Thomas Bennett (architect)


Sir Thomas Penberthy Bennett KBE FRIBA was an English architect, responsible for much of the development of the new towns of Crawley and Stevenage.

Biography

Early life

Thomas Bennett was born in 1887 in Paddington, London. He trained as an architect at Regent Street Polytechnic while employed in the drawing office of the London and North Western Railway. He went on to study at the Royal Academy Schools.

Career

He joined the Office of Works in 1911. A career in both education and government followed, until setting up his own practice known as TP Bennett in 1921. In 1922, he became a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects.
In 1940, he became Director of Bricks at the Ministry of Works, where he was awarded the CBE in 1942, but returned to private practice immediately after the Second World War. He was knighted in 1946.
His practice was responsible for many landmark buildings such as the Saville Theatre, Esso House, John Barnes Department store, Hampstead, Westminster Hospital, a BOAC air terminal, the London Mormon Temple in Surrey, Smithfield Poultry Market in London, and Hawkins House in Dublin.
In 1947, he was appointed as the Chairman of the Development Corporation of Crawley New Town, in West Sussex, a post he held until 1960. In his early days at the Development Corporation, he was responsible for the scrapping of the existing plans for the New Town, and the appointment of Sir Anthony Minoprio to create a new master plan. When the town was built, a new comprehensive school was named for him, opening in 1958. He also took over responsibility for the Stevenage New Town which had been initially the responsibility of Monica Felton.
After the completion of Crawley New Town, in 1958 Sir Thomas Bennett designed the terraced houses on Middle Field, St John's Wood, which the 20th Century Society have recognised as well-preserved mid-century reinterpretation if the Georgian Terrace. He opened the Thomas Bennett Community College school in Tilgate, Crawley, officially in November 1959. After a section of the original Smithfield Poultry Market was destroyed by fire in 1958, Bennett designed its replacement, built between 1961–63 and with a unique concrete shell domed roof, believed to be the largest in Europe at the time. In 1964 he designed the Crawley Chapel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Other T.P. Bennett buildings are the UK Ford HQ at Warley and the Forton motorway service station.
He was awarded the KBE in 1954. His private practice, T.P. Bennett and Son, expanded into an architectural company and in 1967 was passed to his only son, P.H.P.Bennett, CBE, Chairman of the Joint Contracts Tribunal 1973–1978.

Partial list of buildings

He died on 29 January 1980.