Patrick Gwynne - Early Life and Work

Early Life and Work

Gwynne was born in Portchester, Hampshire in 1913 to naval Commander Alban Gwynne and mother, Ruby. They had a daughter, "Babs".

He attended Harrow where he first connected with modernist architecture on a school sketching excursion near Amersham, in Buckinghamshire where he saw Amyas Connell’s “High and Over", the first modern movement house in Britain.

His father planned for him to be an accountant but since Gwynne wanted to be an architect, secured articles (indentured training) for him with Ernest Coleridge, a former assistant to Sir Edwin Lutyens. On completion, Gwynne met Wells Coates, founder of the Modern Architecture Research Group. Gwynne worked for Coates while designing a new house for his parents.

This was the European influenced, The Homewood, built in 1938 on another part of an 8-acre (32,000 m2) estate, to replace the rambling Victorian house in Esher in Surrey. The family used profits from the sale of their Welsh estate – a Welsh “planned town”, Aberaeron, to pay for the new building which cost ₤10,000, an immense sum for those days.

Coates advised on technical matters and Denys Lasdun, another assistant to Coates, designed the elliptical terrace pool. Gwynne and Denys Lasdun became friends while at Wells Coates's office. Gwynne claimed to have contributed a crucial design move that unlocked the rest of the design for the Royal College of Physicians building, making it end-on to Regents Park. Lasdun returned the compliment by designing The Homewood pool.