George Finch (architect)

In October 2016 the Brixton Recreation Centre was given Grade II listed status for its special architectural and historic interest. Historic England recognised it as "one of George Finch’s most important buildings and illustrating his socialist principles".

Still active well into his 70s, Finch formed a professional practice with his then partner, Kate Macintosh. In 2005 Finch Macintosh designed the Weston Adventure Playground, Southampton, a charity lottery project. He delighted in contributing to the community through this popular Centre that won a prestigious RIBA Award. His work was recently re-assessed in Tom Cordell's documentary film 'Utopia London'. The appreciation of his work by colleagues, critics and most of all the occupants of his buildings did a lot to relieve the pain he felt at seeing the commodification of the housing he had designed to dignify the lives of everyone. Following a Docomomo tour of his Wates blocks, Spring 2012, George wrote, "Those I met were all enthusiastic about their homes – eager to show me around and thanking me for what I had done".

From 1973 until 1978 Finch was Head of Design in the School of Architecture at Thames Polytechnic (now Greenwich University). Later, joining Bob Giles' Architects Workshop, he was reunited with Ted Hollamby who by then had been appointed Chief Architect to the London Docklands Development Corporation. Hollamby commissioned Architects Workshop to produce a development plan for Canary Wharf. Their adopted plan followed a "remarkable" brief that allowed no buildings above 5 storeys. It was, however, a short lived and largely unrecorded endeavour, swept away by another, very different vision for Docklands when the LDDC accepted an America consortium's offer "they couldn't refuse", to build the mega-city of today. Moving to Hampshire, Finch worked as a consultant for Hampshire County Architects Department, led by Sir Colin Stansfield Smith. Here he advised on the rehabilitation of the county's older schools and added library and drama facilities. He also worked on several historic buildings, adapting All Saints, Lewes, in East Sussex, into a theatre; a school in Dulwich, London, into housing; and remodelling Chelsea Town Hall.

Finch's last design for Lambeth was the iconic Brixton Recreation Centre. Designed in 1971 as the centrepiece of a proposed radical redevelopment for a new Brixton on raised walkways over a motorway, the recreation centre and the attached International House were the part of the scheme that was realised when the rest of the scheme was abandoned in 1973. The recreation centre took 12 years to complete after construction commenced in 1973 due to protracted political, financial and labour problems. Finch created an active atrium linking the swimming pools, gymnasia, climbing wall and other facilities. Recently threatened with closure, in January 2013, council leader Lib Peck affirmed that "The Rec is a treasured, landmark building and is part of what makes Brixton so special and unique", promising that it would be retained.

Finch left Lambeth when the Brixton Recreation Centre received planning and financial approval and, a keen thespian and set designer, he formed a partnership with theatre architect Roderick Ham. As a result of the 1970s recession, only the Derby Playhouse and Wolsey Theatre, in Ipswich, and work carried out to the Theatre Royal, York and Theatre Royal, Lincoln were realised, while later schemes including Westminster Pier and Riverside Studios in Fulham, developed in partnership with Will Alsop and John Lyall, proved abortive.

When the London Boroughs were granted responsibility for housing in 1964, Edward "Ted" Hollamby, who was chief architect to Lambeth, invited Finch to join the new Architect's Department and, working with structural engineer Edmund Happold, then of Ove Arup, he produced some of the work for which is best be remembered.

This was followed by work on Suffolk Estate in Haggerston (1963), an early low-rise, high-density scheme, again with a mixture of houses as well as flats.

In 1955 Finch married Brenda Vicary with whom he had five children, Alison, Emma, Sarah, Adam and Jonny. The marriage ended in separation and later divorce. In the late 60s he met Architect Kate Macintosh with whom he had a son Sean and remained until the end of his life.

Finch was born in Tottenham, the son of a milkman. During WWII, he and his sister, Shirley, were evacuated to Saffron Walden, Essex, where he attended Newport Free Grammar School. Finch then studied architecture, at North London Polytechnic (now London Metropolitan University), moving in 1950 to the Architectural Association School of Architecture. He graduated in 1955 from a year that included Neave Brown, Kenneth Frampton, Patrick Hodgkinson, William Gillitt and Roy Stout.

Finch then joined the London County Council Architects Department, under Leslie Martin, where his designs exemplified Mixed Development – the dominant ideology for housing in the 1950s.

George Finch (8 October 1930 – 13 February 2013) was a British architect. He was a committed socialist who believed architecture had the power to transform the lives of post-war Londoners. Finch's ideals drove his passion for designing social housing, civic and environmental buildings for everyday people built to the highest building standards.