George Kay Green (3 May 1877 – December 1939) was a Scottish architect whose work after 1918 was mostly in southern England.
Life Born in May 1877,1939 National Registration Act register for 241 Richmond Road, Twickenham at ancestry.co.uk, accessed 18 April 2020 Green was educated at George Watson's College, Edinburgh,A memorial record of Watsonians who served in the great war 1914 (George Watson's College, Edinburgh, 1920), p. 1063: "GREEN George Kay 1, Walpole St, S.W.3 ... GREEN, GEORGE KAY 1877; entd. 1880; R.E. (C. of E.), Q.M.S.; R.A.S.C., 2/Lt. 1917." and was active in business in Edinburgh from at least 1897,David Goold, George Kay Green Architect Biography Report, in Dictionary of Scottish Architects - DSA at Scottisharchitects.org.uk, accessed 2016-05-06 when he went into partnership there with William H. McLachlan.Goold, William H. McLachlan While no trace of Green's formal training as an architect has come to light,George Kay Green at themodernhouse.com in 1899 he submitted designs for a new Upper Hall at the Signet Library,Goold, Signet Library in Dictionary of Scottish Architects and was described as "George Kay Green, Architect". He was then of 42, Blacket Place, Edinburgh.Academy Architecture and Architectural Review, 1899 A drawing by Green of the Laigh Hall, Edinburgh, appeared in the 1902 volume of the journal Judicial Review.Iain Gordon Brown Building for Books: The Architectural Evolution of the Advocates' Library 1689-1925 (Aberdeen University Press, 1989), p. xvii Green was in Edinburgh in 1909, when he wrote from there to The Berwick Advertiser on the subject of farming in the Borders."An Object Lesson" in The Berwick Advertiser (Northumberland, England), Friday 24 September 1909, p. 2: "An Object Lesson: Mr George Kay Green, Edinburgh, writes:— As one who has had special opportunities of studying the character and life of our Border farm tenants..."
During the First World War, he served as a quartermaster sergeant in the Royal Engineers and then was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Royal Army Service Corps. In 1920, he was living at 1, Walpole St, London S.W.3.
In 1927, Green was a director of Peacehaven Estates Ltd, Peacehaven Hotel Company Ltd, Peacehaven Water Company Ltd, and Peacehaven Electric Light Company Ltd., which had an address at South Coast Road, Peacehaven, Sussex.The Directory of Directors for 1927 (Thomas Skinner & Co, 1927), p. 625 In 1928 the companies also had an office at 7, Pall Mall, Westminster, and the directors were Lord Teynham (chairman), C. W. Neville (managing director), and Green.Garcke's Manual of Electricity Supply, Volume 32 (Electrical Press Limited, 1928), p. 752 Peacehaven was a large self-build development described in 1940 as "a holiday resort or bungalow-town... founded at the end of the War of 1914–18. It lies at the edge of the cliffs, its plan being a grid of unmade roads".'Parishes: Piddinghoe', in L. F. Salzman, ed., A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 7, the Rape of Lewes (London, 1940), pp. 66-69 at British History Online, accessed 14 January 2018
In London, Green began to specialize in designing large apartment blocks. He was the architect of Sloane Avenue Mansions, an 11-storey Art Deco residential building in Chelsea, London, built between 1931 and 1933. Another such building he designed was Du Cane Court, Balham High Road, Balham, an early example of an apartment block with revolving doors, the largest block of flats in Great Britain when it was completed in 1934.Proceedings of the Huguenot Society of Great Britain and Ireland, Volume 27 (Huguenot Society, 1998), p. 142 Perhaps his final major building was Nell Gwynn House in Sloane Avenue, Chelsea, which was finished in 1937. The footprint of the building forms a capital W, and it makes use of Cubist geometric designs, with ancient Egyptian, Aztec, and Mayan patterns.Nell Gwynn Chelsea homepage, accessed 25 July 2016
Private life In May 1930, at Brighton, Green married Edna Kathleen Hiscock,"Marriages" in West Sussex Gazette, Thursday 08 May 1930, p. 12; "Green George K & Hiscock Edna K Brighton 2b 607" in General Index to Marriages for England and Wales, 1930; Register entry at St Stephen's, Hounslow, at ancestry.co.uk, the 27-year-old daughter of a builder, Herbert Woodbridge Hiscock, and his wife Eleanor.Baptism at Hounslow in 1903 at ancestry.co.uk, accessed 18 April 2020 In 1935, they were living at 241, Richmond Road, Twickenham, and the next year at 1, Walpole Street, Chelsea.electoral register 1935 and 1936 at ancestry.co.uk, accessed 18 April 2020 In September 1936, they announced the birth of a son, Charles."Births" in The Scotsman (Midlothian, Scotland), 16 September 1936, p. 20: "At 1 Walpole Street, Chelsea London S.W. 5, on September 12th, 1936, to Edna, wife of G. Kay Green, a son"; "GREEN Charles E. K. / Hiscock Chelsea 1a 432" in General Index to Births for England and Wales, 1936 The Post Office Directory for 1938 has Green listed at 8, Orange Street, Haymarket, Westminster W.C.2."Architects",Post Office London Private Residents Directory for 1938, p. 2660 In October 1939, the family of three was back in Twickenham, and Green died a few weeks later."Green George K. 62 Surrey N.E. 2a 226" in General Index to Deaths in England and Wales, December 1939 quarter.
When Green's widow died in 1993, her death was registered as Edna Kathleen Green or Kay-Green."Green or Kay-Green, Edna Kathleen, Birth 04/12/1902, Death 04/1993, Northern Surrey" in General Index to Register of Deaths for England and Wales, 1936
References
External links George Kay Green at themodernhouse.com