Peter Bicknell was born in Rowland Gills, Co. Durham, England on 16 June 1907 and from 1926 studied architecture at Jesus College, Cambridge. After graduating he commenced independent practice as an architect and from 1935 was in partnership with fellow Cambridge graduate Henry Castree Hughes (1893-1976) as H. C. Hughes and Peter Bicknell (Hughes & Bicknell) in Cambridge.
Bicknell also taught architecture and art history at the University of Cambridge and was a fellow of Downin g College, Cambridge.
Bicknell was elected an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (ARIBA) in 1932.
A child's nursery designed by Bicknell featured in the ‘Britain Can Make It’ exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, in 1946.
Bicknell retired from teaching in 1981 and soon after was appointed Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. During his tenure he organised a number of significant exhibitions. notable among which was 'Beauty, Horror and Immensity – Picturesque Landscape in Britain 1750–1850' (1981) for which he wrote the catalogue.
Like his father, Raymond Bicknell (1875-1927), Peter Bicknell was a well-respected amateur mountaineer and a member of the Alpine Club. From 1951 to 1954 he was President of the Climbers' Club.
He died in Avignon, France on 31 May 1995
Projects by Peter Bicknell and Hughes & Bicknell: Essex House, Regent Street, Cambridge (1936); Fen Court, Peterhouse College, University of Cambridge (1939); Housing scheme for the borough of King's Lynn (1946); Housing near Brandon for the Forestry Commission (1949); Housing for Downham Market U. D. C., Downham, Norfolk (1949); Housing at Glemsford, Suffolk, for Malford Rural District Council (1949); a cricket pavilion at Oundle School, Northamptonshire (1958); Scott House, Slimbridge, Goucestershire (1950s, extended by Bicknell in the late 1970s), built for the naturalist Sir Peter Scott; and 31–39 Fitzroy Street, Cambridge (1959–60). Other architectural projects included works for the Dean and Chapter of Ely Cathedral; King's School in Ely, Cambridgeshire; and a housing estate at Hilgay, Norfolk; and Bicknell's own house on Newton Road, Cambridge.
‘College buildings: extensions to Peterhouse, Cambridge’. Architectural Review October 1941 pp. 105-107, 108-109 [Architects: H. C. Hughes and P. Bicknell]
‘Cricket pavilion at Oundle School, Northants’. Architects' Journal 27 February 1958 pp. 333-338
‘Housing at Glemsford, Suffolk, for Malford Rural District Council’. Architect & Building News 11 February 1949 pp. 115-117 [Architects: H. C. Hughes and P. Bicknell]
‘Housing near Brandon for the Forestry Commission’. Architect & Building News 19 August 1949 pp. 176-178 [Architects: H. C. Hughes and P. Bicknell]
‘Housing for Downham Market U. D. C.’ Architects' Journal 22 December 1949 pp. 717-718 [Architects: H. C. Hughes and P. Bicknell]
‘Housing scheme for the borough of King's Lynn: layout plan’. Architect & Building News 15 November 1946 pp. 126-127 [Architects: H. C. Hughes and P. Bicknell]
Smith, Janet Adam. ‘Peter Bicknell 1907-1995’. The Alpine Journal vol. 101, no. 345, 1996 pp.318-321