Diverse feats of ace architect
Comment
IT was a joy to talk to Graham Winteringham, architect and RIBA award-winning designer of the Birmingham Rep. Now in his 90s, he lives with his wife Lesley in a peaceful apartment in Edgbaston. Over a long career, his wide-ranging work has included schools and colleges, private housing, church buildings, historical restorations, and the radical design for the first Crescent Theatre.
Graham trained at the Birmingham School of Architecture, overlapping with John Madin. Many in his year had recently returned from active service in the Second World War, dreaming of making their mark on a shattered country. Together they shaped late 20th century Birmingham.
Winteringham saw war service in the Royal Navy.
When the war ended he had a choice between further naval service or resuming his training as an architect. Fortunately for Birmingham, he chose the latter. He was accepted by Birmingham School of Architecture, offered a secondyear place and the following Monday, in February 1946, found himself in a class of 32 students, 26 of whom were ex-servicemen.
One year above John Madin, Winteringham thrived at the school and it was Madin who first offered him a place in his new practice.
He chose, however, to accept an offer from architect ST Walker.
Walker was a theatre devotee and friend of director Sir Barry Jackson. When Winteringham heard of plans to build the Crescent Theatre, he personally applied and was awarded the commission.
He had no experience of theatre architecture but did his homework thoroughly.
Based on his research and discovery of Walter Gropius’s ideas, or as he says modestly “I nicked the idea from Gropius”, his design was at the cutting edge of theatre design. When it opened in 1964, it was the first theatre in Europe to have a fully adaptable auditorium.
Winteringham observed ruefully that it was demolished after only 25 years, noting that “they missed a trick”. Knowing that the canal side was to be developed, he had purposely designed the building with a through foyer leading onto what is now Brindley Place.
Winteringham established his own practice in Newhall Street and took up a senior lectureship at the Birmingham School of Architecture.
His practice thrived with designs for schools, colleges and churches
across the region, including Solihull Sixth Form College, Hodge Hill School and St Thomas Church, Garretts Green.
His designs for private houses became well-known, his own new house in Solihull featuring in Ideal Home.
In 1956, his old employer, ST Walker, offered him a partnership and they merged their two practices. Winteringham was appointed architect for the new Birmingham Rep by Nancy Burman, who ran the Birmingham Repertory Theatre after Sir Barry Jackson’s death in 1961.
Winteringham turned their vision of “a beautiful theatre operating all day, with restaurants and exhibition spaces” into a reality.
Burman’s collaboration with Winteringham’s architectural mastery was realised in the new Rep. which was described at the time as having a “dynamic relationship of the single democratic sweep of the auditorium, with the epic stage”.
This design was ambitious and a huge leap away from traditional theatre architecture, connecting audience and actors in a new way.
The build was not without problems.
The site was contaminated by Victorian industrial activity and shaken by trains in a railway tunnel. Winteringham cheekily engaged Ove Arup, engineer of the recently completed Sydney Opera House, as structural engineer for the project. ‘Only the best’ seem to be Graham’s watchwords, his attention to detail extending to the concrete mix for the magnificent pre-cast sections of the almost classical colonnaded façade, for which he specified an aggregate of Hopton Wood limestone.
Winteringham himself lent a hand in sculpting their tree-bark textured finish. The resulting theatre, with light, airy foyers, full of interest, and an auditorium which gives any performance a sense of occasion, has stood the test of time. Graham’s mastery of materials has meant that it is still pristine after 50 years of city pollution.
Winteringham shared his partner ST Walker’s interest in historic buildings and was the architect behind restoration projects across the region, many for the National Trust. He tells many tales of the trials of working with such fragile buildings, from the case of the missing fireplace to saving one great building from fire. His restoration projects include Aston Hall, Baddesley Clinton, Charlecote House, Shugborough Hall, Dudley Castle and many others.
Interviewing Graham, I was struck by the breadth and quality of his work.
He seems to have taken on every challenge with confidence, creativity and masterly skill. When asked what he thought was the best building of the period in the city he said with a twinkle, “the Rep, of course”.
He went on to say that, although the style of the new city buildings was modern in appearance, they showed little innovation in their construction.
Much of the work of these sons of Birmingham has been swept away. Hemmed in on either side, the Rep. is not protected by statutory or local listing and is vulnerable to unsympathetic alterations.
The new Library with its fussy exterior drowns out its simple elegance and the planned extension to Symphony Hall threatens to crowd its fine architecture into a dim corner of the square.
Surely this jewel of modernist theatre architecture, which stands with the National Theatre as part of the 20th century flowering of contemporary theatre, clearly demonstrates the need for a robust local listing policy that ensures that Birmingham values its loved and best buildings.
Architect of Birmingham’s famed Rotunda, James Roberts, will be the focus for our next column.
Brutiful Birmingham is a campaign group established to raise awareness of and fight for the retention of the best of late C20 buildings in Birmingham. We welcome your views: www.facebook. com/Brutiful-Birmingham, follow us on twitter: twitter.com/brutifulbrum, or email us at : brutiful2015@gmail. com
Mary Keating represents Brutiful
Birmingham