Architects

Name:

Philip Stanley Cocker

Designation :

Date of Birth:

Exact Date

Exact DOB:

29/05/1928

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DOB (2nd 'Or' Year):

Date of Death:

Date Not Known

Exact DOD:

06/06/1926

Year of Death:

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Bio Notes :

Philip Stanley Cocker was born on 29 May 1928 in Bolton, Lancashire, and was educated at the County Grammar School from 1939. On completion of his schooling in 1944 he was articled to T E Smith & Son of Bolton, and while serving his articles he studied part-time at Manchester School of Art. In Smith’s office he was involved in projects for factories, public houses, private houses, surveying and drafting.

On completion of his apprenticeship in 1948 he secured an appointment as an assistant in Manchester City Architects Office, where he worked on a residence for unmarried pregnant girls and also saw the construction of the first building to his own designs - a block of public toilets with a tapered concrete flat roof. After two years in that office he was appointed Assistant Architect to the Housing Architects Office in the same city, where he was personally responsible for the design of flats, sheltered cottages and groups of shops with maisonettes above, as well as being involved in the planning and layout for the main programme of 3000 dwellings per year.

Cocker was admitted ARIBA in 1952. The following year he secured the post of Senior Architect in Middlesbrough Town Council’s Chief Architects Office. While in this post he was lead architect for a programme of some 1000 houses per annum, and carried out personal design work on three small district shopping centres with housing above. At the same time, he was studying Town and Country Planning as an external student at Manchester University, where he received his diploma in 1955; he became an Associate of the MTPI in the same year.

He moved to Scotland in 1956 to join the Chief Architects Office at Glenrothes New Town Development Corporation as an architect/planner. Here he focused on the design of residential districts, (his initials appear on a drawing of houses at Woodside), green landscaping and exhibitions, while spending his evenings working on architectural competitions and furniture construction. In 1960 he won the competition for the District Shopping Centre and adjacent housing at Grangemouth, as a result of which he set up his own practice there in the same year under the practice title Philip Cocker & Associates. It was also in 1960 that he became an Associate of the RIAS.

In 1962 Cocker was an active founder member of Link Housing Association who were among the pioneers of the Housing Association movement in Scotland, and in 2014 manage 6000 houses for rent. Later, in 1981, he was a founder of Jamaica Street Ltd, a non profit-making house development company who built over 500 houses and flats on seven sites. Unfortunately the housing slump of 1992 rendered the unsubsidised financial model unsupportable.

He was admitted FRIAS in 1966 and FRIBA in 1968, proposed by George W Robertson, John Mclachlan and Kenneth Donald. In 1971 he took John McLachlan and Kenneth Donald into partnership, the firm being known thereafter as Philip Cocker & Partners. Peter McAlister joined the partnership in 1979 and Fred Gibson in 1987. Supporting staff architects within the practice included Colin Forest, Denholm Christie, Nick Curry, Michael Good, Thomas Bryan Michie, Howard Fox, Laurence Robertson, Brian McAlister, Gordon Fraser, John Shaw, Alan McLay, Alan Scott and Graham Wilson.

Cocker was involved in architectural education as well as practice, being a visiting lecturer at Middlesbrough School of Art from 1954 to 1956 and at Glasgow School of Art from 1963 to 1966. He was also active in professional organisations, serving as President of the Stirling Chapter of Architects from 1969 to 1971; as an RIAS Council member from 1969 to 1978; as Convenor of the RIAS Housing & Town Planning Committee from 1975 to 1978; as a member of the Construction Industry Advisory Panel from 1974 to 1978; and as Scottish Representative of the Association of Consultant Architects from 1978 to 1982.

Cocker retired and resigned his RIBA membership in 1992, and the practice closed; of the partners, only Kenneth Donald had left the firm prior to that date, in 1987.

Cocker spent retirement in the last of the ten houses he had lived in. This was one of three built for himself and is an eclectic cottage overlooking the beach at Gullane. He says he has learned a little from each one! In retirement he designs furniture and has written a detailed account of the work of the practice, and has published a study of the early buildings of Gullane.

'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
Bolton Lancashire England	Private					place of birth
Shoreways Sandyloan Gullane East Lothian Scotland	Private

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Business Addresses2 classic

Address	Class	Date From	Date To	Notes
66 Lumley Street Grangemouth Stirlingshire Scotland	Business	1960	After 1970	main office to 1970; branch office thereafter.
44 Charlotte Square Edinburgh Scotland	Business	1968	1970	branch office
11 Wemyss Place Edinburgh Scotland	Business	1970	1992	main office
4 Park Terrace Glasgow Scotland	Business	1971	1992	branch office

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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
T E Smith & Son	403828	In year 1944	In year 1948	Apprentice
Manchester City Architect's Department	202488	In year 1948	In year 1950	Assistant
Manchester City Council Housing Architects Office	403829	In year 1950	In year 1953	Assistant Architect
Middlesbrough Town Council Chief Architects Office	403830	In year 1953	In year 1956	Senior Architect	Lead architect for housing programme
Glenrothes Development Corporation (or Glenrothes New Town Development Corporation)	400644	In year 1956	In year 1960	Architect	Architect/Planner
Philip Cocker & Associates	402147	In year 1960	In year 1971	Proprietor
Philip Cocker & Partners	400782	In year 1971	In year 1992	Senior Partner

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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
George William Robertson	204411	1968/10/02	For Fellowship
John McLachlan	401479	1968/10/02	For Fellowship
Kenneth Donald	401477	1968/10/02	For Fellowship

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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
Garage and showroom, Bury Road	In year 1952	Bolton	Lancashire	England	In his own practice.
3 Point Flats	In year 1952	Withenshawe	Manchester	England	as assistant architect in Manchester City Council Housing Architects Office
Two shopping parades of 8 shops and 16 flats	In year 1953	Middleton	Manchester	England	Presumably begun while he was working as assistant architect in Manchester City Council Housing Architects Office, and completed after he had left
Berwick Hills Baptist Church	In year 1956	Middlesbrough	Yorkshire	England	In his own practice.
13 shops and 18 flats, Park End	In year 1956	Middlesbrough	Yorkshire	England	as Senior Architect for Middlesbrough Town Council Chief Architects Department
Offices for Bovis	1960s		Edinburgh	Scotland	Date uncertain
Offices for Thomson McLintock	1960s		Edinburgh	Scotland	Reconstruction
District Shopping Centre	In year 1960	Grangemouth	Stirlingshire	Scotland	Won open competition to secure job.
Kersiebank Avenue Housing and Shopping Centre, Grangemouth	1960/02/26	Grangemouth	Stirlingshire	Scotland	his Design No. 2 awarded 1st prize
The Scores Hotel	In year 1961	St Andrews	Fife	Scotland	new bar
Avongrange Arms, The	In year 1961	Grangemouth	Stirlingshire	Scotland
Competition design for housing site	In year 1962	Blackburn	West Lothian	Scotland	Winning competition design.
House, 3 Saltcoats Drive	In year 1962	Grangemouth	Stirlingshire	Scotland
Airfield Housing Scheme, 24 houses	In year 1962	Grangemouth	Stirlingshire	Scotland
District Shopping Centre, betting shop	In year 1962	Grangemouth	Stirlingshire	Scotland

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The following books contain references to this person:

Bib ref classic

Author	Title	Date	Publisher	Part	Notes
Willis, Peter	New architecture in Scotland	1977			p14-15 Fair-a-Far, Cramond
Glendinning, M, MacInnes, R and MacKechnie, A	A History of Scottish Architecture	1996			p562

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The following periodicals contain references to this person:

Period ref classic

Periodical Name	Publisher	Date Circ	Edition	Notes
Building		1966/04/15		p.195

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The following archives hold material relating to this person:

Arc ref classic

Archive Name	Source	Source Cat No	Notes
RIBA Nomination Papers	RIBA Archive, Victoria & Albert Museum	100005	F no 5339 (Combined Box 133)
Records of membership	RIAS, Rutland Square	201006
Information sent via DSA website, November 2009	Courtesy of Philip Cocker	201042	Biography and job list. Further biographical details sent August 2014.

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Basic Biographic Details

Addresses

Private Addresses

Private Addresses2 classic

Business Addresses

Business Addresses2 classic

Employment and Training

Employers2 classic

RIBA Proposers

RIBA PROPOSERS2 classic

Buildings and Designs

Buildings and Designs2 classic

References

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Periodical References

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