Jones, Antony Charles Robert [Tony] Armstrong-, first earl of Snowdon and Baron Armstrong-Jones (1930–2017), photographer, designer, and campaigner for disabled rights, was born at 25 Eaton Terrace, Belgravia, London, on 7 March 1930, the younger child and only son of Ronald Owen Lloyd (Ronnie) Armstrong-Jones...
Article
Jones, Antony Charles Robert [Tony] Armstrong-, first earl of Snowdon and Baron Armstrong-Jones (1930–2017), photographer, designer, and campaigner for disabled rights
Richard Weight
Article
Ashley [née Mountney], Laura (1925–1985), dress designer and interior decorator
Emlyn Hooson
revised
Ashley [née Mountney], Laura (1925–1985), dress designer and interior decorator, was born on 7 September 1925 at Dowlais, near Merthyr Tudful, south Wales, the eldest of the four children (two daughters and two sons) of Stanley Lewis Mountney, a civil servant, of ...
Article
Barron, William (1805–1891), landscape gardener
Brent Elliott
revised
Barron, William (1805–1891), landscape gardener, was born on 7 September 1805 in Eccles, Berwickshire, the son of John Barron, gardener, and his wife, Betty Johnston. (The year of his birth is usually cited as 1800, as a result of a mistake in his obituary in the ...
Article
Beaton, Sir Cecil Walter Hardy (1904–1980), photographer and designer for screen and theatre
Hugo Vickers
Beaton, Sir Cecil Walter Hardy (1904–1980), photographer and designer for screen and theatre, was born at 21 Langland Gardens, Hampstead, London, on 14 January 1904, the eldest of the two sons and two daughters of Ernest Walter Hardy Beaton (1867–1936), timber merchant, and his wife, ...
Article
Biggar [married name Montlake], Helen Manson (1909–1953), sculptor, film-maker, theatre designer, and political activist
Douglas J. Allen
Biggar [married name Montlake], Helen Manson (1909–1953), sculptor, film-maker, theatre designer, and political activist, was born on 25 May 1909 at Dudley Drive, Hyndland, Glasgow, the eldest of three daughters of Hugh and Florence Biggar. She grew up in a socialist household, her father being a Christian socialist and founder member of the ...
Article
Black, Sir Misha (1910–1977), architect and industrial designer
Paul Reilly
revised by Kaye Bagshaw
Black, Sir Misha (1910–1977), architect and industrial designer, was born on 16 October 1910 in Baku, Russia, the second of the three sons (there was also a daughter) of Lionel Tcherny (1885–1960), merchant, and his wife, Sophia Divinska (d. c.1970), who took him at the age of eighteen months to ...
Article
Bodley, George Frederick (1827–1907), architect and designer
Michael Hall
Bodley, George Frederick (1827–1907), architect and designer, was born at his parents' home, 4 Albion Street, Hull, on 14 March 1827, the sixth child and youngest son of William Hulme Bodley MD (1781–1855) of Edinburgh, physician of the Hull Royal Infirmary, and his wife, ...
Article
Brown, Ford Madox (1821–1893), painter and designer
Tim Barringer
Brown, Ford Madox (1821–1893), painter and designer, was born at Calais, France, on 16 April 1821, the son of Ford Brown (d. 1842) and his wife, Caroline (d. 1839), the daughter of Tristram Maries Madox, of an old Kent yeoman family. ...
Article
Brown, Lancelot [known as Capability Brown] (bap. 1716, d. 1783), landscape gardener and architect
John Phibbs
Brown, Lancelot [known as Capability Brown] (bap. 1716, d. 1783), landscape gardener and architect, was baptized on 30 August 1716 at St Wilfrid's Church, Kirkharle, Northumberland, the fifth of the six children of William Brown (1676–1720), a yeoman farmer and estate steward, and his wife, ...
Article
Butterfield, William (1814–1900), architect and designer
Rosemary Hill
Butterfield, William (1814–1900), architect and designer, was born on 7 September 1814 in London, the second child and eldest son of William Butterfield (1783–1866), chemist and wharfinger, and his wife, Ann (1793–1867), the daughter of Robert Steven, a leather factor of the City of London...
Article
Chappell, William Evelyn [Billy] (1907–1994), dancer and theatre designer
Charles Hedges
Chappell, William Evelyn [Billy] (1907–1994), dancer and theatre designer, was born on 27 September 1907 in Wolverhampton, the only son of Archibald Chappell and his wife, Edith Eva Clara, née Blair-Staples. He was educated in Wolverhampton and Clapham, London, and at the Chelsea School of Art...
Article
Chatto [née Little], Bessie Diana [Beth] (1923–2018), horticulturist and garden designer
Catherine Horwood
Chatto [née Little], Bessie Diana [Beth] (1923–2018), horticulturist and garden designer, was born on 27 June 1923 in Good Easter, near Chelmsford, Essex, together with her twin brother, William (Seley), to William George Little (1900–1982), a police constable, and his wife ...
Article
Conran, Sir Terence Orby (1931–2020), designer, restaurateur, and entrepreneur
Richard Weight
Conran, Sir Terence Orby (1931–2020), designer, restaurateur, and entrepreneur, was born on 4 October 1931 at Down Cottage, Hillbrow Road, Esher, Surrey, the son of (Gerard) Rupert Conran (1905–1984), gum and resin merchant, and his first wife, Christina Mabel Joan, née...
Article
Crace, Frederick (1779–1859), interior decorator and collector of maps and prints
Elizabeth Baigent
Crace, Frederick (1779–1859), interior decorator and collector of maps and prints, was born on 3 June 1779 at Park Row, Greenwich, the eldest son of John Crace (1753–1819) [see under Crace family (per. c. 1725-c. 1900)], interior decorator and cabinet-maker, and his second wife, ...
Article
Craig, Edward Anthony [Teddy] [pseud. Edward Carrick] (1905–1998), film and stage designer and artist
Catherine A. Surowiec
Craig, Edward Anthony [Teddy] [pseud. Edward Carrick] (1905–1998), film and stage designer and artist, was born on 3 January 1905 in London, the third child and first son of (Edward Henry) Gordon Craig (1872–1966), the renowned theatrical designer, and Elena Fortuna Meo (1879–1957)...
Article
Craig, (Edward Henry) Gordon (1872–1966), theatre director and designer and wood-engraver
James Hamilton
Craig, (Edward Henry) Gordon (1872–1966), theatre director and designer and wood-engraver, was born on 16 January 1872 in Railway Street, Stevenage, Hertfordshire, the only son and second child of the architect and radical Edward William Godwin (1833–1886) and the actress Ellen Alice Terry (1847–1928)...
Article
Craven, Hawes (1837–1910), scene painter
[Anon.]
revised by Raymond Ingram
Craven, Hawes (1837–1910), scene painter, was born Henry Hawes Craven Green on 3 July 1837 at Kirkgate, Leeds. His parents, James Green (d. 1881), a comedian, and Eliza Craven Green (1803–1866), an actress and, later, a poet, were performers on the York...
Article
Crowe, Dame Sylvia (1901–1997), landscape architect
Hal Moggridge
Crowe, Dame Sylvia (1901–1997), landscape architect, was born on 15 September 1901 at 30 Oxford Road, Neithrop, Banbury, Oxfordshire, the daughter of Eyre Crowe, a box and cabinet manufacturer who, because of ill health, retired early to become a fruit farmer near the village of ...
Article
Darly, Matthias (c. 1720–1780), designer and printseller
Timothy Clayton
Darly, Matthias (c. 1720–1780), designer and printseller, is of obscure origins: nothing is known of his parents or his early life. In 1735 he was apprenticed to the clockmaker Umfraville Sampson, implying that he was probably born about 1720. In 1749 he was one of several printsellers rounded up by the government for questioning about several satirical prints which ridiculed the ...
Article
Day, Ronald Henry [Robin] (1915–2010), furniture designer
Lesley Jackson
Day, Ronald Henry [Robin] (1915–2010), furniture designer, was born on 25 May 1915 at 43 Oxford Road, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, the second of four sons of Arthur Thomas Day, police constable, and his wife, Mary Ann, formerly Colgrove, née Shersby. His upbringing in the furniture-making town of ...
