George Finch (architect)
| George Finch | |
|---|---|
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| Born |
8 October 1930 Tottenham, London, U.K. |
| Died | 13 February 2013 (aged 82) Winchester, U.K. |
| Nationality | English |
| Occupation | Architect |
| Spouse(s) | Brenda Vicary (divorced) |
| Partner(s) | Kate Macintosh |
| Children | Alison Finch, Emma Finch, Sarah Finch, Adam Finch, Jonny Finch, Sean Macintosh |
| Buildings | Lambeth Towers, Cotton Gardens, Brixton Recreational Centre |
George Finch (8 October 1930 – 13 February 2013) was a British architect. He was a committed socialist who believed architecture had the power to transform the lives of post-war Londoners. Finch's ideals drove his passion for designing social housing, civic and environmental buildings for everyday people built to the highest building standards.
Finch was born in Tottenham, the son of a milkman. During WWII, he and his sister, Shirley, were evacuated to Saffron Walden, Essex, where he attended Newport Free Grammar School. Finch then studied architecture, at North London Polytechnic (now London Metropolitan University), moving in 1950 to the Architectural Association School of Architecture. He graduated in 1955 from a year that included Neave Brown, Kenneth Frampton, Patrick Hodgkinson, William Gillitt and Roy Stout.
Finch then joined the London County Council Architects Department, under Leslie Martin, where his designs exemplified Mixed Development – the dominant ideology for housing in the 1950s.
In his reworking of a scheme for Spring Walk, Stepney, he used space freed up at the base of the ten-storey blocks to build flats for the elderly and family houses. These were the earliest two-storey terraced houses to be built by the London County Council and were unique in central London at the time. Finch also introduced sculptural expression into the blocks and added roof gardens to the upper flats.
This was followed by work on Suffolk Estate in Haggerston (1963), an early low-rise, high-density scheme, again with a mixture of houses as well as flats.
When the London Boroughs were granted responsibility for housing in 1964, Edward "Ted" Hollamby, who was chief architect to Lambeth, invited Finch to join the new Architect's Department and, working with structural engineer Edmund Happold, then of Ove Arup, he produced some of the work for which is best be remembered.
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