Rowntree A-Z

Fred Rowntree (1860-1927)

Architect. One of the ‘Scarborough Rowntrees’, he was a second cousin to Seebohm Rowntree and the fourth child of John Rowntree, a Scarborough grocer and draper, and Ann Webster. In 1876 he was articled with C A Bury in Scarborough. He was perhaps one of the first Quaker Architects, and was influenced by and closely associated with the Arts & Crafts Movement.

In 1890 he moved to Glasgow, and formed a partnership with Malcolm Stark. He married Mary Gray, of the biscuit manufacturing family, in 1886. He collaborated with the interior designer, George Walton (1867-1933), who had a shop at 15 Stonegate, York. In 1900 he moved to London and thereafter practised from 11 Hammersmith Terrace.

The projects he was involved in (besides The Homestead) were: the central offices of the York Cocoa Works, the Yearsley Swimming Baths; the new gymnasium and other building at The Mount School, and Bootham School, including its John Bright Library. He also worked on the West China Union University in Chengdu, Scottish Temperance Life Assurance Buildings, and in Cheapside, London, and Orleton School (now the University of Hull Scarborough Campus).

His sons Douglas and Colin both became architects and were taken into the Hammersmith partnership; after their father’s death in 1927, Douglas moved to Gerrards Cross and the Colin Rowntree Partnership was based at 17 Stonegate, York.


External Links

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fred-Rowntree-Architect-Notes-Buildings/dp/1872686370

http://www.guise.me.uk/rowntree/fred/index.htm

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