William Crabtree was born in Doncaster, England in 1905 and was articled to T.H. Johnson in Doncaster from 1924 to 1926. He then attended Liverpool University School of Architecture from 1926 to 1929. In 1928 he worked for several months in the office of Helmle & Corbett in New York (during which time he was engaged on competition drawings for the Chicago World’s Fair in 1933 with Raymond Hood). In 1929 he worked as an assistant in the London office of the architect Joseph Emberton (1889-1956) and that year was elected an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (ARIBA). He was also awarded the Tite Prize in 1929.
From 1930 to 1939 Crabtree was employed as Research Architect for the John Lewis Partnership. Between 1933 and 1935 he worked with Charles Herbert Reilly (1874-1948) and Slater & Moberly on the design of the Peter Jones store in Sloane Street, London. During the late 1930s he was in partnership with Philip Garforth Freeman as Crabtree & Freeman, They had an office at 8 Adam Street, Portman Square, London.
In 1944-45 Crabtree was engaged on the replanning of the centre of Southampton which had been largely destroyed by bombing during World War Two.
Following the war he was in partnership with Henry Arthur Johnson (1903-?) as Johnson & Crabtree. They had offices at at 20 Priory Place, Doncaster and 8 Robert Adam Street, London. The partnership was dissolved in 1952.
Crabtree was also in partnership with W.T. Jarosz as William Crabtree and Jarosz (Crabtree Jarosz Associates). Work by the practice included a number of public buildings in Hertfordshire, Surrey and Sussex, including schools, hospitals etc.
Crabtree taught at the Architectural Association School in London in the mid-1930s. He was a member of the MARS. Modern Architectural Research Group.
He retired from practice in 1960 and died in Guildford, Surrey on 11 March 1991.
Girouard, Mark.'Moving into the kitchen garden'. Country Life vol. 125, 8 January 1959 pp. 68-69 [Scot's Acre in Tadworth, Surrey, designed by Crabtree for his wife's mother]
Powers, Alan. Modern. The Modern Movement in Britain. London: Merrell, 2005
Sharples, Joseph, Powers, Alan and Shippobottom, Michael. Charles Reilly & the Liverpool School of Architecture 1904-1933. Catalogue of an exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, 25 October 1996 - 2 February 1997. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1996 pp. 168-169 [Contains other references to Crabtree, unfortunately, the catalogue is not indexed]
Thirties: British Art and Design before the War. London: Arts Council of Great Britain, 1979 [Catalogue of an exhibition at the Hayward Gallery, London, 25 October-13 January 1979]
William Crabtree Retrospective. Guildford: [Guilford Borough Council], 1992 [Catalogue of an exhibition sat the Guildhall, Guildford, Surrey, 16-21 May 1992]