Person    | Male  Born 2/11/1863  Died 29/6/1940

Sir Raymond Unwin

Categories: Architecture, Property

Countries: USA

Born Whiston, near Rotherham. Architect & town planner. With his partner Barry Parker he designed Letchworth Garden City in 1903 and Hampstead Garden Suburb in 1907. Died in Connecticut, where he was visiting professor of town planning at Columbia University.

2022: The Guardian told a nice story about Unwin and Parker: "British domestic architecture has also been shaped by idiosyncratic rules that contribute to its poor environmental credentials. For instance, in many parts of the UK, homes that face each other at the rear are required to be built 21 metres apart. This large distance means that instead of clustering buildings together around cool courtyards or shady streets, as is common in hotter climates, many homes in new neighbourhoods are directly exposed to the sun. The 21-metre rule is, according to the Stirling prize-winning architect Annalie Riches, a bizarre hangover from 1902, originally intended to protect the modesty of Edwardian women. The urban designers Raymond Unwin and Barry Parker walked apart in a field until they could no longer see each other’s nipples through their shirts. The two men measured the distance between them to be 70ft (21 metres), and this became the distance that is still used today, 120 years later, to dictate how far apart many British homes should be built."

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Sir Raymond Unwin

Commemorated ati

Sir Raymond Unwin - blue

The original designer of Hampstead Garden Suburb, Sir Raymond Unwin, architec...

Read More

Sir Raymond Unwin - purple

The original designer of Hampstead Garden Suburb, Sir Raymond Unwin, architec...

Read More

Other Subjects

Nicholas Stone

Nicholas Stone

Master mason, for George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham. Other works in London include the statues at the Guildhall of Charles I and Elizabeth I. Stone's name could not be more appropriate - see ...

Person, Architecture, Property

2 memorials
Donald Hamilton, Wakeford & Partners

Donald Hamilton, Wakeford & Partners

Architects. Donald St Aubyn Hamilton (1907–1956). From 1934 Hamilton worked for Lilley and Skinner in Oxford Street, nos 360–366, moving his office there in 1935. "His firm, now Donald Hamilton, Wa...

Group, Architecture

1 memorial
Richard Seifert

Richard Seifert

Architect.  Born in Zurich, Switzerland as Reuben (but became Robin and then Richard) Seifert.  Educated in London.  Liked building high - Centre Point, the Natwest Tower (now Tower 42), Space Hous...

Person, Architecture, Switzerland

1 memorial
Frank Scarlett

Frank Scarlett

Modernist architect. We can find no information about him and no image, so for our picture we show the building which is considered his masterpiece: Starlock House, Rye. 2018: We were contacted by...

Person, Architecture

1 memorial
Philip Charles Hardwick

Philip Charles Hardwick

Architect of St Barts Hospital in 1861. Son of architect Philip Hardwick. We are not actually sure which of the two produced the Speke obelisk in 1866. Hardwick Snr has a track record in obelisks, ...

Person, Architecture

2 memorials