Architects

Name:

Alfred Hugh Mottram

Designation :

Architect

Date of Birth:

Exact Date

Exact DOB:

29/01/1886

Year of Birth :

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Date of Birth After (Year):

DOB (1st 'Or' Year):

DOB (2nd 'Or' Year):

Date of Death:

Exact Date

Exact DOD:

12/03/1953

Year of Death:

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Bio Notes :

Alfred Hugh Mottram was born in Norwich on 29 January 1886, the son of James Mottram, bank officer, and his wife Fanny Ann. He was the younger brother of the author Ralph Hale Mottram. He was educated in Norwich (in the 1901 Census he was a pupil living with a clergyman in Norwich) and in Lausanne, Switzerland. On 31 March 1903 he was articled to George Faulkner Armitage in Altrincham near Manchester, serving a three-year apprenticeship and remaining for a year as assistant. He then joined the practice of Parker & Unwin in Hampstead Garden Suburb, and while there passed the qualifying exam. He was admitted ARIBA on 4 December 1911, his proposers being Unwin, Herbert Vaughan Lanchester and the Presbyterian church architect Thomas Philips Figgis. Prior to that he had been abroad several times, visiting Normandy in 1906 and 1909, Touraine in 1908, and Switzerland and Northern Italy in 1910, and had also toured the Cotswolds, Kent, Surrey, Sussex, Buckinghamshire and Norfolk; beyond these counties he had made sketches of inns in nearly every county of England for a book which remained unpublished.

In his RIBA obituary it states that he commenced his own practice in 1912 but in September of that year on the strength of his garden city and town-planning experience with Parker & Unwin he obtained a post with the Housing Reform Company Ltd in Cardiff, working on garden villages in South Wales. When the Company was wound up in April 1915, Mottram moved from Cardiff to Edinburgh to take up a position as architect to the Scottish National Housing Company Ltd at 111 George Street, designing 1402 houses for the Rosyth Garden Suburb on the basis of layouts provided by Unwin. As he enlisted first with the Royal Scots and then the Artists Rifles in 1918 and 1919, part of the development was designed by the Edinburgh practice of Alfred Greig and Walter Fairbairn. After the war Mottram returned to the Rosyth project, supervising the tarmacadaming of the roads and building a further 100 houses as well as a Masonic hall and a Roman Catholic church. His office at this time was in the Scottish National Housing Co's premises at 59 Frederick Street, but the Rosyth development stalled in 1925 when the Dockyard closed. He continued to work for the Company and for the Second Scottish National Housing Company until 1939, whilst carrying on his own private practice, and also worked for a time for James Bow Dunn. He was admitted FRIBA on 6 March 1939, his proposers being Unwin, John Wilson and Ebenezer James MacRae.

Mottram was also the architect to the Edinburgh Welfare Housing Trust and the Edinburgh Housing Association as well as working for Thomas Usher & Sons, the brewers.

His obituarist notes that Mottram had 'considerable ability as an artist' and his illustrations appeared in several books, including some by his brother.

He died on 12 March 1953, survived by his wife, his son and his daughter. The practice was continued by his son James Allan Hugh Mottram who had served part of his apprenticeship with Dunn & Martin and became a partner in 1950. In 1954 the younger Mottram took Thomas Edward Patrick, a friend from Edinburgh College of Art, into partnership; and in 1960 their long-serving chief assistant Andrew Martin Dalgleish also became a partner.

'Biography authored by the Dictionary of Scottish Architects Compilation Team.'

Bio Notes continued...

Additional Notes

The following private or business addresses are associated with this person:

Private Addresses2 classic

Address	Class	Date From Char	Date From Type	Date To Char	Date To Type	Notes
The Birches Bracondale, Norwich Norfolk England	Private
18 Denning Road Hampstead London England	Private/business
Maryville Gullane East Lothian Scotland	Private
13 India Street Edinburgh Scotland	Private

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Business Addresses2 classic

Address	Class	Date From	Date To
18 Denning Road Hampstead London England	Private/business	1911
51 (or 59?) Frederick Street Edinburgh Scotland	Business	c. 1931	c. 1937
14 Frederick Street Edinburgh Scotland	Business	c. 1938	After 1951

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The following individuals or organisations employed or trained this person (click on an item to view details):

Employers2 classic

Name	Name Link	Date From	Date To	Position	Notes
George Faulkner Armitage	202213	1903/03/31	1906/03	Apprentice
Howard Chatfeild Clarke	205024	1907/03	c. 1907/05	Clerk	on-site at Martineau Memorial Hall, Norwich
Parker & Unwin	202214	1907/06	1912/09	Assistant
Housing Reform Company Ltd	205922	1912/09	1915/04	Architect
Scottish National Housing Company	202216	1915/04	In year 1939	Architect	Latterly whilst also in private practice
George Faulkner Armitage	202213	In year 1906	In year 1907	Assistant
A H Mottram & Son	202894	In year 1950	Before 1953	Partner
James Bow Dunn	200174	c. 1925		Assistant

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The following individuals were employed or trained by this person (click on an item to view details):

Employees or Pupils2 classic

Name	Name Link	Date From	Date To	Position
Francis Murray	401061	1935/10	1936/10	Assistant
David Gray Kirk	206891	In year 1932	In year 1935	Assistant
James Ferguson	400160	In year 1932	In year 1933	Assistant
Archibald James Baxter	201532	In year 1933	1934 or 1935	Assistant
Peter Scott Ferguson	207825	In year 1945	In year 1947	Assistant

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The following individuals proposed this person for RIBA membership (click on an item to view details):

RIBA PROPOSERS2 classic

Proposer	Proposer Link	Date Proposed	Notes
Henry Vaughan Lanchester	201933	1911/12/04	for Associateship
Thomas Phillips Figgis	205229	1911/12/04	for Associateship
Raymond Unwin	202225	1911/12/04	for Associateship
Ebenezer James MacRae	200699	1939/03/06	for Fellowship
Raymond Unwin	202225	1939/03/06	for Fellowship
John Wilson	202401	1939/03/06	for Fellowship

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This person proposed the following individuals for RIBA membership (click on an item to view details):

RIBA PROPOSALS2 classic

Person	Date Proposed	Notes
Stewart Hunter Cruden	1939/12/12	for Associateship
James Allan Hugh Mottram (or James A H Mottram)	1939/12/12	For Associateship
John David Weir	1940/07/16	For Associateship
(Professor) Ralph Cowan	1940/07/16	for Associateship
Francis Murray	1941/12/16	for Associateship
Ion Victor Godfrey Hamilton Warner	1943/06/15	for Licentiateship
David Gray Kirk	1943/07/20	for Licentiateship
James Grant Shearer	1944/06	for Fellowship
Cecil Harry Friston Nimmo	1944/11/14	for Licentiateship
Robert Somerville Ellis	1946/02/12	for Licentiateship
David Ebenezer Lang	1946/07/09	For Associateship
William Logan junior	1946/07/09	For Associateship
William John Braes French	1946/12/10	For Associateship
Robert Walker Rennie Mackenzie	1947/01/14	For Associateship
James Murray	1947/05/06	For Associateship

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This person was involved with the following buildings or structures from the date specified (click on an item to view details):

Buildings and Designs2 classic

Building Name	Date Started	Town, District or Village	City or County	Country	Notes
Martineau Memorial Hall	In year 1907	Norwich	Norfolk	England	As clerk of works under Howard Chatfeild Clarke
Hampstead Garden Suburb	c. 1909	Hampstead Garden Suburb	London	England
Usher Hall	c. 1910		Edinburgh	Scotland	Plans for details - (perhaps acted as executant architect?) NMRS says Mottram & Patrick did this but Patrick only joined the younger Mottram in 1954.
Rhubina, plan of garden suburb & cottage designs	In year 1914		Cardiff	Wales
Caerphilly Cooperative Garden Society, housing	In year 1914	Caerphilly	Glamorgan	Wales
Garden Village Society Housing, Gellifaelog Estate	In year 1914	Merthyr		Wales
Three shops, Rhubina	In year 1914	Rhubina, by Beulak Chapel	Cardiff	Wales
Rothiemurchus Martineau Memorial	Before 1914	Rothiemurchus	Inverness-shire	Scotland	Perhaps by Mottram?
Rosyth Garden City development	In year 1915	Rosyth	Fife	Scotland	Over 1500 houses - as architect for the Scottish National Housing Company
Masonic Hall	After 1915	Rosyth	Fife	Scotland	As architect to the Scottish National Housing Company
St John and St Columba RC Church	In year 1925	Rosyth	Fife	Scotland
Housing, King's Road	In year 1925	Rosyth	Fife	Scotland
464 steel houses at Shettleston	In year 1926	Shettleston	Glasgow	Scotland
Housing, Robroyston Road	In year 1926	Robroyston	Glasgow	Scotland	District plan and site plan
22 Inverleith Gardens	In year 1926	Inverleith	Edinburgh	Scotland	Alterations

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The following books contain references to this person:

Bib ref classic

Author	Title	Date	Publisher	Part	Notes
Post Office Directories
Pride, Glen L	The Kingdom of Fife	1999	The Rutland Press	2nd Edition	p33

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The following periodicals contain references to this person:

Period ref classic

Periodical Name	Date Circ	Edition	Notes
Builder	1951/6/15		p871
Builder	1949/3/4		p288
Builder	1949/8/5		p184
Scotsman	1953/03/13		Obituary of Mottram.
RIBA Journal	1953/04	*	p252 Obituay

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The following archives hold material relating to this person:

Arc ref classic

Archive Name	Source	Source Cat No	Building Id	Item Name	Notes
RIBA Nomination Papers	RIBA Archive, Victoria & Albert Museum	100005			A v20 no2236 (microfilm reel 21); F no3534 (box 25)

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Basic Biographic Details

Addresses

Private Addresses

Private Addresses2 classic

Business Addresses

Business Addresses2 classic

Employment and Training

Employers2 classic

Employees or Pupils

Employees or Pupils2 classic

RIBA Proposers

RIBA PROPOSERS2 classic

RIBA Proposals

RIBA PROPOSALS2 classic

Buildings and Designs

Buildings and Designs2 classic

References

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