G. Kay Green

George Kay Green (3 May 1877 –December 1939) was a Scottish architect whose work after 1918 was mostly in southern England.

Life

Born in May 1877,[1] Green was educated at George Watson's College, Edinburgh,[2] and was active in business in Edinburgh from at least 1897,[3] when he went into partnership there with William H. McLachlan.[4] While no trace of Green's formal training as an architect has come to light,[5] in 1899 he submitted designs for a new Upper Hall at the Signet Library,[6] and was described as “George Kay Green, Architect”. He was then of 42, Blacket Place, Edinburgh.[7] A drawing by Green of the Laigh Hall, Edinburgh, appeared in the 1902 volume of the journal Judicial Review.[8] Green was in Edinburgh in 1909, when he wrote from there to The Berwick Advertiser on the subject of farming in the Borders.[9]

During the First World War, he served as a quartermaster sergeant in the Royal Engineers and then was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Royal Army Service Corps. In 1920, he was living at 1, Walpole St, London S.W.3.[2]

In 1927, Green was a director of Peacehaven Estates Ltd, Peacehaven Hotel Company Ltd, Peacehaven Water Company Ltd, and Peacehaven Electric Light Company Ltd., which had an address at South Coast Road, Peacehaven, Sussex.[10] In 1928 the companies also had an office at 7, Pall Mall, Westminster, and the directors were Lord Teynham (chairman), C. W. Neville (managing director), and Green.[11] Peacehaven was a large self-build development described in 1940 as "a holiday resort or bungalow-town... founded at the end of the War of 1914–18. It lies at the edge of the cliffs, its plan being a grid of unmade roads".[12]

In London, Green began to specialize in designing large apartment blocks. He was the architect of Sloane Avenue Mansions, an 11-storey Art Deco residential building in Chelsea, London, built between 1931 and 1933.[13][14][15] Another such building he designed was Du Cane Court, Balham High Road, Balham, an early example of an apartment block with revolving doors,[16] the largest block of flats in Great Britain when it was completed in 1934.[17] Perhaps his final major building was Nell Gwynn House in Sloane Avenue, Chelsea, which was finished in 1937.[18] The footprint of the building forms a capital W, and it makes use of Cubist geometric designs, with ancient Egyptian, Aztec, and Mayan patterns.[19]

Private life

In May 1930, at Brighton, Green married Edna Kathleen Hiscock,[20] the 27-year-old daughter of a builder, Herbert Woodbridge Hiscock, and his wife Eleanor.[21] In 1935, they were living at 241, Richmond Road, Twickenham, and the next year at 1, Wimpole Street, Chelsea.[22] In September 1936, they announced the birth of a son, Charles.[23] The Post Office Directory for 1938 has Green listed at 8, Orange Street, Haymarket, Westminster W.C.2.[24] In October 1939, the family of three was back in Twickenham,[1] and Green died a few weeks later.[25]

When Green's widow died in 1993, her death was registered as Edna Kathleen Green or Kay-Green.[26]

References
  1. 1939 National Registration Act register for 241 Richmond Road, Twickenham at ancestry.co.uk, accessed 18 April 2020 (subscription required)
  2. A memorial record of Watsonians who served in the great war 1914 (George Watson's College, Edinburgh, 1920), p. 1063: “GREEN George Kay 1, Walpole St, S.W.3 ... GREEN, GEORGE KAY 1877 ; entd. 1880 ; R.E. (C. of E.), Q.M.S. ; R.A.S.C., 2/Lt. 1917.”
  3. David Goold, George Kay Green Architect Biography Report, in Dictionary of Scottish Architects - DSA at Scottisharchitects.org.uk, accessed 2016-05-06
  4. Goold, William H. McLachlan
  5. George Kay Green at themodernhouse.com
  6. Goold, Signet Library in Dictionary of Scottish Architects
  7. Academy Architecture and Architectural Review, 1899
  8. Iain Gordon Brown Building for Books: The Architectural Evolution of the Advocates' Library 1689-1925 (Aberdeen University Press, 1989), p. xvii
  9. ”An Object Lesson” in The Berwick Advertiser (Northumberland, England), Friday 24 September 1909, p. 2: ”An Object Lesson: Mr George Kay Green, Edinburgh, writes:— As one who has had special opportunities of studying the character and life of our Border farm tenants...“
  10. The Directory of Directors for 1927 (Thomas Skinner & Co, 1927), p. 625
  11. Garcke's Manual of Electricity Supply, Volume 32 (Electrical Press Limited, 1928), p. 752
  12. 'Parishes: Piddinghoe', in L. F. Salzman, ed., A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 7, the Rape of Lewes (London, 1940), pp. 66-69 at British History Online, accessed 14 January 2018
  13. "Sloane Avenue Mansions". Emporis. Retrieved 4 May 2016.
  14. Concrete and Constructional Engineering. 29. Concrete Publications. 1934. p. 14.
  15. "Sloane Avenue Mansions, London". manchesterhistory. Retrieved 6 May 2016.
  16. "Du Cane Court, Balham High Road, Balham, London: the foyer with revolving doors | RIBA". Architecture.com. Retrieved 6 May 2016.
  17. Proceedings of the Huguenot Society of Great Britain and Ireland, Volume 27 (Huguenot Society, 1998), p. 142
  18. "Nell Gwynn House". London Deco Flats. Retrieved 6 May 2016.
  19. Nell Gwynn Chelsea homepage, accessed 25 July 2016
  20. ”Marriages” in West Sussex Gazette, Thursday 08 May 1930, p. 12; ”Green George K & Hiscock Edna K Brighton 2b 607” in General Index to Marriages for England and Wales, 1930; Register entry at St Stephen’s, Hounslow, at ancestry.co.uk, (subscription required)
  21. Baptism at Hounslow in 1903 at ancestry.co.uk, accessed 18 April 2020 (subscription required)
  22. electoral register 1935 and 1936 at ancestry.co.uk, accessed 18 April 2020 (subscription required)
  23. “Births” in The Scotsman (Midlothian, Scotland), 16 September 1936, p. 20: “At 1 Walpole Street, Chelsea London S.W. 5, on September 12th, 1936, to Edna, wife of G. Kay Green, a son”; “GREEN Charles E. K. / Hiscock Chelsea 1a 432” in General Index to Births for England and Wales, 1936
  24. “Architects”,Post Office London Private Residents Directory for 1938, p. 2660
  25. “Green George K. 62 Surrey N.E. 2a 226” in General Index to Deaths in England and Wales, December 1939 quarter.
  26. “Green or Kay-Green, Edna Kathleen, Birth 04/12/1902, Death 04/1993, Northern Surrey” in General Index to Register of Deaths for England and Wales, 1936
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