Goodesmith, Walter 1903 - 1979

Walter Moore Goodesmith [commonly known as Walter Goodesmith; also known as Walter Moses Goode-Smith] was born Walter Moses Smith in Aston, Warwickshire, England on 4 January 1903. [He changed his name to Walter Moore Goodesmith by deed poll on 24 May 1932].

In 1914 he moved to Australia and settled in Sydney, New South Wales where he practised as an architect. By 1933 he had returned to England a
then on he lived in London.

After studying at The Polytechnic, Regent Street, London, where he was awarded a Diploma in Town Planning (Dip.T.P.), he worked as an architect and town planner from the 1930s to the 1950s. In the 1930s he was in partnership with Raymond McGrath (1903-1977) as McGrath & Goodesmith. With Raymond McGrath, he designed the Pearl Assurance building in Bournemouth, Hampshire in 1937. A living room in an all-electric house designed by Goodesmith is illustrated in Commercial Art and Industry August 1935 (p.40); and a house overlooking Honolulu Bay, Hawaii designed by him in 1933 is illustrated and discussed in Twentieth Century Houses by Raymond McGrath (London: Faber & Faber, 1934).

Goodesmith participated as a designer of the South Bank exhibition site of the Festival of Britain in 1951.

Goodesmith was elected an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (ARIBA) in 1932 and was a member of the British Group of Congrès internationaux d'architecture moderne (CIAM). He was also a member of the MARS Group and was on the organizing committee for its first exhibition held at the New Burlington Galleries in London in January 1938. He was elected to the Register of Industrial Art Designers in 1940 and in 1949 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (FRIBA)

Goodesmith's address was given as The Firs, Fallows Road, Birminghham in 1911; Ashbury, Parkes, New South Wales, Australia in 1931; 38 Conduit Street, London in 1933 and 1939; and 64 Great Portland Street in 1950. He died in London on 21 May 1979