Sydney Joseph Tatchell was born in Paddington, Middlesex [now London], England on 13 October 1877. He was articled to Thomas Henry Watson (1839-1913) in 1892 and remained with him as his assistant until 1901. He also attended the Architectural Association Schools in London in 1897. He worked as an assistant to the Chief Engineer of the Great western Railway in 1901-02, and was Managing Assistant to Frederick Arthur Walters (1849-1931) from 1902 to 1905. Tatchell commenced independent practice as an architect in Westminster, London on 1905. He was in partnership with Geoffrey Cecil Wilson (c.1888-1958) from 1920 to 1940, and with his son, Rodney Tatchell (1909-1995), from 1931.
Sydney Joseph Tatchell was elected a Licentiate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (LRIBA) in 1910 and a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (FRIBA) in 1912. He was Vice-President of RIBA in 1931-33. He was appointed Surveyor to the Worshipful Company of Ironmongers in 1921 and designed their Hall in Aldgate, London which opened in 1925.
His address was given as 131 Edgware Road Paddington Middlesex [now London] in 1871; 99 Edgware Road, London in 1881; 9 Chevening Road, Willesden, London in 1901; 13 Queen Anne's Gate, Westminster, London and Scelo Lodge, Foxley Lane, Purley, Surrey in 1910 and 1914; Bank Chambers, 32, Strand, London in 1923 and 1939; 53 Lancaster Gate, London in 1936; and 65 Cliffords Inn, Farringdon, London in 1950. He retired from practice in 1962 and died in Plymouth, Devon on 7 July 1965
Weston Acres, Woodmansterne Studio, Grove House, Regent's Park; doctors' houses, Nos. 24, 29, 90, 90a, 93, and 93a, Harley Street; and No. 12, Devonshire Street, Wyndham Court, Hallam Street; Grey Friars, Storrington; Stowell Park, Gloucestershire; Downturn Grange, Essex; the Holt, Appledore; Pilgrim Place, Woldingham; Wallingford, Purley, and many other country houses la Surrey, Sussex, Bucks and elsewhere. Additions to the Girls' School, Christ's Hospital, Hertford; additions and alterations and a new Master's House at the Boys' School, Christ's Hospital, Horsham; Ironmongers' Hall, Aldersgate; and in hand the Surrey County Sanatorium at Milford, near Godalming. 1920-25: — (in partnership with Geoffrey Cecil Wilson): Restoration and additions to Green Lane Farm, Chertsey; country houses in Surrey and elsewhere. Branches for Barclays Bank, Limited, in Bishopsgate, High Holborn, Strand, Cambridge Circus, Fulham, Thornton Heath, Carshalton, etc. Miners' Welfare Centre, Yorkshire; offices and commercial buildings for slather and Flatt, Ltd., the House of Cassell, Blackie and Son, the British Legion, the British Australian Wool Realisation Association and others; and War memorials in the City, Carshalton, Purley and elsewhere. In hand: — Eastbourne College; National Library for the Blind, Westminster. [Source: Who's Who in Architecture 1926]
Directory of British Architects 1834-1914. Compiled by Antonia Brodie, et al. Volume 2: L-Z. London; New York: British Architectural Library, Royal Institute of British Architects/Continuum, 2001
Gray, A. Stuart. Edwardian architecture: a biographical dictionary. London: Gerald Duckworth & Co., Ltd., 1985
‘Obituary’. The Builder vol. 209, 16 July 1965 p. 142
Who's Who in Architecture 1926. Edited by Frederick Chatterton. London: The Architectural Press, 1926