Alan Gore; architectural designer & garden historian
Hyfler/Rosner
April 18, 2006 Tuesday
Alan Gore Architectural designer who combined a love of
18th-century decoration with a flair for modern kitchen
design
ALAN GORE, who died on April 5 aged 79, was an architectural
designer and garden historian with a particular interest in
the 18th century; for many years he collaborated on
restoration projects with the interior decorator John
Fowler.
Alan Charles Corbet Gore was born at Drinkstone, Suffolk, on
September 27 1926. His father, Francis, was a tea planter in
Assam, but returned to fight in the First World War,
bringing with him a contingent of Naga headhunters; after
being gassed he retired to Suffolk, where he trained polo
ponies. He died when Alan was 11.
Alan was educated at Wellington. He was then, most unusally
for a public schoolboy, balloted as a Bevin boy and sent to
work in the coal mines of the Dukeries, in Nottinghamshire,
an experience which he found fascinating. A hernia caused
him to be invalided out of the mines, and he went into the
Army Education Corps; based at Knightsbridge Barracks in the
rank of sergeant-major, he taught soldiers to read and
write.
Gore's ambition, however, was to be an architect, and he was
accepted to train at the Architectural Association. Although
he never qualified, he did meet his wife, Ann, a fellow
student at the AA, and they married in 1953.
An early friend was John Fowler, of Colefax & Fowler, who
inspired in Gore a lifelong love of 18th-century
architecture and interiors and gave him an understanding of
the importance of decoration. They continued to work
together until Fowler's death in 1977. Among their many
projects was a house in the south of France for a rich
American, Tommy Kyle; while Fowler did the interiors, Gore
was responsible for the exterior, including the Turkish
pavilions and the swimming pools.
Notwithstanding his interest in historic architecture and
interiors, Gore was also an advocate of modern architecture,
and in 1956 started in private practice with Harry Spencer;
early in his career he employed a young Richard Rogers. Gore
remained a strong admirer of modern architects such as Mies
van der Rohe and Luis Barragan.
After eight years with Spencer, he became one third of Gore,
Gibberd & Saunders, which specialised in the restoration of
historic buildings in Britain and France. The firm's offices
in Battersea also housed an industrial designer (John
Heritage), an interior designer (Nina Campbell) and a
landscape gardener (Laurence Fleming).
So skilful was Gore that one of his new houses, rendered in
lime and sand to resemble real Cotswold stone, was mistaken
as being original by the editors of the Pevsner
architectural guides: the guide to Oxfordshire (1975)
described his building at The Lodge, Shipton-under-Wychwood,
as "a small, elegant house, c.1720... '' Gore was delighted.
From his early days with Spencer, Gore had been interested
in kitchen design, and he is credited with helping to create
the modern kitchen, initially using equipment and ideas from
America. Known at one time as "the king of the kitchen'', he
pioneered subdivided, roll-out drawers. De La Rue
commissioned him to design kitchens which were used in
exhibitions to promote their products. He appeared on
television with Fanny Cradock, and designed a kitchen for
Robert Carrier.
Elizabeth David became a great friend. Gore was an
easy-going man of considerable charm, but he had not been
looking forward to his first meeting with her, after she
invited him to lunch. Expecting to be the guest of a
teetotal non-smoker, he was delighted when Elizabeth David
pressed a powerful cocktail into his hand and opened a large
box of cigarettes. They became firm friends, although he
could never persuade her to adopt one of his new kitchens -
she wanted only "a scrubbed table, a pudding basin and a
fork''.
Gore anticipated the widespread interest in garden design.
In 1980 he initiated and wrote, with Laurence Fleming, the
seven-part television series The English Garden for Thames
TV, narrated by Sir John Gielgud. He wrote another
seven-part series, The English House, also for Thames.
For many years Alan and Ann Gore lived in the early Georgian
Strawberry House, at Barnes, south-west London. Having
bought the house in the mid-1950s, they restored it with the
help of John Fowler. Later they moved to Herefordshire, and
in latter years Gore lectured on architectural history in
the America, Canada and Australia. Every year the Gores
escorted parties of American tourists round English country
houses.
His books included The English Garden (1979); The History of
English Interiors (1991); English Interiors: An Illustrated
History (1985); and The English House (1985).
Gore's elder brother, St John, was the National Trust's
Adviser on Pictures for 30 years and is a former trustee of
the Wallace Collection and the National Gallery.
Alan Gore's wife and two sons survive him.