Architecture · Modernist
1869–1944 · English
Arts and Crafts, then the 'Wrenaissance' classicism; imperial and memorial architecture
The dominant British architect of the first half of the twentieth century, who began with Arts-and-Crafts country houses set in gardens by Gertrude Jekyll, moved into a personal classicism he called the 'high game', and ended as the architect of imperial New Delhi and of Britain's two greatest war memorials. His Cenotaph in Whitehall and his Thiepval arch on the Somme fixed the visual language of British remembrance.
A Portland stone pylon in Whitehall with no cross and no religious text, its sides tapering to a vanishing point 300 m up, unveiled in 1920 (1920)
Whitehall, London
The Cenotaph — a temporary plaster version for the 1919 Peace Day parade proved so popular it was rebuilt in stone
A vast brick and stone arch of intersecting arches on the Somme, carrying the names of more than 72,000 men with no known grave (1932)
Thiepval, Somme, France
Unveiled on 1 August 1932 by the Prince of Wales — the largest Commonwealth war memorial in the world
A granite fortress on a Dartmoor spur, begun in 1911 for a grocery millionaire and usually called the last castle built in England (1911–1930)
Drewsteignton, Devon
Castle Drogo, for Julius Drewe of the Home and Colonial Stores; now National Trust
A colossal pink and cream sandstone residence on Raisina Hill, its dome derived from a Buddhist stupa, built for a colonial ruler and now a president's house (1929)
New Delhi, India
The Viceroy's House, now Rashtrapati Bhavan — 340 rooms; the sloping approach caused a bitter quarrel with Herbert Baker
A war memorial arch of 1931 at the end of a New Delhi ceremonial avenue, commemorating Indian Army dead of the First World War and the Third Anglo-Afghan War (1931)
New Delhi, India
The All India War Memorial, universally called India Gate
A Surrey house of 1897 built for the garden designer who became his lifelong collaborator (1897)
Godalming, Surrey
Munstead Wood, built for Gertrude Jekyll; acquired by the National Trust in 2023
A Berkshire house built round a cloistered courtyard for the founder of a country-house magazine (1901)
Sonning, Berkshire
Deanery Garden, for Edward Hudson, founder of Country Life — the magazine's championing made Lutyens's name