Collection: Reavell and Cahill, Architects

Description

Seven albums of prints relating to the work of Alnwick, Northumberland based architectural practice (c.1886 - 2005). The prints cover the period from the later ninetheenth century through to the late 1970s. Buildings in the prints include schools, churches, factories, public houses and country houses. Much of the work is concentrated in the Tyne and Wear, Durham and Alnwick areas.

Reavell and Cahill were a generational family based architectural firm with a history spanning from the late nineteenth century to 2005. The firm experienced a number of name changes as new members joined as partners. George Reavell junior, was articled to his father George Reavell senior in 1880 and set up his own independent practice in 1886. Reavell Junior was awarded an OBE in the 1919 Birthday Honours list in recognition of his services during World War One. In the immediate interwar years (1918- 1923), Reavell was in practice with William Arthur Tebbs and they mostly designed war memorials. George Reavell junior formed Reavell and Cahill of Alnwick, Northumberland, when, in 1932, his daughter Mary Proctor Cahill joined the company. Reavell, Cahill and Cahill, formed between George Reavell, Mary Proctor Cahill, and Thomas Joseph Cahill in 1941. The firm continued as Reavell and Cahill in Alnwick following George Reavell’s death in 1947.

The collection is a useful record of the evolving architectural styles deployed within a single firm from the late nineteenth through to the end of the twentieth century. Strengths of the collection include its images of pre 1945 domestic buildings and interiors. The album on Northumberland schools nicely details the innovative design and construction associated with postwar education buildings. Images contained within the Industry album show a wide variety of Northumberland business premises, which although generally unspectacular architectural examples, are nonetheless depictions of a deep rooted adherence to the postwar modernist aesthetic.

There are other external archives containing material related to the Reavell and Cahill practice, including the web based, accessible archives of the Ward Philipson Photographic Collection and the Barclays Group Archive.

Archival History

Purchased from Inch's Books August, 2005.

Content

Rights

© Historic England Archive