Parker, Richard Barry

Parker, Richard Barry (1867–1941). English Arts-and-Crafts architect, remembered primarily for the work with his brother-in-law, Raymond Unwin, with whom he practised from 1896 until the dissolution of their partnership in 1914. An early work was ‘Woodcote’, a house at Church Stretton, Salop. (1896–7), which incorporated motifs from English vernacular architecture, and established his stylistic preferences. Parker & Unwin's first major commission was to build the model village of New Earswick, near York (begun 1902), based on the precedents of Bournville and Port Sunlight, with low-density housing based on vernacular forms. In 1903 they won the competition to design the first Garden City at Letchworth, Herts., inspired by the ideas of Ebenezer Howard, and from 1906 Unwin undertook the planning of Hampstead Garden Suburb, while Parker contributed designs for several houses there. They published The Art of Building a Home (1901), but tended to go their own ways after the 1914–18 war. Parker was involved in the new town of Pacaembu, São Paulo, Brazil (1917–20), and in England was responsible for the Wythenshawe Estate outside Manchester (from 1927) and the smaller Shelthorpe Road Estate at Loughborough, Leics. (1926–39).

Bibliography

Darley (1975);
A. S. Gray (1985);
Me. Miller (1992, 2002);
Muthesius and Germann (1992)