Architect. Born Walter Adolph Georg Gropius in Berlin. He founded the Bauhaus school. His door handle designs are still being made today. At the rise of Hitler he and his wife Ilse moved to London in 1934 where they lived free in Lawn Road flat (funded by Jack Pritchard, we think). Then in 1937 left for an appointment at Harvard. Died Boston, Massachussetts.
Walter Gropius: Visionary Founder of the Bauhaus By Fiona MacCarthy quotes him as writing this about his new country, the UK: "I am curious about how to survive in this inartistic country with unsalted vegaeables, bony women and an eternally freezing draught".
London buildings include: 66 Old Church Street in Chelsea (extant but somewhat changed). Also Impinton Village College in Cambridgeshire.
Credit for this entry to: Alan Patient of www.plaquesoflondon.co.uk
