Charles Holden, London's architect
- London On The Ground
- May 12
- 5 min read
London's most prolific 20th century architect was born 150 years ago.
Charles Holden was born on 12 May 1875, 150 years ago. He was the architect for around 50 London Underground stations, the former Underground headquarters at 55 Broadway, the University of London's Senate House and many other buildings in the capital.
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For a schedule of forthcoming London On The Ground guided walks, please click here.
Holden was born in Bolton, Lancashire, the fifth and youngest child of Joseph and Ellen Holden. Joseph ran a drapery and millinery business until the death of his wife and a bankruptcy led to him to find work as a fitter and turner in St Helen’s. After Charles left school in St Helen's, he worked as a railways clerk and an apprentice in a chemical lab, but his real interest lay in drawing and design.
Attracted to mechanical drawing as it had a function and purpose, he enrolled in a class at the St Helen's YMCA. His functional approach to architectural design was shaped by this experience.
After working for his sister's husband, a surveyor in Bolton, he was apprenticed to an architect in Manchester. During this time he also attended evening classes at the Municipal School of Art and Manchester Technical School, winning a number of prizes and awards.
On completing his apprenticeship in 1897, Holden worked for an architect in Bolton and then moved to London. His early designs were influenced by the Arts and Crafts Movement and the writings of philosopher Edward Carpenter, whose belief in going beyond the materialism of industrial society and returning to the land and the Simple Life appealed to Holden.
He joined the firm of H Percy Adams in 1899 and was soon given significant freedom in his designs. Holden was made a partner in the practice in 1907 and a third partner, Lionel Pearson, was added in 1913.
Holden was introduced (by his older sister Alice) to a nurse and midwife named Margaret Steadman, who had separated from her husband because of his alcoholism and abuse. They shared a taste for the works of the American poet Walt Whitman and developed a friendship.
Whitman's poem Laws of Creation had a significant influence on Holden. He said that it enabled him to "discover the virtue of confessing one's poverty of imagination and in the resultant nakedness discover the significance of form in the process".
Charles and Margaret began living together in around 1898. They never married, a very unconventional arrangement at the time, but Holden referred to Margaret as his wife and they stayed together for the rest of their lives. In 1906 they moved to a house that he designed in Harmer Green, near Welwyn. Holden lived there until he died in 1960.
Although the largest number of Holden's building designs were in London, he was also responsible for significant works elsewhere. These included the Bristol Royal Infirmary and 69 World War I cemeteries in France and Belgium for the Imperial War Graves Commission.
Below is a selection of Holden's work in London.
His first significant London building was the Belgrave Hospital for Children (1899-1901).
Extension for the Incorporated Law Society, Chancery Lane (1904).
British Medical Association, Strand (1908). The building included sculptures by Jacob Epstein, which some regarded as shocking due to their depiction of naked male figures.
The building was acquired by the Government of Southern Rhodesia in 1935 and is is now Zimbabwe House.
The headquarters of the Underground Electric Railways Company (later London Underground), 55 Broadway, is one of Holden's most renowned buildings. It was Britain's first cruciform plan office building and, on completion, London's tallest office block. It also featured sculptures by Epstein that shocked some people. Holden was awarded the RIBA London Architecture Medal for his design. Occupied by TfL from 2000, it was vacated in 2020 for development as a luxury hotel.
Arnos Grove Underground station, built in 1932, is one of around 50 tube stations designed by Holden.
Southgate Underground station, opened in 1933, is another of Holden's best known tube stations
Senate House, University of London (1937), is probably Holden's greatest achievement. For more on this building, please see my post Senate House: Stalinist or Art Deco?.
The lower concourse of Gants Hill Underground station (opened in 1947) was inspired by stations on the Moscow Metro.
In addition to the prolific number of buildings he designed in London, Holden worked on plans for the reconstruction of London after World War II. Together with William Holford, he wrote the City of London Plan (1946-1947), although little of it was implemented. He also wrote a plan in 1947 for the South Bank of the Thames, largely superseded by plans for the area for the Festival of Britain in 1951.
Charles Holden was one of Britain's most important 20th century architects. His impact on London and Londoners is significant, not least due to his work for London Underground.
He was given RIBA's Royal Gold Medal for his body of work in 1936 and was its Vice President from 1935 to 1937. He was awarded honorary doctorates by the University of Manchester and the University of London. He was a member of the Design and Industries Association and the Art Workers' Guild, where there is a portrait of him by Francis Dodd.
Holden described himself as being in "rather a curious position, not quite in the fashion and not quite out of it; not enough of a traditionalist to please the traditionalists and not enough of a modernist to please the modernists."
His ideas were influenced by the poetry of Walt Whitman, a pioneer of free verse and believer in democracy and inclusion. Writing on architecture, Whitman expressed a preference for simplicity and the welfare of common people.
Holden wrote an essay in 1905 called If Whitman had been an Architect, in which he called for a new form of architecture. Referring to the frequently praised architecture of ancient Greece, Rome and Egypt, of Byzantium and of the Middle Ages, he bemoaned the lack of praise for Modern architecture.
"Come, you Modern Buildings, come!" he wrote, "Throw off your mantle of deceits; your cornices, pilasters, mouldings, swags, scrolls; behind them all, behind your dignified proportions, your picturesque groupings, your arts and crafts prettinesses and exaggerated techniques; behind and beyond them all hides the one I love."
Holden rose from relatively humble origins to the top of his chosen profession. However, his belief in a simple lifestyle and in the collaborative nature of architecture led him to refuse a knighthood on two occasions, in 1943 and 1951.
Walks available for booking
For a schedule of forthcoming London On The Ground guided walks, please click here.
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