Robert Nicholson; artist & designer of guidebooks
Hyfler/Rosner
name
Gordon Rookledge
Tuesday November 30, 2004
The Guardian
In 1965, the artist and designer Robert Nicholson, who has
died aged 84, was working on a commemorative book to mark
the 900th anniversary of Westminster Abbey. An enjoyable
commission, it gave Robert a taste for designing and
publishing books. So, in 1966, he produced Nicholson's
London Reference, the first of the many guidebooks that were
to bear his name.
By the early 1970s, the expanding team moved to a loft-style
workshop in what is now fashionable Neal's Yard in Covent
Garden. The London Street Finder was to be the most
successful title.
Robert was born in Sydney, Australia, into a large family
which had emigrated there at the turn of the last century.
But times were hard, and in the 1930s his mother returned to
England with Robert and some of his siblings and settled in
Kent. After school in Rochester, he became a Medway art
school student.
Then came service in the Royal Army Medical Corps in Cyprus
and Egypt, after which he worked as a laboratory technician.
But by 1951, an interest in interior and industrial design
led him, and his brother Roger to win commissions for design
work on the Festival Of Britain exhibition in Edinburgh.
The brothers' collaboration continued in London. Their work
included designing interiors, carpets and fabrics in the new
Shell-Mex building in Waterloo, for the then Carlton Tower
Hotel, blanket designs for the British Wool Secretariat,
wallpaper designs, and newspaper textile advertisements.
Later, Roger was to become a professor in textile design at
the Royal College of Art, but Robert turned to guidebooks.
Yet he was no businessman, and financial and personal
problems forced the sale of the company. He was retained for
several years as a consultant by the new owners.
During that creative but stressful time with the guide
books, Robert would take a day off a week for a country
walk. He had the ability of relaxing, and making companions
do likewise. He made friends easily and was very capable of
striking up conversations with strangers, leaving them as if
they had been long-standing friends. He was knowledgeable of
plant and animal life.
After selling the guides, he explored the less-known parts
of Spain, France, Greece and Turkey, where his talent for
abstract landscape painting flourished. His other
recreations were keeping fit, gardening and swimming.
Robert felt everyone should have equal opportunities, good
value and a fair chance. When an accident put his second
wife, Susi, in a coma, he would make the long journey to
visit her regularly and give her the special physiotherapy
himself which no medical staff could provide. Having lived
in various Georgian houses in Kent, the couple moved to
Brighton and then Winchelsea.
He is survived by Susi, and two children, Mathew and Anne,
from his first marriage to Kate Poulter.
· Robert Nicholson, publisher, writer, artist and designer,
born April 8 1920; died October 19 2004