Albert Clifford Holliday [also known as Clifford Holliday] was born in Gildersome, near Leeds, Yorkshire England on 21 December 1897. In 1915 he entered Liverpool University School of Architecture where he was taught by Charles Herbert Reilly and Patrick Abercrombie. During Summer 1920 he also attended the Ecole des Beaux arts in Paris. He was awarded a Dip. Civic Design in 1920 and a B.Arch. in 1922. He was a Research Fellow in the Department of Civic Design at the University of Liverpool and from 1921 to 1923 joint editor of The Town Planning Review.
From 1922 to 1926 Holliday acted as Civic Advisor to the City of Jerusalem, Palestine. In 1927 he set up a private practice in Palestine and from 1928 to 1934 was town planning advisor to the mandatory government of Palestine. From 1939 to 1945 he acted as consultant to Ceylon [now Sri Lanka] and Gibraltar.
In 1946 he joined the Stevenage Development Corporation and became Chief Architect and Planner for the town. In 1949 he revised the Ministry of Town and Country Planning's original plan for Stevenage. He was appointed Professor of Town and Country Planning at the University of Manchester in 1952.
Commissions on which Holliday worked included St. Andrew's Church in Jerusalem (1930); a new wing for Saint John Eye Hospital in Jerusalem (1930; the planning and layout of the University of Ceylon [now University of Peradeniya], with Patrick Abercombie (1942-52).
In 1952 Holliday was appointed became the first Professor of Town and Country Planning at the University of Manchester.
He was elected an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (ARIBA) in 1922 and a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (FRIBA) in 1933. He was also a Member of the Town Planning Institute (MTPI). His address was given as Parkfield, Gildersome, near Leeds, Yorkshire in 1911; Connaught House, Tancred Street, Jerusalem, Palestine in 1930; Templar Colony, Jerusalem, Palestine in 1935; 33, 22 Suffolk Street, Pall Mall, London in 1936; The Green, Richmond, Surrey in 1936 and 1939; and 8, The Beexhes, Barlow Moor Road, Manchester in 1960. He died in Manchester, Lancashire on 28 September 1960.
A biographical file on Albert Clifford Holliday is available on request from the Enquiry Desk, Royal Institute of British Architects Library, London
Commissions on which Holliday worked included St. Andrew's Church in Jerusalem (1930); a new wing for Saint John Eye Hospital in Jerusalem (1930; the planning and layout of the University of Ceylon [now University of Peradeniya], with Patrick Abercombie (1942-52).
Ahimeir, Ora; Levin, Michael D;and Yisraʼel, Mekhon Yerushalayim le-ḥeḳer. Modern Architecture in Jerusalem. Jerusalem: Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, 1984.
Erlik, A. ‘British architects in Mandatory Palestine’. [Text in Hebrew with summaries in English] TVAI no. 22, 1984, p. 48-51.
Holliday, Albert Clifford. ‘Town and Country Planning in Palestine’ Palestine and Middle East Economic Review 1933 pp. 290-292, 329
Holliday, Clifford. 'The town house' in The Book of the Modern House. A Panoramic Survey of Contemporary Domestic Design. Edited by Patrick Abercrombie. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1939 pp. 57-100
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 p. 172 [Contains other references to Holliday, unfortunately, this very informative catalogue is not indexed]
‘Factory for Samson, Clark & Co. Ltd., printers, at Stevenage, Herts’. [Architect: Clifford Holliday]. Architects' Journal 2 September 1954 pp. 285-286
‘Obituary’. The Builder 7 October 1960 p. 660
‘Obituary’. RIBA Journal vol. 68, December 1960, p. 64
‘Progress on the new towns. No. 6, Stevenage’. [Architect/Planner: Clifford Holliday, chief architect & planner] The Builder 11 July 1952 pp. 46-53
‘The University of Ceylon, at Peradeniya, near Kandy’ [Architects: Sir P. Abercrombie and C. Holliday] Building February 1948 pp. 40-45
‘The University of Ceylon, at Peradeniya, near Kandy’ [Architects: Sir P. Abercrombie and C. Holliday] Architects’ Journal 20 March 1952 p. 357