Gerald de Courcy Fraser

Gerald de Courcy Fraser
Born(1873-11-25)25 November 1873
Bradford, Yorkshire, England
Died23 November 1952(1952-11-23) (aged 78)
Formby, Lancashire, England
OccupationArchitect
AwardsFRIBA
PracticeFraser, Sons and Geary
DesignNeoclassical, Art Deco

Gerald de Courcy Fraser FRIBA (25 November 1873 – 23 November 1952) was an architect who worked mostly in Liverpool and Birmingham.[1] He was the company architect for Lewis's and built large department stores in a neo-classical and art deco style across the North of England in the first half of the 20th century.[1] He has been described as 'Liverpool's leading commercial architect in the interwar years'[2] and two of his buildings, in Glasgow and Liverpool, have been designated as listed buildings for their architectural and historic interest.

Biography

Gerald de Courcy Fraser was born in Bradford, Yorkshire in 1873. His parents were Robert Fraser and Barbara Ellenor Atkin Fraser.[3] He was brought up in Hightown, north of Crosby. In 1905 Fraser married Sibyl Constance Graham in Lancashire with whom he had 7 children.[4] They lived at Warren Mount in Freshfield, Formby, Lancashire. Fraser was a keen entomologist.[5][6]

Career as an architect

Fraser was articled to Walter William Thomas of Liverpool by 1891.[1] On Thomas's retiral, Fraser took over the Liverpool practice and by 1905 it was in his own name.[7] His offices were at 26 North John Street, Liverpool and by 1924 at 27 Dale Street, Liverpool.[8] Fraser's work was mostly commercial buildings: department stores, warehouses, cinemas and offices for companies in the North of England. In 1910 he designed the new Dental School and Hospital in Liverpool, and in 1911 he built a Liverpool University settlement house with funds raised by Frederick Marquis, later Lord Woolton.[9] In 1912 he started work on several shops on Church Street that transformed Liverpool city centre with 'convenient, handsome and up-to-date "stores" at which the shopper can buy almost anything':[10] Boots (now the Premier Building), Bon Marché, William Henderson & Sons, and Cooper & Co.

Lewis's department store, completed 1956, corner of Ranelagh Street and Renshaw Street, Liverpool

Most of Fraser's work was as the company architect for Lewis's department stores in Liverpool. He began redesigning the original shop on Renshaw Street, expanding it towards Ranelagh Street between 1910–1923 and remodelling it in 1931–32.[11] However, he had to completely rebuild the flagship store after it was destroyed during the Liverpool Blitz in 1941.[12] When Lord Woolton announced the reconstruction, the Liverpool Echo noted that Fraser's 'long process of reconstruction of Lewis's buildings' had 'led to the popular rumour that the directors of Lewis's had an arrangement whereby building shold never cease or Lewis's luck would cease.'[13] Throughout the 1920-30s Fraser built Lewis's department stores in Birmingham, Glasgow and Leicester and was involved in the large civil engineering projects of Lewis's stores designed by local architects in Manchester, Leeds, Hanley and Bristol.[11]

Former Lewis's, Old Square, Birmingham, completed 1928

Fraser's landmark buildings are in a classical or art deco style, often made of white Portland stone on a steel frame, with metal framed windows. Inside the department stores were restaurants, food halls, floors of clothes, haberdashery, gardening and kitchen equipment, even pets, and fondly remembered Christmas grottos. Lewis's in Leicester was partly inspired by the Queen Mary liner, with nautical art deco detailing, but all that remains is its unusual rhomboid tower topped by an observation deck.[14] Fraser also designed department stores for Beatties in Wolverhampton, and Owen Owen in Coventry, the latter of which was destroyed in the worst night of the Coventry blitz just 3 years after opening.

Former Beatties, Victoria Street, Wolverhampton, completed 1929
Littlewoods Pools Building, Edge Lane, Liverpool, completed 1938

Fraser also designed hotels, cinemas, housing schemes and Litherland Town Hall.[7] His most dramatic art deco building is the Littlewoods Pools Building: two long, white buildings of 26 bays with double height windows, a fluted frieze and massive central clock tower.[2]

Fraser was in partnership with architect Cyril Eyres Ainly (5 July 1881–1965) after World War I until 1924.[15][8] In 1936 he quarrelled with David Lumsden, who claimed they were in a practice of architects and surveyors called ‘G de C Fraser and Lumsden’, at Temple Row, Birmingham, from 1924 to 1935.[16] His own practice, Fraser, Sons and Gearey, was often named as building contractors on projects like the Lewis's stores in Liverpool.[12]

Notable works

Among his buildings are:

  • Lewis's, Renshaw Street, Liverpool (1910–23), possible extension and remodelling 1931–32, destroyed by bombing May 1941 and rebuilt 1948–56.[12][17][18] Grade II Listed[19]
  • Dental School and Hospital, Pembroke Place, Liverpool (1910), demolished 1969[20]
  • Liverpool University Settlement House, 12-14 Nile Street, Liverpool (1911–1912)[9]
  • Boots (Premier Building), Church Street, Liverpool (1912–1914)[12][21]
  • Bon Marché, Basnett Street, Liverpool (1912–1918)[12][17]
  • Willam Henderson & Sons, Church Street, Liverpool (1915)[22]
  • Cooper's, Church Street, Liverpool (1915)[12][17]
  • Corona Cinema, Crosby (1914–1920)[23]
  • Beresford Cinema, Park Road, Liverpool (1922)[24]
  • Casino Cinema, Prescot Road, Liverpool (1923)[25]
  • Lewis's, Old Square, Birmingham (1924–25, addition of bridges across Minories 1928)[26]
  • 66-69 New Street, Birmingham (1929)[26]
  • Beatties, Victoria Street, Wolverhampton (1929)[27]
  • Tea Factory warehouse, Wood Street, Liverpool (c.1930)[12][17]
  • Lewis's, Argyle Street, Glasgow (1932–1949) with Clarke, Bell and J. H. Craigie. Grade B Listed[28]
  • Lewis's, Humberstone Gate, Leicester (1935–6),[29] demolished 1995 apart from tower[14][18]
  • Owen Owen, Trinity Street, Coventry (1936-37),[30] destroyed by bombing 14 November 1940
  • 41 Bull Street, Birmingham (1936–37)[26]
  • Littlewoods Pools Building, Edge Lane, Liverpool (1938)[17]
  • Litherland Town Hall, Hatton Hill Road, Litherland, Merseyside (1940)
Litherland Town Hall, Hatton Hill Road, Litherland, Merseyside, completed 1940.

Later years and death

From June 1931, Fraser enthusiastically re-engaged with his childhood hobby of entomology. Accompanied by his wife Sibyl, he would stride around the Formby area in his deer-stalker hat, corduroy ‘bags’ and cigarette holder clamped between his teeth. During night-time walks by the light of a petrol lamp, they would walk down Victoria Road to the sea through the sand dunes, looking for lepidoptera and coleoptera to add to his collection. The Frasers owned a small cottage in Conwy near Loggerheads Country Park, where they held entomological meetings and bughunting expeditions. In 1946 they founded The Raven Society, an Entomological and Natural History Society.[5]

He died on 23 November 1952[7] in a nursing home in Formby, Lancashire. Just a few weeks before, he had been invited as Guest of Honour by the South London Entomological Society. After his death, his collection was dispersed to his friends, with a small cabinet of Formby moths to the Liverpool Museum.[5] His eldest son Michael Graham Fraser (born 1914) was also an architect, and with his brother-in-law Keith Warren Gearey, continued the family firm Fraser, Son and Gearey,[31] until 1967.[32]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Gerald de Courcy Fraser". Dictionary of Scottish Architects (1660–1980). 15 December 2024. Retrieved 21 March 2026.
  2. 1 2 Harwood, Elain (2019). Art Deco Britain. Batsford. p. 244. ISBN 9781849945271.
  3. ↑ "England & Wales Births 1837-2006". Findmypast.co.uk. 15 December 2024. Retrieved 15 December 2024.
  4. ↑ "England & Wales Marriages 1837-2005, West Derby, Lancashire, vol 88, p. 833". Findmypast. 15 December 2024. Retrieved 15 December 2024.
  5. 1 2 3 Leech, M.J.; Michaelis, H.N.; Whiteley, C. de C. (1957). The Lepidoptera of Formby with a short biographical note on the late G. de C. Fraser by C. de C. Whiteley (PDF). Arbroath: T. Buncle & Co. pp. 6–7.
  6. ↑ "Obituary: Gerald de Courcy Fraser". The Entomologist. 86. Simpkin, Marshall & Company: 58. 1953.
  7. 1 2 3 "Obituaries: Gerald de Courcy Fraser". The Journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects. 60 (6): 253–254. April 1953.
  8. 1 2 "[Partnerships]". The London Gazette. 21 March 1924. p. 2466. Retrieved 21 March 2026.
  9. 1 2 Rose, Michael E. (1989). "Settlement of University Men in Great Towns: University Settlements in Manchester and Liverpool" (PDF). Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire & Cheshire. 139: 141, 152.
  10. ↑ "Church Street the heart of Shopland". Liverpool Evening Express. 14 June 1915. p. 3.
  11. 1 2 Briggs, Asa (1956). Friends of the People: the Centenary History of Lewis's. London: Batsford. pp. 76, 106, 157, 158, 195.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Sharples, Joseph; Pollard, Richard (2004). Liverpool. Pevsner architectural guides. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-10258-1.
  13. ↑ "Job For Several Years: "Liverpool Must Look Great"". The Liverpool Echo. 20 May 1947. p. 4. Retrieved 21 March 2026.
  14. 1 2 Goddard, Jane (22 January 2019). "Fond memories of Lewis's on 25th anniversary of closure of much-loved store". Leicester Mercury. Retrieved 1 December 2024.
  15. ↑ "Cyril Ayres Ainley". Architects of Greater Manchester 1800 - 1940. 15 December 2024. Retrieved 15 December 2024.
  16. ↑ "Architect's Claim". Birmingham Daily Gazette. 24 March 1936. p. 5.
  17. 1 2 3 4 5 Pollard, Richard; Pevsner, Nikolaus; Sharples, Joseph (2006). Lancashire : Liverpool and the South-West. Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300109108.
  18. 1 2 Lloyd, Harriet (2022). Departing Stores: Emporia at Risk (PDF). SAVE. pp. 50–51.
  19. ↑ "Lewis's Department Store, Ranelagh Street". National Heritage List for England. 4 June 2007. Retrieved 21 March 2026.
  20. ↑ "Dental Hospital Liverpool". The Builder. 98: 388. 2 April 1910.
  21. ↑ Humphreys, David (2 October 2024). "Landmark building to be transformed in "huge moment" for city". Liverpool Echo. Retrieved 24 November 2024.
  22. ↑ "Company: Henderson & Sons". The HOUSE OF FRASER Archive. 21 March 2026.
  23. ↑ Ackroyd, Harold (1983). "The Cinemas of North Merseyside". Picture House. 1: 19–32 – via ProQuest.
  24. ↑ Roe, Ken. "Beresford Cinema". Cinema Treasures. Retrieved 21 March 2026.
  25. ↑ Roe, Ken. "Casino Cinema". Cinema Treasures. Retrieved 21 March 2026.
  26. 1 2 3 Foster, Andy; Pevsner, Nikolaus; Wedgewood, Alexandra (2022). Birmingham and the Black Country. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300223910.
  27. ↑ Foster, Andy; Pevsner, Nikolaus; Wedgewood, Alexandra (2022). Birmingham and the Black Country. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. p. 689. ISBN 9780300223910.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  28. ↑ "Listed Building (Category B) 65-117 (ODD NOS) ARGYLE STREET, KNOWN AS NO 65 ARGYLE STREET, FORMER LEWIS's DEPARTMENT STORE". trove.scot. 4 September 1989. Retrieved 13 March 2025.
  29. ↑ Pevsner, Nikolaus; Williamson, Elizabeth; Brandwood, Geoffrey K. (1984). Leicestershire and Rutland: The Buildings of England (2nd ed.). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. p. 237. ISBN 978-0300096187.
  30. ↑ "The Transformation of Coventry's Shopping Centre". The Midland Daily Telegraph. 23 January 1936. p. 8.
  31. ↑ "The Architects and Their Post-War Work in Liverpool". The Architects' Journal. 116 (3017): 771. 25 December 1952 – via ProQuest.
  32. ↑ "Partnerships". The London Gazette. 2 April 1968. p. 3934.
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