{{Short description|New Zealand architect and teacher, 1893–1960, active in England}} '''George Checkley''' (19 December 1893 – 17 November 1960) was a New Zealand-born architect and academic, who predominantly worked in the UK. He is known for being among the architects to introduce Modernist buildings to the UK, particularly with two of his houses in Cambridge – the White House (1930–31) and Thurso, now known as Willow House (1932–33). Willow House has been described as "close to being a text-book demonstration of Le Corbusier's architectural principles". After teaching at the University of Cambridge's School of Architecture (1925–34), Checkley successively headed the Schools of Architecture at Regent Street Polytechnic (1934–37) and the University of Nottingham (1937–48), where he also established a School of Town and County Planning.
==Early life and education== Checkley was born in Akaroa, New Zealand, in 1893,<ref name=Powers /><ref name=Welsh /> to Mary Pauline née Dallas and George Checkley (born 1865), a farmer.<ref name=engagement /><ref name=Canterbury_Mus /> His grandfather of the same name was a dock worker, farmer, trader and inventor, who originally came from Grimsby, Lincolnshire.<ref name=Canterbury_Mus /> He was educated at the Boys' School, Christchurch, and then attended the University of Canterbury, studying architecture for a year, and also worked briefly in the Christchurch practice of the prominent architect Cecil Walter Wood.<ref name=Powers /><ref name=Welsh /> During the First World War, he was in the New Zealand Expeditionary Forces for 3.5 years, serving in France and Egypt.<ref name=Powers /><ref name=Welsh /><ref name=Times_1922 />
In 1919, he moved to the UK, studying at the University of Liverpool's School of Architecture (1919–22), under a former serviceman's grant from the New Zealand government.<ref name=Powers /><ref name=Times_1922 /><ref name=Findlay /> He was one of several architects later prominent as British modernists who came from the British colonies and arrived in the UK at around this date; the others include Amyas Connell and Basil Ward (also from New Zealand), Raymond McGrath (Australia), and Wells Coates (Canada).<ref name=Powers_2013 /><ref name=Groves_England /> At Liverpool, Checkley was taught by Charles Reilly, among others, and was a contemporary of Maxwell Fry.<ref>Richmond, p. 160</ref><ref name=Campbell /> After graduating, Checkley spent a year at the British School in Rome, as the recipient of the Royal Institute of British Architects's Henry Jarvis Studentship of 1922;<ref name=Powers /><ref name=Welsh /><ref name=Times_1922 /> his work while in Rome was awarded an MA from the University of Liverpool.<ref name=Welsh />
==Career== In 1925, Checkley obtained a lecturership or demonstrator position at the University of Cambridge's School of Architecture.<ref name=Powers /><ref name=Saint /> There he became part of a prominent group of architects born in the British colonies, including the Australian Raymond McGrath.<ref name=Findlay /> Checkley left Cambridge in 1934 to serve as Master of the Regent Street Polytechnic's School of Architecture (1934–37; now the University of Westminster).<ref name=Powers /><ref name=Welsh /> He also maintained an architectural practice in Cambridge and London.<ref name=Welsh />
From 1937 until his retirement in 1948, he headed University of Nottingham's School of Architecture.<ref name=Powers /><ref name=Welsh /> There he established a five-year course, which was recognised by RIBA in 1941. He also established the university's School of Town and County Planning in 1942. He taught students but did not lecture.<ref name=Welsh /> The demands of his later academic career seem to have put an end to his architectural practice;<ref name=Powers /> Thurso (Willow House) of 1932–33 was his final building.<ref name=Powers_2005 /><ref>Bradley & Pevsner, p. 342</ref>
[[File:Whitehouse, Conduit Head Road, Cambridge.jpg|thumb|right|Front face of the White House]] Checkley was described as a "remarkable teacher";<ref name=Graham_obit /> his notable students include Colin Lucas (1906–84), of Connell, Ward & Lucas,<ref name=Lucas /> and probably Dora Cosens<ref>Powers 2005, pp. 94–95</ref> at Cambridge, and Gordon Graham (1920–97), at both Cambridge and Nottingham.<ref name=Graham_obit />
==Architectural style and buildings== Checkley's year in continental Europe on the Henry Jarvis Studentship gave him more experience of the Modernist movement in architecture than the majority of architects then working in the UK.<ref name=Powers /><ref name= AJ_2003 /> He is among a group of architects credited with introducing Modernist buildings to the UK,<ref name=Powers_2005>Powers 2005, pp. 72–73</ref><ref name=Cole /> as well as introducing the changes necessary to cope with the British climate. Other early proponents include Berthold Lubetkin, Wells Coates, F. R. S. Yorke, Maxwell Fry, Leslie Martin and Sadie Speight.<ref name=Cole /> Checkley's most notable buildings were completed in the early 1930s in Cambridge: two Modernist-style houses on Conduit Head Road in the west of the town.<ref name=Powers /><ref name=AJ_2003 /><ref>Richmond, pp. 110, 146</ref> They are among the earliest Le Corbusier-influenced, white, flat-roofed buildings in England, in the style also referred to as the International Style or International Modern.<ref name=Powers /><ref name=Hawkes /><ref name=Rawle_p62>Rawle, p. 62</ref>{{efn|According to Historic England, the earliest "truly convincing essay in the international style in England" was High and Over in Amersham by Amyas D. Connell, completed in 1930;<ref name=Listing_HighOver /> it was preceded by the Modernist New Ways in Northampton, by Peter Behrens (1923–5).<ref name=Groves_England />}}
thumb|left|Front face of Willow House (Thurso) The first, the White House (1930–31), is the first Modernist house in Cambridge,<ref name=Pevsner>Bradley & Pevsner, pp. 35, 342, plate 112</ref><ref name=Gould /> and among the earliest in Britain.<ref name=Powers_2005 /> It is listed at grade II.<ref name=Listing_WhiteHse /> Checkley built the house for himself, on a symmetrical plan, using white-rendered brick and a concrete frame.<ref name=Powers /><ref name=Pevsner /><ref name=Listing_WhiteHse /> A contemporary report in ''The Times'' describes the White House as lacking "ornamental excrescences" to "impair the rectangularity of a long, low elevation" interrupted only by windows. The article goes on to characterise the building as "an object-lesson in a new form of house", which forms a "vivid contrast to the historic and conventional styles of architecture of which Cambridge is so rich."<ref name=Times_1931 /> The architectural historians Simon Bradley and Nikolaus Pevsner describe it in 2014 as having "all the requisites – but lifeless".<ref name=Pevsner />
The slightly later Thurso, later renamed Willow House (1932–33), built for the chemist Hamilton McCombie,<ref name=Pevsner /><ref name=McCombie_obit /> is described by the architecture scholar Alan Powers as "close to being a text-book demonstration of Le Corbusier's architectural principles". It is listed at grade II*,<ref name=Listing_WillowHse /> denoting "particularly important buildings of more than special interest".<ref name=Listing /> Using the same type of construction as the White House, it has a less-regular plan, featuring split levels and a roof terrace.<ref name=Powers /><ref name=Pevsner /><ref name=Listing_WillowHse /> Bradley and Pevsner consider Thurso "altogether livelier" than the White House.<ref name=Pevsner /> A 2003 article in the ''Architects' Journal'' finds Thurso's garden front to be more convincingly Modernist than its front face.<ref name=AJ_2003 /> Dean Hawkes observes that the house adheres to the environmental precepts of Arts and Crafts movement architecture, and detects inspiration from C. F. A. Voysey's Broad Leys of 1898.<ref name=Hawkes />
In addition to ''The Times'', Checkley's work was documented in contemporary articles in ''The Architect & Building News'', the ''Architects' Journal'' and ''The Listener'', as well as in Yorke's text, ''The Modern House in England'' (1937).<ref name=Powers /><ref name=Powers_2005 /><ref name=Gould /><ref name=Rich />
==Personal life== Checkley married the architect Isabel Maud Chambers, the daughter of Dr James Chambers of Roehampton, during his time in Cambridge. She had trained at the Architectural Association, and the two met in Rome while she was a Bernard Webb scholar, and were engaged in 1926.<ref name=Welsh /><ref name=engagement /><ref name=Powers_2005 /> Isabel Checkley had a long-term illness, and her death precipitated depression in Checkley which led to his early retirement in 1948.<ref name=Welsh /><ref name=Powers_2005 /> His character was described as "retiring",<ref name=Findlay /> with a "shy and aloof manner".<ref name=Welsh />
He died in Nottingham on 17 November 1960.<ref name=Powers /><ref name=Welsh />
==References and notes== {{notes}} <references>
<ref name= AJ_2003>[https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/archive/balancing-act-2 Balancing act]. ''Architects' Journal'' (16 October 2003) (accessed 10 October 2022)</ref>
<ref name=Campbell>Louise Campbell (2001). The studios of Augustus John. ''The British Art Journal'' 2 (3): 54–62 {{JSTOR|41615074}}</ref>
<ref name=Canterbury_Mus>George Ranald Macdonald (1952–64). [https://collection.canterburymuseum.com/objects/709265/macdonald-dictionary-record-george-checkley Macdonald Dictionary Record: George Checkley], Canterbury Museum (accessed 23 October 2022)</ref>
<ref name=Cole>Raymond J. Cole (2012). Accommodating the British climate. ''Building Research & Information'' 40 (5): 638–42 </ref>
<ref name=engagement>Forthcoming marriages. ''The Times'' (44306), p. 19 (24 June 1926)</ref>
<ref name=Findlay>Michael Findlay (2008). So High You Can't Get Over It: Neo-classicism, Modernism and Colonial Practice in the Forming of a Twentieth-century Architectural Landmark. ''Interstices: Journal of Architecture and Related Arts'' 9 (9): 47–59 {{doi|10.24135/ijara.v0i0.344}}</ref>
<ref name=Gould>Jeremy Gould (1996). Gazetteer of Modern Houses in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. ''Twentieth Century Architecture'' (2): 112–128 {{JSTOR|41859593}}</ref>
<ref name=Graham_obit>Gordon Graham; Obituary. ''The Times'', p. 23 (9 October 1997)</ref>
<ref name=Groves_England>Brian Allen, Lin Barton, Nicola Coldstream, Maurice Howard, Tanis Hinchcliffe, Stefan Muthesius et al. (2003). England. ''Grove Art Online'' (Oxford University Press) {{doi|10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T026083}}</ref>
<ref name=Hawkes>Dean Hawkes. Sustainability and architectural synthesis. In: ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=ee4XH1wFFFYC Architecture, City, Environment: Proceedings of PLEA 2000: July 2000, Cambridge, United Kingdom]'', pp. 3–9 (Koen Steemers, Simos Yannas, eds) (Earthscan; 2000) {{isbn|9781902916163}}</ref>
<ref name=Listing>[https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/what-is-designation/listed-buildings/ Listed Buildings], Historic England (accessed 20 September 2022)</ref>
<ref name=Listing_HighOver>[https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1237711 High and Over with attached walls, steps and pergola, Highover Park], ''National Heritage List for England'', Historic England (accessed 14 October 2022)</ref>
<ref name=Listing_WhiteHse>[https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1126037 White House, Conduit Head Road], ''National Heritage List for England'', Historic England (accessed 14 October 2022)</ref>
<ref name=Listing_WillowHse>[https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1331936 Willow House, Conduit Head Road] ''National Heritage List for England'', Historic England (accessed 15 October 2022)</ref>
<ref name=Lucas>[https://calmview.co.uk//PaulMellonCentre/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=DCS%2f2%2f2%2f4&pos=1 Colin Lucas], Paul Mellon Centre (accessed 23 October 2022)</ref>
<ref name=McCombie_obit>N. A. Dudley (1962). [https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1038/195121b0.pdf Dr. H. McCombie]. ''Nature'' (4837): 121; Dr. Hamilton McCombie. ''The Times'' (55409), p. 23 (5 June 1962)</ref>
<ref name=Powers>Alan Powers (2003). Checkley, George. ''Grove Art Online'' (Oxford University Press) {{doi|10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T016221}}</ref>
<ref name=Powers_2013>Alan Powers (2013). Exhibition 58: "Modern Architecture in England," Museum of Modern Art, 1937. ''Architectural History'' 56: 277–98 {{JSTOR|43489737}}</ref>
<ref name=Rich>Laurence Rich (3 January 2003). [https://c20society.org.uk/casework/willow-house-cambridge Willow House, Cambridge], Twentieth Century Society (accessed 10 October 2022)</ref>
<ref name=Saint>Andrew Saint (2006). [https://www.arct.cam.ac.uk/aboutthedepartment/aboutthedepthome The Cambridge School of Architecture: a Brief History], Department of Architecture, University of Cambridge (accessed 13 October 2022)</ref>
<ref name=Times_1922>Rome Scholarship In Architecture. ''The Times'' (43068) p. 5 (27 June 1922)</ref>
<ref name=Times_1931>The Estate Market: A Concrete House: Deferred Auctions. ''The Times'' (45960) p. 22 (22 October 1931)</ref>
<ref name=Welsh>Stephen Welsh (1961). Obituary: George Checkley. ''Royal Institute of British Architects Journal'' 68 (3): 105</ref>
</references> '''Sources''' *Simon Bradley, Nikolaus Pevsner. ''Cambridgeshire'' (''The Buildings of England'' series) (Yale University Press; 2014) {{isbn|978-0-300-20596-1}} *Alan Powers. ''Modern: The Modern Movement in Britain'' (Merrell; 2005) {{isbn|9781858942551}} *Tim Rawle. ''Cambridge Architecture'' (2nd edn) (André Deutsch; 1993) {{isbn|0-233-98818-1}} *Peter Richmond. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=qaVYKfxaTOwC Marketing Modernisms: The Architecture and Influence of Charles Reilly]'' (Liverpool University Press; 2001) {{isbn|9780853237563}}
==Further reading== *F. R. S. Yorke. ''The Modern House in England'' (1937), pp. 17, 76–77 ==External links== *[http://www.cambridge2000.com/cambridge2000/html/architect_builder/George_Checkley.html George Checkley] at Cambridge 2000, with photographs of both Cambridge houses {{DEFAULTSORT:Checkley, George}} Category:1893 births Category:1960 deaths Category:People from Akaroa Category:University of Canterbury alumni Category:Alumni of the University of Liverpool Category:Academics of the University of Cambridge Category:Academics of the University of Westminster Category:Academics of the University of Nottingham Category:Modernist architects Category:International Style architects Category:20th-century New Zealand architects Category:20th-century English architects Category:New Zealand emigrants to England