Leonard Manasseh
{{Short description|British architect}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
Leonard Sulla Manasseh {{post-nominals|country=GBR|OBE|RA|PPRWA|}} (21 May 1916 – 5 March 2017) was a British architect, best known for the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu, which he co-designed with Ian Baker.
Early life and education
Manasseh was born in Eden Hall, Singapore, which was then the house of his uncle Ezekiel Manasseh, a rice and opium merchant, and is now the residence of the British High Commissioner.{{cite web|url=https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/article/leonard-manasseh-ra-100-birthday|website=Royalacademy.org.uk|title=Architect Leonard Manasseh at age 100 | Blog | Royal Academy of Arts|access-date=2016-12-03}} His father, Alan Manasseh, was a partner in the family firm of S Manasseh and Co, and his mother, Esther, the sister of Joseph Elias, a wealthy Singaporean merchant who provided the financial support to send Leonard and his sister Sylvia to England to be schooled. Leonard went to preparatory school in Surrey and Cheltenham College before becoming a student at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in Bedford Square that he attended from 1935 to 1941.{{cite news |last=Brittain-Catlin |first=Timothy |title=Leonard Manasseh obituary | Art and design |newspaper=The Guardian |location=London |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/mar/20/leonard-manasseh-obituary |access-date=2017-03-20}}
Career
After the Second World War, in which Manasseh served as a pilot in the Fleet Air Arm,{{Cite web |last=Powers |first=Alan |title=Leonard Manasseh, 1916 - 2017 |url=https://www.ribaj.com/culture/obituary-leonard-manasseh-rotork-lmp-post-modernism-bath-england |access-date=2022-04-29 |website=www.ribaj.com |language=en}} he worked as an assistant architect in Hertfordshire County Council Architects Department from 1946 to 1948 and then as a senior architect for the Stevenage Development Corporation.{{Cite web |title=1964/9 Amos Manasseh |url=http://davidmcfall.co.uk/page126.html |access-date=2022-04-29 |website=davidmcfall.co.uk}}
Manasseh's reputation rose with his work at the Festival of Britain, and he formed Leonard Manasseh and Partners with Ian Baker, becoming "one of the leading British architects of the 1960s".{{cite web|url=https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/publications/leonard-manasseh-partners/|title=Leonard Manasseh & Partners|publisher=Historic England|date=2010-12-15|access-date=2017-03-20}} In 1958–60 Rutherford School, Paddington, was built to a design by Manasseh and Baker and in 1964 they designed the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu.
During his career Manasseh had a close relationship with the Architectural Association, as a teacher{{Cite web |title=Leonard Manasseh {{!}} Artist {{!}} Royal Academy of Arts |url=https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/name/leonard-manasseh-ra |access-date=2022-04-29 |website=www.royalacademy.org.uk}} and, from 1964 to 1965, as its president.{{Cite web |title=AA School |url=https://www.aaschool.ac.uk/obituaries/leonard-manasseh-19162017 |access-date=2022-04-29 |website=www.aaschool.ac.uk}}{{Cite web |last=Waite |first=Richard |date=2017-03-24 |title=The profession reacts: Leonard Manasseh dies aged 100 |url=http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/the-profession-reacts-leonard-manasseh-dies-aged-100 |access-date=2022-04-29 |website=The Architects’ Journal |language=en}} He served as a council member for various architectural associations and, in 1989, he was elected the first architect president of the Royal West of England Academy,{{Cite news |date=2017-04-11 |title=Leonard Manasseh, architect – obituary |language=en-GB |work=The Telegraph |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2017/04/11/leonard-manasseh-architect-obituary/ |access-date=2022-04-29 |issn=0307-1235}} a post he undertook until 1994.{{Cite web |title=Leonard Manasseh (1916–2017), President of the Royal West of England Academy (1989–1994) {{!}} Art UK |url=https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/leonard-manasseh-19162017-president-of-the-royal-west-of-england-academy-19891994-246726 |access-date=2022-04-29 |website=artuk.org |language=en}}
He published numerous articles in architectural magazines and, together with Roger Cunliffe, wrote Office Buildings for B.T. Batsford Ltd in 1962. His firm also produced a report, Snowdon Summit, for the Countryside Commission in 1975 which proposed a new summit building on Snowdon and was reviewed in Environmental Conservation.{{Cite journal |last=Frazer |first=J. F. D. |date=1976 |title=Snowdon Summit, a Report Prepared by Leonard Manasseh and Partners at the Request of the Countryside Commission. John Dower House, Crescent Place, Cheltenham: 55 pp., numerous maps and plans, 1975. |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/environmental-conservation/article/abs/snowdon-summit-a-report-prepared-by-leonard-manasseh-and-partners-at-the-request-of-the-countryside-commission-john-dower-house-crescent-place-cheltenham-55-pp-numerous-maps-and-plans-29-21-1-cm-mimeogr-80-pp-1975/1EEEC02E37D23CA33B71038A224E538A |journal=Environmental Conservation |language=en |volume=3 |issue=1 |pages=79–80 |doi=10.1017/S0376892900017999 |s2cid=86327632 |issn=1469-4387|url-access=subscription }}
Other
Manasseh also had a close ties with the Royal Academy of Arts, London, he was elected an Associate on 30 April 1976, a Royal Academician on 9 May 1979 and a Senior Royal Academician on 1 October 1991. In 2016 he became the first centenarian Royal Academician. Described as “an accomplished painter in oils and watercolours”, Manasseh exhibited his work regularly at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition{{Cite web |last=Dannatt |first=Trevor|title=Remembering Leonard Manasseh RA {{!}} Blog {{!}} Royal Academy of Arts |url=https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/article/leonard-manasseh-obituary |access-date=2022-04-29 |website=www.royalacademy.org.uk}} and, in 1977, the academy presented Her Royal Highness, Queen Elizabeth II with a watercolour painting executed by him The Rescue, Wednesday 24, XI, 1976 as a Silver Jubilee Gift that is now held in the Royal Collection.{{Cite web |title=Leonard Manasseh (b. 1916) - The Rescue, Wednesday 24.XI.1976 |url=https://www.rct.uk/collection/922898/the-rescue-wednesday-24-xi-1976 |access-date=2022-04-29 |website=www.rct.uk |language=en}}
In the 1982 Birthday Honours, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire.{{London Gazette |issue=49008 |date= 11 June 1982| page= 11 |supp=y}}
A portrait in oils of the architect by the artist Jennifer McRae is in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London{{Cite web |title=Leonard Manasseh - National Portrait Gallery |url=https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp143784/leonard-manasseh |access-date=2022-04-29 |website=www.npg.org.uk |language=en}} and a photographic portrait by the photographer, Reginald Hugo de Burgh Galwey, is held by RIBA.{{Cite web |title=Leonard Manasseh - architect of '51 Bar - Festival of Britain, South Bank, London |url=https://www.ribapix.com/leonard-manasseh-architect-of-51-bar-festival-of-britain-south-bank-london_riba19491 |access-date=2022-04-29 |website=RIBApix |language=en}} Photographs attributed to Manasseh are held in the Conway Library at The Courtauld Institute of Art whose archive, of primarily architectural images, is in the process of being digitised under the wider Courtauld Connects project.{{Cite web |date=2020-06-30 |title=Who made the Conway Library? |url=https://sites.courtauld.ac.uk/digitalmedia/2020/06/30/who-made-the-conway-library/ |access-date=2022-04-29 |website=Digital Media |language=en-GB}}
National Life Stories conducted an oral history interview (C467/27) with Leonard Manasseh in 1998 for its Architects Lives' collection held by the British Library.[http://sounds.bl.uk/Oral-history/Architects-Lives/021M-C0467X0027XX-0001V0 National Life Stories, 'Manasseh, Leonard (1 of 15) National Life Stories Collection: Architects' Lives', The British Library Board, 1998]. Retrieved 10 April 2018
Private life
Manasseh was firstly married to Karen Willinger (1919–2008), a textile designer,{{Cite book |last1=Malet |first1=Marian |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8zCbDwAAQBAJ&dq=karin+williger+designer&pg=PA220 |title=Applied Arts in British Exile from 1933: Changing Visual and Material Culture |last2=Dickson |first2=Rachel |last3=MacDougall |first3=Sarah |last4=Nyburg |first4=Anna |date=2019-05-07 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-39510-7 |language=en}} with whom he had two sons, Alan and Zachary, and, after they divorced following her desertion that forced Manasseh to return to England from Singapore where he was setting up a practice, he married Sarah Delaforce in 1957. They had three children, a daughter, Rebecca, and two sons, Amos and Phineas, and the extended family lived at 6 Bacon's Lane, Highgate, a house designed by Manasseh that was completed in 1959.{{Cite web |last=Architects (JPA) |first=John Pardey |title=6 Bacons Lane, Highgate London UK |url=https://www.johnpardeyarchitects.com//modern-architecture/one-off-houses-architecture/6-bacons-lane/ |access-date=2022-04-29 |website=www.johnpardeyarchitects.com |language=en}}
Manasseh turned 100 in May 2016{{cite web |author=Charles Saumarez Smith |date=2016-05-21 |title=Leonard Manasseh RA |url=https://charlessaumarezsmith.com/2016/05/21/leonard-manasseh-ra/ |website=Charlessaumarezsmith.com |access-date=2017-01-11}} and died in March 2017. He was predeceased by both his wives, his oldest son Alan and his daughter, Rebecca. His son Amos became custodian of the Highgate property in 2019. In that year, Leonard Manasseh's granddaughter, Chloe Manasseh, an artist, undertook a commission for The British High Commission in Singapore which referenced her late grandfather's recollections of his childhood in Eden Hall, Singapore.{{Cite web |last=UCL |date=2019-04-09 |title=Artist draws on family history for Singapore commission |url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2019/apr/artist-draws-family-history-singapore-commission |access-date=2022-04-29 |website=UCL News |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=From Marrakech To Tree-Climbing Goats, Chloë Manasseh Paints Her Memories Of Morocco {{!}} A Magazine Singapore |url=https://read-a.com/chloe-manasseh-casa-art-exhibition/ |access-date=2022-04-29 |website=read-a.com |language=en-US}} His son Phineas (Phin) is also an architect.{{Cite web |title=Phineas Sulla MANASSEH personal appointments - Find and update company information - GOV.UK |url=https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/officers/0uZU73QDfyhWc5I0YzvlpTm3QzQ/appointments |access-date=2022-04-29 |website=find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk |language=en}}{{Cite news |title=Buy an architect's home |newspaper=The Times |language=en |url=https://www.thetimes.com/life-style/property-home/article/buy-an-architects-home-gxn8q6dz0f0 |access-date=2022-04-29 |issn=0140-0460}}
References
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Category:20th-century British architects
Category:British men centenarians
Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire
Category:Singaporean emigrants to the United Kingdom
Category:People educated at Cheltenham College