BUILT HERITAGE
An architect’s practice
Main photo: The old West Park Pavilion. Photo in circle: Roy Blampied.
Some of the most recognisable buildings in the Island were designed by the architect Roy Blampied. The Occupation and his early death in 1946 have both contributed to a lack of modern recognition of his work
R
emember the ‘Pav’, the West Park Pavilion? It was designed by Roy Blampied. Many of the Island’s most familiar buildings were designed by him and his practice, as well as many private homes. Nowadays, although memory of his life and work have faded, it could be said of Blampied, as in Wren’s epitaph in St Paul’s: ‘If you would seek my monument, look around you.’ Unfortunately we cannot now look at the West Park Pavilion, since it was demolished in 1999 and replaced by a block of flats.
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In its heyday in the 1950s it was a popular dancehall - later a discothèque - and one of the most familiar buildings and popular entertainment venues in Jersey. It was simply an integral part of Island life and the town landscape. Roy Blampied’s son, Jurat Peter Blampied, wrote in a booklet about his father: ‘A biographical error attributed the design of the West Park Pavilion to Arthur Grayson and the Internet repeats this error.’
‘Once made, the error has gathered momentum and I owe it to my father’s memory to establish that West Park Pavilion was designed by my father.’
