility where you see it.” What advice would you have for young designers today and the future leaders of the practice?

To appreciate another person’s point of view. ‘Responsibility, recognition and reward’ was the mantra George lived by and I can tell you, it worked. Listening and being interested in other people was absolutely in George’s nature and it is clear that has filtered through to the personality of the practice today.

Keep going, keep getting better.