{{Short description|English architect (born 1888)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2024}} {{Multiple issues| {{More citations |date=July 2024}} {{Layout|date=July 2024}} }} thumb|Thomas Rayson ''(left)'' and Canon Crosse ''(right)'' on top of the tower of St Mary's Church, Henley, Oxfordshire in December 1955
'''Thomas Rayson''' (5 December 1888 – 28 January 1976) was an English architect who practised in Oxford, and also a watercolourist.
==Family== Rayson was born in Madras, India, on 5 December 1888, the second son of William John Rayson, who was then a railway engineer with the Locomotion Fabrication Plant for Indian Railways, and his wife Elizabeth A. English. The family returned to England in 1890 and initially stayed at 8 Chandos Road, West Ham, with the family of Thomas's maternal grandfather James English, who was a foreman boiler maker.<ref>1891 census</ref> Thomas's father then took over the Union Flag pub at 178 Lambeth Road, London.<ref>1901 census</ref>
Thomas Rayson married Helen Hilton in 1933, and they had two children: Christopher (1934) and Julia (1937).<ref>[http://www.freebmd.org.uk/ Free BMD]</ref>
He died at the Churchill Hospital, Oxford, on 28 January 1976.<ref>Death notice in ''The Times'', 31 January 1976, p. 24</ref>
==Education== Rayson served articles with Robert Curwen of Bishopsgate Street in London, and then studied under Professor Arthur Beresford Pite and James Black Fulton at the Brixton School of Building.<ref name=who>''Who’s Who in Architecture (1926)'' (The Architectural Press, London)</ref> He was admitted as an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1918 and as a Fellow in 1927.{{cn|date=December 2022}}
==Career== Rayson first came to Oxford in 1910 as an assistant to the architect Nathaniel William Harrison, and in 1911 he was an architectural draughtsman of 22 boarding with his employer’s brother Hude Harrison and his family at 28 Warwick Street in east Oxford.<ref>1911 census of England & Wales</ref>
He was unable to undertake active service in the First World War as he had a collapsed lung. After spending time in Cambridge working on hospitals from 1916, in 1918 he was employed at the Ministry of Works, and was the site engineer of Witney Aerodrome in Oxfordshire.<ref name=oxfordtimes />
He started his practice in Oxford in an office in Turl Street, but had moved his office to 15 Broad Street by 1922 and to 47 Broad Street by 1930. By 1926 he was Housing Architect to the Municipal Authorities at Witney and Tottenham, London, where he designed housing schemes.<ref name=who />
thumb|Roundabouts, the house designed in c.1930 by Thomas Rayson for his family
In about 1930 he designed his own house called Roundabouts in The Ridings at the foot of Shotover.
In 1936 Rayson's office at 47 Broad Street was one of the buildings demolished to make way for the New Bodleian Library (now the Weston Library), and he moved his office to 35 Beaumont Street. In the late 1940s he moved his office again, this time to 29 Beaumont Street.<ref>''Kelly’s Directory of Oxford'' up to 1976 for dates of his offices</ref>
Rayson, who is described by Geoffrey Tyack as "the last of Oxford's Arts and Crafts-inspired architects",<ref>Geoffrey Tyack, ''Oxford: An architectural guide'' (Oxford University Press, 1998)</ref> disliked most modern architecture in Oxford, saying: "St. Catherine's is in brick. It shouldn't be. St. Anne's, Somerville, and St. Hugh's – I should have liked them all to be in harmony with the Oxford tradition. The Law Library? Frankly I don't understand it: why that great monolithic block with columns underneath. Two words describe a lot of modern building like a lot of modern painting and music: barren and empty. One longs for something to hang on to and enjoy."<ref name=oxfordtimes />
He enjoyed drawing and painting, and served as Chairman of the Oxford Art Society. He was also musical and ran a quartet with friends and played with the Oxford Orchestral Society.<ref name=oxfordtimes>"50 years' service to architecture in city and County", article published in the ''Oxford Times'' on 26 July 1968, p. 18 to celebrate Rayson's half century as an architect in Oxfordshire</ref>
In 1966 he handed over his office at 29 Beaumont Street to his son Christopher Rayson, who was also an architect, and continued to work with him as a consultant until ill health caused him to retire in 1973/4.<ref name=oxfordtimes />
==Works== [[File:Oxford War Memorial.jpg|thumb|The Oxford War Memorial in St Giles', Oxford, designed by Thomas Rayson and unveiled in 1921]] * Job architect for the new Boswell's building on the corner of Cornmarket and Broad Street (1912) * The house ''Shotover Edge'' on Shotover Hill for Dr L. P. Jacks, the Master of Manchester College (1914) * Council housing in Witney at Highworth Place in the Crofts, and at Hill Close on Oxford Road (1920s)<ref>[http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/oxon/vol14/pp8-33 ''Victoria County History: Oxfordshire'': Witney Borough], retrieved 23 December 2016</ref> * Woodstock War Memorial, Oxfordshire (1920)<ref name=oxo /> * Chester War Memorial, with Frederick Crossley (1921/2) * Oxford War Memorial (1921)<ref name=oxo>{{cite journal |url=http://oxoniensia.org/volumes/1991/bruce.pdf |first=Alex |last=Bruce |title=The Oxford War Memorial: Thomas Rayson and the Chester Connection |journal=Oxoniensia |volume=LVI |year=1991 |pages=155–168}}</ref> * Civic Arts Association War Memorial<ref name=who /> * Stanton St John War Memorial, Oxfordshire (1921)<ref name=who /> * Forncett St Mary War Memorial, Norfolk (1921)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1453698|title = Forncett St Mary War Memorial, Forncett - 1453698 | Historic England}}</ref> * Cogges War Memorial, Oxfordshire<ref name=who /> * Witney War Memorial, Oxfordshire<ref name=who /> * The John Player Factory, Botanic Road, Dublin, with Philip Dalton Hepworth (1923)<ref>''Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720–1940''</ref> * St Edward's School Sanatorium, Oxford (by early 1920s)<ref name=who /> * John Masefield’s theatre on Boars Hill, near Oxford (1924)<ref name=who /> * Restoration of the former Plough Inn at 38 Cornmarket Street, Oxford (1925)<ref name=oxo /><ref>Malcolm Graham, ''Oxford Heritage Walks: From Oxford Castle to St Giles’'' (Oxford Preservation Trust, 2013), p. 27</ref> * Talbot House, Wellington College (1938)<ref name=oxfordtimes /> * Restoration of 28 Cornmarket Street (1951)<ref>Malcolm Graham, ''Oxford Heritage Walks: From Oxford Castle to St Giles’'' (Oxford Preservation Trust, 2013), p. 29</ref> * Headington School, Oxford, with Gilbert T. Gardner (1928–30)<ref name=oxo /> * John Henry Brookes’ house at 195 The Slade, Oxford (1929)<ref>[http://oxonblueplaques.org.uk/plaques/brookes.html Oxfordshire Blue Plaques Board: John Henry Brookes], retrieved 23 December 2016</ref> * Roundabouts, The Ridings, Oxford (1929)<ref name=oxfordtimes /> * Roebuck pub, Market Street (1938) * Remodelling of the interior of 75 High Street, Burford, Oxfordshire<ref>[https://www.victoriacountyhistory.ac.uk/explore/items/high-street-east-no-75-now-methodist-church VCH Explore], retrieved 23 December 2016</ref> * Substantial renovations to Cote House (1949–50)<ref>Marcus Binney, "End of the Piers Show", ''The Times'', 9 April 2004, p. 10[S1]</ref> * Restoration of The Row, Oxford Road, Bletchingdon for the Oxfordshire Housing Society (1954)<ref>Thomas Rayson named as the architect on an inscribed stone plaque on the wall</ref> * Extension at Keble College, with A.B. Knapp-Fisher (1955)<ref>Jennifer Sherwood and Nikolaus Pevsner, ''The Buildings of England'' (Penguin Books, 1974), p. 228</ref> * Restoration of the Old Rectory, Epworth, Lincolnshire, the former home of John Wesley (1956)<ref>"John Wesley's home to be restored”, ''The Times'', 4 September 1956, p. 10</ref> * 18 Northmoor Road (1957)<ref>Oxford City Council: Conservation Area Appraisal: North Oxford Victorian Suburb</ref> * Extension to the Friends Meeting House, St Giles, Oxford (1958)<ref name=oxfordtimes /> * Old Headington Village Hall (1959)<ref>[http://oldheadingtonvillagehall.co.uk/history/ Old Headington Village Hall: History], retrieved 23 December 2016</ref> * Restorations of Blenheim Palace (1950s/1960s)<ref>“Blenheim work may take 10 years”, ''The Times'', 19 December 1957, p. 13</ref> * Butler House, Ashhurst Way, Rose Hill, Oxford (Oxford Cottage Improvement Society sheltered accommodation) (1960)<ref>Rayson's name inscribed on building</ref> * Two extensions to Stone's Almshouses in St Clement's, Oxford: Parson's Almshouses on the left (1960) and Mary Duncan Almshouses on the right (1964)<ref>Christopher Hibbert and Edward Hibbert (eds.), ''The Encyclopaedia of Oxford'' (Macmillan London Ltd, 1988): entry for Stone's Almshouses, p. 443</ref> * Marsh Building for Mansfield College, Oxford (1962)<ref>“Mansfield College appeal launched”, ''The Times'', 26 April 1960, p. 14</ref> * Rayson House, Eden Drive, Headington, Oxford (Oxford Cottage Improvement Society sheltered accommodation) (1964)<ref name=oxfordtimes /> * Restoration of Wallingford Town Hall<ref name=oxfordtimes /> * The Park Estate, Stow on the Wold (1949–1960) for North Cotswold Rural District Council <ref>The Buildings of England – Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds, David Verey & Alan Brooks, 1999, p. 644</ref> * Numerous restorations to Oxfordshire churches, including Great Haseley, Cuddesdon, East Hendred, Ewelme, Fulbrook, Great Rollright, Ipsden, Lyford, Charney Bassett, North Leigh, North Moreton, Shipton-under-Wychwood, Oakley, Fyfield, Wootton by Woodstock, and in the city of Oxford St Giles' and St Peter-in-the-East<ref name=oxfordtimes />
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{authority control}}{{DEFAULTSORT:Rayson, Thomas}} Category:1888 births Category:1976 deaths Category:Architects from Oxford Category:British people in British India Category:English watercolourists Category:20th-century English architects Category:20th-century English male artists