Peter Yates (architect)
Encyclopedia
Peter Yates was a British born artist and architect. Yates was best known for his partnership with Gordon Ryder in the North of England architectural firm, Ryder and Yates.

Early life and education

Peter Yates was born in Leytonstone
Leytonstone
Leytonstone is an area of east London and part of the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It is a high density suburban area, located seven miles north east of Charing Cross in the ceremonial county of Greater London and the historic county of Essex...

, East London in 1920. He was attracted to the visual arts at an early age, winning a painting competition in Chicks' Own in 1925. Whilst at Wanstead School
Wanstead High School
Wanstead High School , formerly Wanstead County High School, is a co-educational, non-denominational, comprehensive high school in Wanstead, London, United Kingdom.-Admissions:...

 from September 1934 to July 1936, he painted a mural 'Events at Sea'.

Peter worked as a furniture and model maker during 1937 before attending the London Polytechnic School of Architecture, studying under Sir Hubert Bennett, Peter Moro and Robin Day
Robin Day (designer)
Robin Day, OBE, FCSD was a British chartered industrial and furniture designer, best-known for the injection moulded polypropylene stacking chair, more than 20 million of which have been manufactured...

 from January 1938 to April 1941.

War years

Peter Yates served as a fireman on the St Paul's Watch in early 1941, during which he painted Wren's churches during the London Blitz. He met the antiquary and architectural historian, Gerald Cobb, while drawing in Ludgate Circus and they became lifelong friends. Peter joined the RAF in July 1941 and was stationed in Wales and Ireland before going to Versailles in 1944 with the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Forces.

Peter Yates lived in Paris following the war where he met many artists and writers, including George Braque, Édouard Pignon, Jaime Sabartes, Juliette Greco
Juliette Gréco
Juliette Gréco, — also Michelle – is a French actress and popular chanson singer.-Early life and family:Juliette Gréco was born in Montpellier to a Corsican father and a mother who became active in the Résistance, in the Hérault département of southern France. She was raised by her maternal...

, Leon Gischia, Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein was an American writer, poet and art collector who spent most of her life in France.-Early life:...

, Alice Toklas, Andre L'Hote
André Lhote
André Lhote was a French sculptor and painter of figure subjects, portraits, landscapes and still life. He was also very active and influential as a teacher and writer on art....

, Sylvia Beach
Sylvia Beach
Sylvia Beach , born Nancy Woodbridge Beach, was an American-born bookseller and publisher who lived most of her life in Paris, where she was one of the leading expatriate figures between World War I and II.-Early life:...

 and Le Corbusier
Le Corbusier
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, better known as Le Corbusier , was a Swiss-born French architect, designer, urbanist, writer and painter, famous for being one of the pioneers of what now is called modern architecture. He was born in Switzerland and became a French citizen in 1930...

.

Early practice

Peter Yates and Clive Entwistle were invited to work on plans for a new UNO building in New York by Le Corbusier.

Pyramid Project for the New Crystal Palace with Clive Entwhistle at Ove Arup
Ove Arup
Sir Ove Nyquist Arup, CBE, MICE, MIStructE known as Ove Arup, was a leading Anglo-Danish engineer and generally considered to be one of the foremost architectural structural engineers of his time...

's office, Soho 1947.

Masterplan for Peterlee
Peterlee
Peterlee is a new town in County Durham, England. Founded in 1948, Peterlee town originally mostly housed coal miners and their families.Peterlee has strong economic and community ties with Sunderland and Hartlepool.-Peterlee:...

 new town with Berthold Lubetkin
Berthold Lubetkin
Berthold Romanovich Lubetkin was a Russian émigré architect who pioneered modernist design in Britain in the 1930s. His work includes the Highpoint housing complex, London Zoo penguin pool, Finsbury Health Centre and Spa Green Estate.-Early years:Berthold Lubetkin was born in Tiflis into a Jewish...

 in 1948 (where Peter Yates first met Gordon Ryder).

Peter Yates returned to Paris in 1950 as Chief Designer at Unité d’Informations Visuelles, a commercial art studio located in the Old Alhambra night club in the gardens of the Champs Élysées. From here, he contributed to exhibitions across Europe. These included Europa Zug and Atoms for Peace. (Here, Peter collaborated with Pierre Boucher from whom Ryder and Yates later commissioned murals for Norgas House, Killingworth).

Ryder and Yates

In 1953, after a chance meeting in London, Peter Yates moved to Newcastle upon Tyne to form an architectural practice with Gordon Ryder. Initial work included exhibition design and soon progressed onto a series of private domestic architectural commissions. A new multidisciplinary approach which included engineers fuelled their progress. Their buildings were highly regarded. Large scale commissions for industrial complexes for British Gas, Sterling Organics and others followed. Social projects in Newcastle and Sunderland for the Salvation Army, a large social housing project in Kenton as well as various local government and healthcare projects. Ryder and Yates' extensive portfolio of acclaimed buildings won numerous architectural awards over the following three decades from their inception in 1953.

'Ryder and Yates were Lubetkin's sole professional heirs - a legacy mutually recognised - and their work is a compelling reminder of Lubetkin's lesson that the poetic and the rational were inextricable impulses in modern architecture's original vision.' John Allan, Director of Avanti Architects.

A book about Ryder and Yates was published as part of the RIBA 20th Century Architects series.

Notable Ryder and Yates buildings include:
  • R H Patterson Ford Dealer, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1964
  • North Kenton Housing Scheme (subsequently known as the Kenton Bar Estate
    Kenton Bar
    Kenton Bar is a housing estate, that is part of Kenton Ward in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It is situated immediately west of North Kenton and to the north of Cragston Park and Cowgate....

    ), Newcastle upon Tyne, 1964
  • Norgas House, Killingworth, 1965
  • Engineering Gas Research Station (ERS), 1967
  • The Citadel, Killingworth, 1967
  • Sterling Organics, Dudley, 1972
  • Northern Gas Computer Centre, Killingworth, 1974
  • Salvation Army 'Men's Palace', Newcastle upon Tyne, 1974
  • MEA House, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1976
  • Studio 5, Tyne Tees Television, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1981
  • Salvation Army, Sunderland, 1982
  • Vickers, Newcastle and Leeds, 1982

Marriage and children

Peter Yates married musician Helen Maud Southgate from New Zealand in 1958 and had five children. Helen died in 1972.

Peter married his second wife Gillian Jessica Eden in 1976.

Influences

Peter's main influences were Le Corbusier
Le Corbusier
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, better known as Le Corbusier , was a Swiss-born French architect, designer, urbanist, writer and painter, famous for being one of the pioneers of what now is called modern architecture. He was born in Switzerland and became a French citizen in 1930...

 and Berthold Lubetkin
Berthold Lubetkin
Berthold Romanovich Lubetkin was a Russian émigré architect who pioneered modernist design in Britain in the 1930s. His work includes the Highpoint housing complex, London Zoo penguin pool, Finsbury Health Centre and Spa Green Estate.-Early years:Berthold Lubetkin was born in Tiflis into a Jewish...

. Other influences were though his friendships with Austin Wright, Kenneth Rowntree
Kenneth Rowntree
Kenneth Rowntree was a British artist.A Quaker, he was a conscientious objector during the Second World War. He worked for the War Artists' Advisory Committee.He one of the Great Bardfield Artists.Reference:...

 and Diana Rowntree, Dennis Flanders and others.

Peter Yates nominated and successfully campaigned for Berthold Lubetkin to be awarded the Royal Gold Medal
Royal Gold Medal
The Royal Gold Medal for architecture is awarded annually by the Royal Institute of British Architects on behalf of the British monarch, in recognition of an individual's or group's substantial contribution to international architecture....

 for Architecture, 1982

Peter Yates curated an exhibition of Le Corbusier Lithographs at the Ferens Art Gallery, Hull in 1976

Murals

Like Le Corbusier before him, Peter Yates hand painted murals in many buildings. Printed murals also appeared in several commercial interiors.

Public :
Bevin Court
Bevin Court
Bevin Court is one of several modernist housing projects in London designed in the immediate post-war period by the Tecton architecture practice, led by Berthold Lubetkin. Following the dissolution of Tecton, the project was realised by Lubetkin, Francis Skinner and Douglas Bailey...

, London;
'Lake with Dragonflies' Lloyds Bank, The Citadel, Killingworth;
Northern Rock Building Society, Newcastle upon Tyne;
Martin's Bank (now Lloyds Bank) Interior, Priestpopple, Hexham;
'Lettering in grey, white and black', R.H. Patterson, Ford Main Dealer;
'Nonsuch Palace', Linden Hall, Northumberland;
Miner's Cafeteria, Peterlee;
'Time', The Golden Egg Restaurant, Newcastle upon Tyne;
'The Italian Mural', Castle Eden;
'Shadows on the Wall' Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle upon Tyne;
'Carbon Molecular Structures' Sterling Organics Reception, Dudley;
'Origins of Gas', 'Gas Rig', Norgas House (Pierre Boucher);
'Processions of Shells' Beacon House Lobby, Whitley Bay;
Flags, Tynemouth Sailing Club, Tynemouth.

Domestic :
Grand Parade, Tynemouth;
Trees, Woolsington;
Scotby, Cumbria.

Exhibitions

One man exhibitions:

1975 Ultramarinos, Colbert Gallery, Durham

1976 England! Colbert Gallery, London

1978 England 2, Downstairs Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne

1979 Central Sea Paintings of the Mediterranean, Downstairs Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne

1982 Paris! Pen Gallery, Blackheath, London

1982 The Lakes Bridge House Gallery, Coniston

1982 Cyclops Rock, Paintings of England, France, Spain, Italy and Greece Hatton Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne

1983 Peter Yates Retrospective, Durham Light Infantry, Durham

1985 England, France and Cyclops Rock, RIBA, London

2010 Peter Yates British Landscapes, Margaret Howell, London

Group exhibitions:

Whitechapel Art Gallery (1942, 1943)

The Essex Art Club (1944, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49)

Royal Academy (1943)

Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours / Royal Watercolour Society (1943, 1944, 1946, 1982)

Shipley Art Gallery, Gateshead

Royal Institute of British Architects
Royal Institute of British Architects
The Royal Institute of British Architects is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally.-History:...

(1946)

Durham Images. Colbert Gallery, Durham

Wallsend Arts Centre

Hatton Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne

RIBA NE Reinvigorating the Region (2010)

Works in private collections in Great Britain, Europe, USA and New Zealand

Further reading

Peter Yates - Le Corbusier, A Personal Appreciation, Northern Architect, September 1965

Peter Yates - RIBA Lecture, Architects approach to Architecture, 4 November 1975

Stephen Gardiner - Proclaiming the Winner : Call for more Architectural Competitions, Observer Review, 28 November 1976

Peter Yates - Ideas, Northern Architect, January 1976

Stephen Gardiner - V for Vickers, Observer Review, 1982

Stephen Gardiner - Yates on View, Observer, 22 September 1985

Allan, J. (1992) Bertold Lubetkin: Architecture and the tradition of progress, RIBA Publications, pp. 449–518. ISBN 0-947877-62-2

A. Peter Fawcett - Learning from Le Corbusier and Lubetkin: the work of Ryder and Yates. The Journal of Architecture, Volume 6, Issue 3 September 2001, pages 225 - 248

Rutter Carroll - The Architecture of Ryder and Yates, The Twentieth Century Society, Spring 2004 Newsletter

Rutter Carroll - Ryder and Yates (RIBA Publications and the 20th Century Society, 2009) ISBN 978-1-85946-266-9
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