Smith & Brewer was established in London, England by Cecil Claude Brewer (1871-1918) and Arnold Dunbar Smith (1866-1933) in 1897. In 1895 the pair won a limited competition for the design of a new building for the settlement in Tavistock Place, Bloomsbury (built in 1896-97). Following the success of the project, the pair decided to form the partnership that lasted until Brewer's death in 1918. Smith continued the practice,. He designed several houses and additions to the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge (1924-33). In 1930 he took Joseph Abraham Meikle (1876-1942) and Kenneth William Furneaux Harris (1902-1991) into partnerships. After Smith's death in 1933 Meikle, Harris and a new partner, Sidney Charles Clark (1894-1962) continued the practice under the original name, Smith & Brewer. The firm was dissolved with the death of Clark in 1949.
The University of Texas, Austin, has an extensive collection of drawings and plans by Smith & Brewer.
Works by Smith & Brewer included Passmore Edwards Settlement Buildings [now Mary Ward House], Tavistock Place, Bloomsbury, London (1895-98); additions to Royal Hospital, Kew Foot Road, Richmond, Surrey (1896); East Anglian Sanatorium, Nayland, near Colchester, Essex (c.1898); Little Barley End and stables. Aldbury, Hertfordshire (c.1900); Ditton Place, near Balcombe, Sussex (1904); Acremead, Froghole, near Crockham Hill, Kent (1906); interiors of Ely House, 37 Dover Street, Mayfair, London (1908); The Fives Court, Pinner, London (1908); chapel, East Anglian Sanatorium, Nayland, near Colchester, Essex (1909); The Malting House, Malting Lane, Cambridge (1909); National Museum of Wales, Civic Centre, Cardiff (1910-c.1912); and Heal's Furniture Store, 196-199 Tottenham Court Road, London (c.1914-16).
See also
Source of Illustrations
Fletcher, Henry Martineau. ‘The Work of Smith and Brewer.’ RIBA Journal vol. 42, April 6, 1935 pp. 629-644.
Gray, A. Stuart. Edwardian Architecture. London: Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd., 1985 [entries on Cecil Claude Brewer and Arnold Dunbar Smith]
‘Obituary. A. Dunbar Smith.' RIBA Journal December 23, 1933 pp. 200-201.
‘Obituary. Cecil Brewer.' RIBA Journal September 1918 pp,246-247