Parker & Unwin 1896 - 1914

Parker & Unwin was an architectural partnership formed in Buxton, Derbyshire, England in 1896 by Richard Barry Parker (1867-1947) and his cousin and brother-in-law Raymond Unwin (1863-1940) in 1896. Early work by the practice included large houses in the prevailing Arts and Crafts style for which they often designed many of the internal fixtures and fittings, something that was to become a characteristic feature of their work.

Parker and Unwin were committed to the ideas of the Garden City movement and wrote and spoke at conferences on the need for more humane housing and for improvements in the town and country environment. Their architectural philosophy was expounded in their seminal book The Art of Building a Home (1901) that they developed into a series of 30 articles for the American designer and publisher Gustav Stickley's influential magazine 'The Craftsman'.

Parker and Unwin's views on social housing came to the attention of the confectionary manufacturer Henry Rowntree (1836-1925) who commissioned them to a garden village for his workers in New Earswick, York.

In 1903 Parker and Unwin were invited by Ebeneezer Howard (1850-1928), originator of the Garden City concept, to advise on the layout of Letchworth, the first Garden City. Having won a competition for the Letchworth plan. Parker & Unwin were retained by First Garden City as consultants and in 1904 moved their office to Baldock in Hertfordshire and three years later to Letchworth.  They subsequently designed much of the housing at Letchworth

In 1905 Parker & Unwin were invited by the social reformer Henrietta Barnett (1851-1936) to apply the principles of the Garden City movement to a tract of 80 acres she and others had purchased at Hampstead, north of London. This was to become Hampstead Garden Suburb. In 1906 Parker & Unwin opened an office at Wyldes, North End, Hampstead and Unwin had devised a masterplan for the Suburb. Over the next five years Parker & Unwin also designed several of the buildings in the Suburb, notably The Orchard (1909); The Clubhouse (1909) in Willifield Green; and the Arcade House and Temple Fortune House (1909–12) in Finchley Road; Reynolds Close (1910–11).  

Later work by Parker & Unwin included Hilltop (1905–07) in Caterham, Surrey; and Whirriestone (1907–09), in Rochdale, Lancashire.

The Parker & Unwin partnership was dissolved in 1914 and, thereafter, Parker and Unwin pursued independent careers as architects and town planners.