Draft:Gerald de Courcy Fraser

Gerald de Courcy Fraser FRIBA (1872 – 23 November 1952) was an architect who worked mostly in Liverpool and Manchester. He was the company architect for Lewis’s, building department stores in a classical and art deco style for them across the North of England in the first half of the 20^th century.

Gerald de Courcy Fraser
Born	1872 Bradford, Yorkshire, England
Died	23 November 1952 Formby, Lancashire, England
Nationality	English
Occupation	Architect
Awards	FRIBA
Practice	Fraser, Sons and Geary
Design	Neoclassical, Art Deco

Biography

Gerald de Courcy Fraser was born in Bradford, Yorkshire in 1872. His parents were Robert Fraser and Barbara Ellenor Atkin Fraser. He was brought up in Hightown, north of Crosby, the seventh child of his parents. He lived at Warren Mount in Freshfield, Formby, Lancashire and was a keen naturalist.

Work as an Architect

Fraser was articled to Walter William Thomas of Liverpool, then opened his own practice in the city in 1905. Most of Fraser’s work was commercial buildings: department stores, warehouses and offices for companies in the North of England. He was the company architect for Lewis’s in Liverpool, expanding their pre-war building on Renshaw Street, and then completely rebuilding their flagship store after it was bombed during the Liverpool Blitz. He built Lewis's department stores in Birmingham and Glasgow and also worked for Bon Marché, Cooper & Co. and Owen Owen.

Still landmarks in city centres, Fraser’s buildings are in a classical or art deco style, often made of white Portland stone on a steel frame, with metal framed windows. Inside the department stores were restaurants, food halls, floors of clothes, haberdashery, gardening and kitchen equipment, even pets, and fondly remembered Christmas grottos. Lewis’s in Leicester was partly inspired by the Queen Mary liner, with nautical art deco detailing, but all that remains is its unusual rhomboid tower topped by an observation deck. The Littlewoods Pools Building is a dramatically long, low building, with white render and simple art deco details.

Fraser was in partnership with architect Cyril Eyres Ainly (5 July 1881-1965) after World War I until 1924 at 27 Dale Street, Liverpool. In 1936 he quarrelled with David Lumsden, who claimed they were in a practice of architects and surveyors called ‘G de C Fraser and Lumsden’, at Temple Row, Birmingham, from 1924-1935. He often worked with the contractors Fraser, Sons and Geary, for example on the Lewis’s stores in Liverpool. In 1949 he formed a partnership with K. W. Geary and M. G. Fraser, that continued after his death.

Later Years and Death

From June 1931, Fraser enthusiastically re-engaged with his childhood hobby of entomology. Accompanied by his wife Sibyl, he would stride around the Formby area in his deer-stalker hat, corduroy ‘bags’ and cigarette holder clamped between his teeth. During night-time walks by the light of a petrol lamp, they would walk down Victoria Road to the sea through the sand dunes, looking for lepidoptera and coleoptera to add to his collection. The Frasers owned a small cottage in Conwy near Loggerheads Country Park, where they held entomological meetings and bughunting expeditions. In 1946 they founded The Raven Society, an Entomological and Natural History Society.

He died on 23 November 1952, at the age of 80, in a nursing home in Formby, Lancashire. Just a few weeks before, he had been invited as Guest of Honour by the South London Entomological Society. After his death, his collection was dispersed to his friends, with a small cabinet of Formby moths to the Liverpool Museum.

Family

His elder brother by 8 years was called Robert. In 1905 he married Sibyl Constance Graham in Lancashire. They lived at Warren Mount in Formby and went on to have a large family of at least 7 children. His eldest son was Michael, and among his other children were Neil Farquhar Fraser (b. 13 August 1917), Katharine de Courcy Fraser, and Barbara Margaret de Courcy Fraser, who married J. P. Warren, son of the former Mayor of Luton George Warren, in 1934.

Notable Works

Among his buildings are:

• Lewis’s, Renshaw Street, Liverpool (1910-23, possibly 1931-32), extension and remodelling, destroyed by bombing May 1941
• Premier Building, Church Street, Liverpool (1912-1914)
• Bon Marché, Basnett Street, Liverpool (1912-1918)
• Cooper’s, Church Street, Liverpool (1920)
• Lewis’s, Old Square, Birmingham (1924-25, possibly 1931-32)
• Tea Factory warehouse, Wood Street, Liverpool (c.1930)
• Lewis’s, Argyle Street, Glasgow (1932-1949)
• 41 Bull Street, Birmingham (1936-37)
• Owen Owen, Coventry (1936), destroyed by bombing November 1940
• Littlewoods Pools Building, Edge Lane, Liverpool (1938)
• Lewis’s, Humberstone Gate, Leicester (1936) demolished 1995 apart from tower
• Litherland Town Hall, Hatton Hill Road, Litherland, Merseyside (1940)
• Lewis’s, Ranelagh Street, Liverpool (1947-1956)