Cecil Claude Brewer was born in London, England on 12 December 1871. He studied at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London, and Heddon Street Atelier in 1890 he was articled to Frank Thomas Baggallay (1855-1890). He also attended classes at the Architectural Association in London, and, from 1893 to 1898, at the Royal Academy Schools in London. In 1894-95 he was employed as an assistant to Robert Weir Schultz (1860-1951).
In 1895 he and fellow architect Arnold Dunbar Smith (1866-1933) won a limited competition for the design of a new building for the settlement in Tavistock Place, Bloomsbury (built in 1896-97). Following the success of the project, the pair formed a partnership, Smith & Brewer, that lasted until Brewer's death. Smith continued the practise until his death in 1933.
Brewer was elected a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (FRIBA) in 1906. He died at Town End Farm in Radnage, near Stokenchurch in Buckinghamshire on 10 August 1918.
Works by Smith & Brewer included Passmore Edwards Settlement Buildings [now Mary Ward House], Tavistock Place, Bloomsbury, London (1895-98); additions to Royal Hospital, Kew Foot Road, Richmond, Surrey (1896); East Anglian Sanatorium, Nayland, near Colchester, Essex (c.1898); Little Barley End and stables. Aldbury, Hertfordshire (c.1900); Ditton Place, near Balcombe, Sussex (1904); Acremead, Froghole, near Crockham Hill, Kent (1906); interiors of Ely House, 37 Dover Street, Mayfair, London (1908); The Fives Court, Pinner, London (1908); chapel, East Anglian Sanatorium, Nayland, near Colchester, Essex (1909); The Malting House, Malting Lane, Cambridge (1909); National Museum of Wales, Civic Centre, Cardiff (1910-c.1912); and Heal's Furniture Store, 196-199 Tottenham Court Road, London (c.1914-16).
See also
Source of Illustrations
Directory of British Architects 1834-1914. Compiled by Antonia Brodie, et al. Volume 1: A-K. London; New York: British Architectural Library, Royal Institute of British Architects/Continuum, 2001
Fletcher, Henry Martineau. ‘The Work of Smith and Brewer.’ RIBA Journal vol. 42, April 6, 1935 pp. 629-644.
Gray, A. Stuart. Edwardian architecture: a biographical dictionary. London: Gerald Duckworth & Co., Ltd., 1985
‘Obituary'. The Builder vol. 115, 1918 pp. 101, 260
‘Obituary'. RIBA Journal vol. 25, September 1918 pp,246-247
‘Obituary'. RIBA Journal vol. 26, November 1918 p. 23
Stamp, Gavin. The English House 1860-1914. Catalogue of an exhibition of photographs and drawings. London: InternationalArchitect and the Building Centre Trust, 1980 pp. 62-63
Who's Who in Architecture 1914. London: Technical Journals Ltd., 1914