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Chronology

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Corrections and amendments to the chronology are welcome. Please contact us.

 

Both Voysey's known executed buildings and his unexecuted architectural projects are included in this chronology.

Wherever possible, building entries link to more information about both the client and the building itself, including photographs and background information. The entry for each of the principal buildings links to a dedicated page of its own where the additional information may be found.

The photographs are derived from a variety of sources and do not necessarily portray the current appearance of the building concerned. Voysey's other design work is not yet covered at the same level of detail.

Numbers prefixed by BB refer to entries in Voysey's Black Book, his personal record of his architectural projects.

See also our Biography section.

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The chronology

1857CFA Voysey born on 28th May to the Reverend Charles Voysey and Frances Maria Voysey (née Edlin) at Kingston College, Hessle in Yorkshire.
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1861In the census taken on 7th April, CFA Voysey was living at 18 Retreat Place, Hackney St John in London, with his mother and three sisters, Frances, Mary and Margaret. Revd Charles Voysey, a curate, was living alone in a multi-occupancy house at 7 St Nicholas Road, Great Yarmouth.
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1864Charles Voysey appointed vicar of Healaugh near Tadcaster in North Yorkshire, church now called St John the Baptist.
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1869Charles Voysey prosecuted for heresy by Archbishop William Thomson and loses his case at the Chancellor's Court of the Diocese of York.
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1871In the census taken on 2nd April, CFA Voysey was living in the vicarage at Healaugh, with his father, mother, sisters Frances and Cicely, brothers Arthur, Herbert and Ellison, and two servants.
 
Charles Voysey was finally deprived of his living following hearings at the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, moved the family to Dulwich in south London and founded the Theistic Church in Swallow Street, off Regent Street in Mayfair.
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1872CFA Voysey attended Dulwich College for 18 months, then completed his education under a private tutor.
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187411th May, articled to the Gothic Revivalist architect John Pollard Seddon (1827-1906); worked on country churches and learned the art of decorative design.
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1877Started taking own commissions for minor house alterations and surveys.
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1879Went to work for Henry Saxon Snell (1830-1904), who specialised in the design of hospitals and charitable institutions.
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1880Joined office of George Devey (1820-86), an active member of the Theistic Church who specialised in the design of country houses.
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1881In the census taken on 3rd April, CFA Voysey was living as a lodger in the house of Charles Markham, a bricklayer, at 11 Sandy Hill Road, Duston, Northampton.
 
Set up own practice at 8 Queen Anne's Gate, London.
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188225th March, moved office to Broadway Chambers, Westminster, apparently with cousin Richard Annesley Ellison Voysey [see also 1884].
 
Unexecuted projects:
  • (1882-84) competition for Admiralty Buildings behind Whitehall [Voysey's design was unplaced. No record appears to have survived. The award was given to Messrs Leaning & Leaning].
  • (1882-84) design for the South Devon Sanatorium Company, Teignmouth, Devon [BB 15; Theuerkauf archive].
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1883Began to design wallpapers and textiles, at the suggestion of A.H. Mackmurdo (1851-1942). First design sold to Jeffrey & Co.
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1884Elected (5th December) as a member of the Art Workers' Guild, founded in April of the same year.
Partnership with cousin Richard Annesley Ellison Voysey dissolved on 1st February. They had been trading as "Voysey and Voysey" architects and surveyors at Broadway Chambers.
 
Completed projects:
  • Design and model for the Carlyle memorial tablet fixed on 5 (now 24) Cheyne Row, Chelsea, now known as Carlyle's House, for the Carlyle Society [BB 31; photograph].
Unexecuted projects:
  • crematorium and chapel at Sundrum, Ayr, Scotland, for Lieut.-Col. John Hamilton [BB 21; Theuerkauf archive].
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1885Wallpaper designs for Messrs Woollams first exhibited (at Building Trades Exhibition, Covent Garden).
 
24th June, first home and office at 7 Blandford Road, Bedford Park, London.
 
30th July, married Mary Maria Evans.
 
Completed projects: Unexecuted projects:
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188824th June, moved home and office to 'Staumoor', 45 Tierney Road, Streatham Hill, London.
 
Exhibited at the first exhibition of the Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society at The New Gallery, 121 Regent Street, London.
 
Designed first complete built work: The Cottage in Bishop's Itchington near Warwick for M.H.J. Lakin.
 
Unexecuted projects:
  • (c.1888-89) house at 14 South Parade, Bedford Park, London, for Mrs J.W. Forster [BB 48; RIBA; Theuerkauf archive].
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1889Exhibited at the second exhibition of the Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society at The New Gallery, 121 Regent Street, London.
 
Unexecuted projects:
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1890Designs exhibited by others at the third exhibition of the Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society at The New Gallery, 121 Regent Street, London.
 
Completed projects:
  • Walnut Tree Farm, also known as Bannut Tree House, Castlemorton, Worcestershire, for R.H. Cazalet.
  • addition to The Cliff, now East Cliffe, 102 Coventry Road, Warwick, for M.H.J. Lakin. Not to be confused with The Cliff at Malvern Wells, which Voysey designed for Michael Lakin's brother Edward in 1910.
Unexecuted projects:
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189125th March, moved home and office to 11, Melina Place, Grove End Road, St John's Wood, London. We have been unable to find the family in the census which was taken on 5th April this year.
 
Completed projects: Unexecuted projects:
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1892Paper read at Winchester Art Society upon "The Art of today" (subsequently published in The British architect, 18th November 1892, pp.375-7). Full text available.
 
Unexecuted projects:
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1893The Studio magazine launched: Voysey illustrated the cover.
 
Exhibited at the fourth exhibition of the Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society at The New Gallery, 121 Regent Street, London.
 
Work exhibited at the World's Columbian Exposition (Chicago).
 
Completed projects:
  • Perrycroft, Colwall, Herefordshire, for John William Wilson, MP.
Unexecuted projects:
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1894Completed projects:
  • Lowicks, Frensham, Surrey, for E.J. Horniman.
Doubtful:
  • cottage at Alton in Hampshire for Mrs Mary Scott [BB 102]. A drawing and plan published in David Gebhard, Charles F.A. Voysey architect (Hennessey & Ingalls, 1975), p.126, is dated 1897, but this may simply have been a later publication of the 1894 project. There is no surviving drawing in the RIBA collection.
Unexecuted projects:
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1895Blue plaqueMoved home and office to 6 Carlton Hill, St John's Wood, London. There is a blue plaque on this site.
 
Part of sub-committee responsible for arranging Art Workers' Guild, First Exhibition.
 
Drawings included in the annual Royal Academy architectural exhibition for the first time (British architect, 17th May 1895, p.343).
 
Began designing for Tomkinson Carpets of Kidderminster.
 
Paper read at the Manchester City Art Gallery on 15th February in connection with the Manchester and Salford Association of Master Plasterers and Painters upon "Art in decoration and design" (summary published in The British architect (22nd February 1895), p.130).
 
Completed projects: Unexecuted projects:
  • monument to Queen Victoria [RIBA].
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1896Member of the Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society (ACES) and its committee and exhibited at the fifth ACES exhibition at The New Gallery, 121 Regent Street, London.
 
Completed projects:
  • Greyfriars, Hog's Back, Surrey, for Julian Sturgis, also known as Merlshanger and Wancote;
  • Wortley Cottages, Elmesthorpe, for the 2nd Earl of Lovelace.
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1897Completed projects: Unexecuted projects:
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1898Completed projects: Unexecuted projects:
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1899Set up office at 23 York Place, Baker Street, near Marylebone Station.
 
Member of the Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society (ACES) and its committee and exhibited at the sixth ACES exhibition at The New Gallery, 121 Regent Street, London.
 
Completed projects:
  • Began to design his own home, The Orchard at Chorleywood, Hertfordshire;
  • Spade House at Sandgate, Kent, for H.G. Wells;
  • Oakhill in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, for F.J. Mayers;
  • Winsford Cottage Hospital at Halwill Junction, Devon, for Maria (Molly) Webb Medley;
  • Gordondene (now demolished) in Wimbledon, Surrey, for Cecil Fitch;
  • lodge at Bury Hill Park, Oldbury, Worcestershire for Mrs Florence Wilson [BB 181; photograph]
  • new studio buildings at 65 Hamilton Terrace, St John's Wood, for George Blackall Simonds. The main house has a small side extension, evidently designed by Voysey. The separate studio building is now converted to a house at 15 Hall Road [BB 188].
Unexecuted projects:
  • house at Sandwich, Kent, for A.D. Blyth [BB 189].
  • house at Colnbrook, Buckinghamshire, for Dr Alexander Bowie [BB 192; RIBA; V&A; Theuerkauf archive].
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1900Exhibited at Leeds City Art Gallery, Arts & Crafts Exhibition, 'Metalwork'.
 
Work exhibited at Exposition universelle (Paris).
 
Completed projects:
  • Oakhurst (now divided into two houses called Ropes and Bollards) at Fernhurst, Sussex for Mrs E.F. Chester;
  • Prior's Garth at Puttenham, Surrey, for Frank Harding Chambers.
Unexecuted projects:
  • house at Worcester Park, Surrey, for J.B. Pinker [BB 197].
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1901In the census taken on 31st March, CFA Voysey was living in The Orchard, Shire Lane, Chorleywood, with his wife Mary Maria, sons Charles and Annesley, and daughter Priscilla. Also in the house were Arthur Simpson, "designer woodcarver", who was visiting, and three servants. Voysey designed Littleholme in Kendal for Simpson in 1909.
 
Completed projects:
  • The Pastures at North Luffenham, Rutland, for Miss G.C. Conant;
  • repairs to King Alfred's School at 24 Ellerdale Rd, Hampstead. [BB 213]. The school was founded in 1898, and later extended into house no.25. Voysey's son Charles was on the first school register, his wife served on the school council, and he designed the school badge [in the V&A collection: 1900 school badge and 1907 school window].
Unexecuted projects:
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1902Work exhibited at Prima Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Decorativa Moderna (the First International Exhibition of Modern Decorative Arts, Turin).
 
Joined an Art Workers' Guild group visit to the Netherlands, his first overseas trip.
 
Completed projects:
  • Factory (now converted to offices and called Voysey House) at Chiswick, London, for Sanderson & Sons, wallpaper manufacturers, for whom Voysey produced many designs;
  • Vodin (now called Little Court) at Pyrford Common near Woking in Surrey, for F. Walters;
  • addition to Roughwood Farm, Chalfont St Giles, Herts., for Captain Williams [BB 218; Theuerkauf archive];
  • stable and gates for Heathdene, Langley Road, Watford, for Percy Holt Heffer, possibly unbuilt [BB 220; C. Jordan, 'Heathdene', The Orchard (no.6, 2017), pp.86-89].
Unexecuted projects:
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1903Member of the Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society (ACES) and its committee and exhibited at the seventh ACES exhibition at The New Gallery, 121 Regent Street, London.
 
Elected "by acclamation" a member of the Architectural Association.
 
Elected a member of the executive committee of the Strand Improvement Committee (British architect (17th July 1903), p.41.
 
Completed projects:
  • Ty-Bronna in Fairwater near Cardiff, for W. Hastings Watson;
  • White Cottage in Wandsworth, London, for C.T. Coggin;
  • Tilehurst in Bushey, Hertfordshire, for Miss E. Somers;
  • Hollybank (listed by English Heritage as Sunnybank) in Chorleywood, Hertfordshire, for Dr H.R.T. Fort (although nominally built for the Reverend Matthew Edmeads).
Unexecuted projects:
  • house in Abinger Road, Bedford Park, London, for M.T. La Thaugue [BB 237; Theuerkauf archive].
  • two cottages at Pole Cat Lane, Shottermill, Haslemere, Surrey, for A.M.M. Stedman, later known as A.M.S. Methuen [BB 233; Wendy Hitchmough (CFA Voysey, p.232) lists these as a completed project, but there is no surviving evidence and an article in The British architect for 27th April 1906, p.292, states that they are still to be built; Theuerkauf archive].
  • tower house at Bognor Regis, Sussex, for W. Ward Higgs [BB 236; RIBA; Theuerkauf archive].
  • house on Rayrigg Estate, Windermere, Cumbria, for G. Toulmin [BB 238].
  • house at Bracknell Gardens, Hampstead, London, for W.C. Lawrence [BB 234; RIBA; Theuerkauf archive; Victorian web].
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1904Work exhibited at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (informally known as the St Louis World's Fair). Voysey was on the exhibition subcommittee for selecting "original objects of art workmanship" (Karen Livingstone et al, CFA Voysey : arts & crafts designer (2016), p.286).
 
Completed projects: Unexecuted projects:
  • competition entry for Carnegie Library and Museum, Limerick, Ireland [BB 261; Theuerkauf archive].
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1905Exhibited at Art Workers' Guild, Third Exhibition.
 
Completed projects: Unexecuted projects:
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1906Published Reason as a basis of art (full text available (PDF, 2.5MB), reproduced with permission from the copy owned by Exeter University Library)
 
Exhibited at the eighth exhibition of the Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society at The Grafton Gallery, Bond Street, London.
 
Work exhibited at the New Zealand International Exhibition (Christchurch).
 
Joined a second Art Workers' Guild group visit to the Netherlands.
 
Completed projects:
  • Littleholme in Guildford, Surrey, for George Müntzer;
  • reconstruction and furnishing at Garden Corner, 13 Chelsea Embankment, London, for E.J. Horniman;
  • reconstruction and furnishing offices at Capel House, 54 New Broad Street, London EC2, for Sydney Claridge Turner and Essex & Suffolk Equitable Insurance Company;
  • extensions and alterations and stables, coachman's cottage and gardener's cottage, at Wilverley, now Highlands, Holtye Common, Sussex, for J.F. Goodhart.
Unexecuted projects:
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1907Completed projects:
  • houses at 601 & 602 Finchley Road, Hampstead, London, for Vernon Hart [BB 284; two designs, at least one of which was built but destroyed by enemy action in about 1940 according to John Brandon-Jones in the Black Book; Theuerkauf archive];
  • Lovelace tomb in the King chapel, All Saints church, Ockham [BB 285; photograph of rear face].
Unexecuted projects:
  • bungalow at Frinton-on-Sea, Essex, for S. Claridge Turner [BB 293; Theuerkauf archive].
  • house at Frinton-on-Sea, Essex, for S. Claridge Turner [BB 294; RIBA; V&A; Theuerkauf archive].
  • (c.1907-08) offices of the Essex & Suffolk Equitable Insurance Society, High Street, Colchester, Essex [BB 292; unexecuted design for altering the existing building; Theuerkauf archive].
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1908Exhibited at the Franco-British exhibition at the White City, London.
 
Completed projects:
  • Iron grille with inscription on tomb of 1853 dedicated to Ada Augusta Lovelace, wife of the Earl of Lovelace and daughter of Lord Byron, in Kirkby Mallory churchyard, Leicestershire, and repairs to church [BB 306, 471 & 474; photograph].
Unexecuted projects:
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1909Founding member of the Imperial Arts League (for which he later served on its Council) and of the Design Club.
 
Paper read at the Carpenters' Company on 24th February: "Ideas in things" (subsequently published in The British architect (26th February 1909), p.150).
 
Completed projects:
  • Lodge Style in Bath for T.S. Cotterell;
  • Littleholme in Kendal, Cumbria, for A.W. Simpson;
  • Bungalow at Slindon, Sussex, for Arthur Annesley Voysey, now known as Pine Trees [see below for an earlier design];
  • Brook End (often called Brooke End in the literature) in Henley-in-Arden, Warwickshire, for Miss F. Knight.
Unexecuted projects:
  • house at 16 Bigwood Road, Hampstead Garden Suburb, London, for Miss Evelyn Maude Lang (not Ling, as in the Black Book) [BB 323; RIBA; Theuerkauf archive].
  • house at Slindon for A.A. Voysey [BB 317; a different single-storey design was built (see above); V&A; Theuerkauf archive].
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1910Exhibited at the ninth exhibition of the Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society at The New Gallery, 121 Regent Street, London.
 
Paper read at the Carpenters' Company on 2nd March: "Castles in the air" (subsequently published in The British architect (4th March 1910), p.148).
 
Paper read at the Art Workers' Guild on "Copying and its relation to art" (subsequently published in The British architect (15th April 1910), p.269).
 
Completed projects:
  • alterations and additions to The Cliff, Malvern Wells, for Edward Lyon Lakin. Not to be confused with The Cliff at Warwick, which Voysey designed for Edward Lakin's brother Michael in 1890.
Unexecuted projects:
  • pair of semi-detached houses at Sea Road, New Brighton, Cheshire, for G.E. Marshall [BB 333; Theuerkauf archive].
  • two office blocks, Tudor Street, London, for the Spicer Brothers [BB 329; Theuerkauf archive].
  • holiday rest home, Pasture Wood, Holmbury St Mary, near Dorking, Surrey, for Frederick James Mirrielees [BB 337; there were two schemes, one in 1911; a barn was converted instead – see below; RIBA; Theuerkauf archive].
  • competition entry for an extension to Queen's University, Belfast, won by William Henry Lynn [BB 336].
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1911Paper read at the Design Club on 11th January on "The English home" (subsequently published in The British architect (27th January 1911), p.60).
 
Paper read at the Toynbee Arts Students' Club on 25th March on "The Humane aspect of the arts" (subsequently published in The British architect (31st March 1911), p.232).
 
In the census taken on 2nd April, CFA Voysey was staying as a visitor in Littleholme in Guildford, the home of builder George Frederick Müntzer.
 
Completed projects:
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1912Paper read before the Architectural Association on 25th March on "Patriotism in architecture" (subsequently published in The British architect (29th March 1912), p.238).
 
Completed projects: Unexecuted projects:
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1913Moved office to 25 Dover Street, then on 30th July to 10 New Square, Lincoln's Inn.
 
Work exhibited at Exposition universelle et internationale (Ghent).
 
Completed projects: Unexecuted projects:
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1914Exhibited at the exhibition of British Arts and Crafts organised by the Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society in Paris.
 
Completed projects:
  • remodelling and extending White Cliffe, now High Gaut, St Margaret's at Cliffe, Kent, for P.A. Barendt.
Unexecuted projects:
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1915Published Individuality.
 
Begins to design posters for the Central Liquor Control Board, to decorate pubs and canteens, mainly in the Carlisle area.
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1916Exhibited at the eleventh exhibition of the Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society at the Royal Academy, London.
 
Paper read before the Art Workers' Guild "On fashion" (subsequently published in The British architect (May 1916), p.20).
 
Employed on the Survey of London.
 
Completed projects:
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1917Moved home and office to flat at 73 St James's Street, off Piccadilly.
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1918Sought work from textile manufacturer Alexander Morton owing to "terrible plight" financially.
 
Paper read at Carpenters' Hall on "Modern symbolism" (subsequently published in Builder (vol.114), p.156).
 
Unexecuted projects:
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1919Designs included in the War Memorials Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, London.
 
Completed projects:
  • Haslington Cottage at Malvern Wells, now called Cob Nash, for Major G.A. Porter. Historic England listing incorrectly dates the house as 1901. Voysey's Black Book calls the project a conversion of a coach house into a cottage, but the present owner says that it is a complete house in its own right which replaced an earlier building, attached and internally linked to the brick building next door, which is older (despite modern windows) and may have been the original coach house. [BB 396 & 398; Theuerkauf archive];
  • alterations and additions to Hambledon Hurst, The Green, Hambledon, Surrey, for A.H. van Gruisen.
  • war memorial in Malvern Wells, Worcestershire [BB 400; War Memorials Online; Theuerkauf archive];
  • war memorial for the parish church of All Saints, Little Munden, Hertfordshire, commissioned by Lady Dorothy, wife of Herbert Gladstone, the youngest son of William Gladstone PM, who was a Liberal MP and Home Secretary (1906-10) and lived at Dane End House in the village [BB 403];
  • memorial to Claud Romako à Beckett Terrell, commissioned by his father Arthur à Beckett Terrell (see 1914), at St James's Church, Ashmansworth [BB 406].
Unexecuted projects:
  • two cottages at Bradfield, Berkshire, for G.B. Simonds [BB 397; Theuerkauf archive].
  • cottages at Alderley Edge, Cheshire, for A. Heyworth [BB 402; reference: Builder, vol.117 (1919), p.164].
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1920Completed projects:
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1921In the census taken on 19th June, CFA Voysey was staying as a visitor in the home of architect Guy Dawber in Long Wittenham in Oxfordshire.
 
Completed projects: Unexecuted projects:
  • pedestal for Peruvian National Memorial.
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1922Unexecuted projects:
  • house at Jihlava-Helenenthal (now in the Czech Republic), for Carl Löw [BB 431; Theuerkauf archive].
  • house at St Nicholas-at-Wade, Isle of Thanet, Kent, for Tom Jones [BB 427].
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1923Paper read at the Art Workers' Guild on 2nd February: "Tradition and individuality in art". Full text available.
 
Unexecuted projects:
  • two tower blocks (for flats) for the Devonshire House site, Westminster, London [BB 436; RIBA; Theuerkauf archive].
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1924Elected Master of the Art Workers' Guild.
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1925Exhibited at the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts, Paris.
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1926Unexecuted projects:
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1927An important series of articles on Voysey were published in The Architect and building news (vol.117): ‘C.F.A. Voysey: the man and his work’, in five parts. Full text available.
 
Dinner given in honour of Voysey's 70th birthday by the President and Council of the RIBA, with award of a certificate.
 
Completed projects: Unexecuted projects:
  • competition entry for a Town Hall at Wimbledon, Middlesex [the competition was won by Bradshaw, Gass & Hope].
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1928Exhibited at the fourteenth exhibition of the Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society at The New Gallery, 121 Regent Street, London.
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1929Elected Fellow of the RIBA (PDF, 22KB), on the nomination of RIBA Council.
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1930Unexecuted projects:
  • competition entry for a stand for Venesta Ltd at the Building Trades Exhibition, Manchester [BB 473].
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1931Records from the census taken this year were lost to fire during the Second World War.
 
Exhibition of work at Batsford Gallery (full transcription available) under auspices of Architectural review; article on Voysey in same journal by John Betjeman (full text available).
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1932Unexecuted projects:
  • bungalow in South Africa, for Lady Diana Gibb and Macdonald Clark [BB 479].
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1933Unexecuted projects:
  • competition entry for a Manchester exhibition hall [BB 484].
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1936Awarded title of Royal Designer for Industry by the Royal Society of Arts.
 
Unexecuted projects:
  • house at Hampstead, off The Bishop's Avenue, Camden, for Robert Donat [BB 488].
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1939In the national register which was taken on 29th September, CFA Voysey was living at 73 St James's Street, Westminster. There were many other people at the same address, presumably in individual apartments.
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1940Awarded Gold Medal of Royal Institute of British Architects.
 
Moved to live near son Charles Cowles-Voysey in Winchester.
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1941Died on 12th February in Winchester. Ashes scattered at Golders Green Crematorium.
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Principal sources

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Page last amended 25th January 2024