Geoffrey Robson was born in Dudley Hill, Yorkshire, England on 12 December 1918 and studied at the Architectural Association School in London as a Leverhulme Scholar, 1935-40 and was a Howard Colls Scholar in 1936 and a Henry Florance Scholar in 1940. In 1938 he was an RIBA Bronze Medallist. He was awarded the AA Diploma and was elected an Associate of the Royal Instituter of British Architects (ARIBA).
In 1949 he became a partner in the London architectural practice Richard Sheppard & Partners founded by 1938 by Richard Herbert Sheppard (1910-1982) and his wife, Jean Sheppard (1911-1974). In 1938. In 1958 the name of the firm was changed to Richard Sheppard, Robson & Partners [later Sheppard Robson].
Robson's address was given as 95 Aston Road, Dudley, Worcestershire in 1939 and Grunsell's Loft, Quay Road, Lymington, Hampshire in 1991. He died in Lymington, Hampshire on 22 March 1991.
Richard Sheppard & Partners and Richard Sheppard, Robson & Partners [now Sheppard Robson] has specialised in the design of educational buildings and subsequently designed some eighty schools. During the 1960s and 1970s they designed several university and college buildings including for Manchester Polytechnic and Imperial College, London, and at Loughborough (1961–66), Leicester, Brunel (1968–73), the City of London (1969–70). Their most admired building in this field is Churchill College, Cambridge, designed in 1959.
Other works by the practice have included shipyard buildings for Swan Hunter on the River Tyne (1950); a large shopping centre at Wood Green, north London; and office buildings in the City of London. Some twenty buildings designed by the practice have received architectural awards.
Banham, Reyner. ‘Criticism’. Architectural Review vol. 136, September 1964 pp. 174-179 [The author compares and contrasts the architecture of St. Catherine’s College, Cambridge designed by Arne Jacobson with Churchill College, Cambridge designed by Richard Sheppard, Robson & Partners]
Esher, Lionel. A Broken Wave: the Rebuilding of England, 1940–1980. London: Viking / Allen Lane, 1981
Jellicoe, Geoffrey. ‘Sheppard Robson and Partners’ in Contemporary Architects. Edited by Ann Lee Morgan and Colin Naylor. London and Chicago, Illinois: St. James Press, 2nd edition 1987 pp. 832-834
Jordan, Robert Furneaux. ‘Churchill Memorial College’. Architect and Building News vol. 216, 12 August 1959 pp. 2-4 [Part one of a two-part article on the competition to design Churchill College, Cambridge, won by Richard Sheppard, Robson & Partners]
Jordan, Robert Furneaux. ‘Churchill Memorial College’. Architect and Building News vol. 216, 19 August 1959 pp. 52-58 [Part two of a two-part article on the competition to design Churchill College, Cambridge, won by Richard Sheppard, Robson & Partners]
Mills, Edward David. The New Architecture in Britain 1946-1953. London: The Standard Catalogue Co., 1953 [Discusses a village school in Little Wymondley, Hertfordshire designed by Richard Sheppard, Jean Sheppard and Geoffrey Robson of Richard Sheppard & Partners in 1951-52 177-188]
Murray, Peter, et al. Sheppard Robson: Architects. London : Lund Humphries, 1983
Webb, Michael. Architecture in Britain Today. London: Country Life, 1969
Webb, Michael. ‘Massive simplicity beside the Cam’.