“Dedicated to the men and women of Britain who have served their country in War, and rightly expect a home for themselves and their children in Peace.” Frontispiece to the book, House Out of Factory by John Gloag, 1946.
About a year ago I found a tatty, dog-eared book on prefab architecture called House Out of Factory published in 1946. Written in the last year of WW2, with line illustrations and photos of contemporary examples, it made a persuasive argument for prefabrication, exactly as in current books on prefab. I was intrigued. Who was this author? A: John Gloag. A most prolific and insightful writer on architecture and design in the 20th century, and yet unknown.
John Edward Gloag was born in London in 1896, served in the Welsh Guards in WW1 where he was gas-poisoned by his own side, and invalided home. Shattered by the experience, he was determined to champion new ideas for society and begins to write about the relationship between modernism in design and society. His first books were straightforward: Simple Furniture and Arrangement (1921, the only book written with his wife), The House we Ought to Live In (1923, great title) and Colour & comfort in decoration (1924).
His next book in 1926 set his radical direction: Artifex, or the Future of Craftsmanship, in which he discusses the relationship between artistic craftsmanship and mass production. He pursues these ideas in Design in Everyday Life and Things, Design in Modern Life, Industrial Art Explained, and a provocative title (and book), The Missing Technician in Industrial production, written towards the end of WW2.
There is precious little about him, and it takes some research to discover he wrote 41 books on architecture, design, history and sociology (as well as another 25 or so of science fiction for which he is better known and discussed). I set out to find some more of his books; some are in reprints, and almost all are still available as secondhand first edition copies.
The more I acquired, the more admiration I had for his writing: sharp, precise, matter of factual, and always readable. The ideas I was attracted to in House Out of Factory were there again as he dissects modern trends for designers, manufacturers and particularly workers for whom he has considerable affection, presumably borne of his horrendous time in the trenches.
He writes on architecture, industrial design and furniture. Sweeping histories and details of practice. The Englishman's Chair, or a Guide to Furniture Styles, English and French, 1450 to 1850 is followed by 2000 Years of England. He also writes on sociology and writing itself: Not in the newspapers, or A sentence of Life. His science fiction novels started in the thirties and moved into historical fantasy in the late sixties and early seventies.
But Gloag appears to have been ignored by the academy. None of his work is referenced in books by Pevsner, Banham or Jencks, where his ideas seem ahead of their parallel fields. Ranging over so many topics in such readable ways seems intended for the public, and they returned the appreciation, as many were reprinted in further copies and editions; he appears to have been read widely in his time.
I was recently pleased to discover I was not the only fan still standing; in October the publishers Routledge issued a compendium of his 10 best books (in their opinion). Sadly, it has the eye watering price of almost $2,000. Thank heavens Gloag’s original books are still around, but he's lost to popular times, and having a compendium at that price will not widen his reputation.
Gloag died in 1981, one month shy of 85, but only one biographer took an interest in his life, and that was limited to his science fiction in the 70s. What drove him to be the best populist author on architecture in the 20th C remains a complete mystery. What I deduce is that his revulsion for war drove his desire for energies to be directed to a better life, a modern life, in peace. See the quote above.
In my admiration for his work, I have put together a first edition of a complete list of his works:
Architecture
· The House we Ought to Live In, with Leslie Mansfield, Duckworth & Co 1923
Artifex, or the Future of Craftsmanship, E.P. Dutton & Co 1927
· Men and Buildings, Country Life, 1931 and Chantry Publications 1950
· The Place of Glass in Building, Lionel Budden, G. A. Jellicoe, J Gloag Ed., George Allen & Unwin 1943
· The Englishmen’s Castle, A History of houses, large and small, in town and country, from AD100 to present day, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1944
· House Out of Factory, J Gloag and G. Wornum, George Allen & Unwin 1946
· Guide to Western architecture, George Allen and Unwin/Grove/Macmillan/ Spring books 1958, Spring books 1969
· Victorian Taste: Some Social Aspects of Architecture and Industrial Design. From 1820-1900, A&C Black 1962, David & Charles 1979
· The English Tradition in Architecture, A&C Black 1963
· Architecture, Cassell & Co 1963
· Enjoying Architecture, Oriel Press 1965
· The architectural interpretation of history, A&C Black 1975, St Martin’s Press 1977
Industrial Design
· Colour & comfort in decoration, Duckworth & Co 1924, Frederick A Stokes 1925
· Design in Modern Life & Industry, Being the yearbook of the Design and Industries Association 1924-25, J Gloag Ed., Ernest Benn Ltd London 1925
· Design in Everyday Life and Things, Being the yearbook of the Design and Industries Association 1926-27, J Gloag Ed., Ernest Benn Ltd London 1927
· Design in Modern Life, J Gloag Ed., George Allen & Unwin 1934
· Industrial Art Explained, George Allen and Unwin 1936, revised enlarged 1946
· The Missing Technician in Industrial production, George Allen and Unwin 1944
· Plastics and Industrial Design, With a section on the properties and uses of different types of plastics by Grace Lovat Fraser, George Allen and Unwin 1945
· Self Training for Industrial Designers, George Allen & Unwin 1947
· The English Tradition in Design, Penguin 1947, A&C Black 1959
· Management on the Factory Floor, Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons 1961
Furniture
· Simple Furniture and Arrangement, With Helen Gloag, Duckworth & Co 1921
· Time Taste and Furniture, Grant Richards/Riverside Press 1925 The Richards Press 1949
· English Furniture-The Library of English Art, A&C Black 1934, 1948, 4th ed 1952, 5th ed 1965
· British Furniture Makers-Britain in Picture Series, Williams Collins 1935, 1946
· A Short Dictionary of Furniture, George Allen & Unwin 1952, Holt Reinhart & Winston NY 1965
· English Furniture with Some Furniture of Other Countries in the Irwin Untermyer Collection, J Gloag Ed., Thames & Hudson, Harvard UP 1958,
· The Englishmen’s Chair, George Allen & Unwin 1964
· A Social History of Furniture Design from BC1300-AD1960, Cassell & Co 1966
· Guide to Furniture Styles English and French 1450 to 1850, A&C Black London, Scribner USA 1972
History / sociology of design
· Home Life in History, Social Life and Manners in Britain 200BC – AD1926, with C. Thompson Walker, Ernest Benn London 1927, Coward-McCann NY 1928
· Word Warfare: Some Aspects of German propaganda and English Liberty, Nicholson & Watson London 1939
· The American Nation: A Short History of the United States, Cassell London 1942, revised with Julian Gloag, Cassell 1955
· What About Business, (Penguin Special), Penguin Books 1942
· How to Write Technical Books, with some pertinent remarks about planning technical papers & forms, George Allen & Unwin 1950
· 2000 years of England, Cassell & Co 1952
· Not in the Newspapers, Cassell & Co 1953
· Georgian Grace, a social history of design from 1669 to 1830, A&C Black 1956, Spring books 1967
· Advertising in Modern Life, A&C Black 1959, 1959
· Victorian Comfort: A Social History of Design from 1830-1900, A&C Black 1961, David & Charles 1979
· A Sentence of Life, World Books 1967
· Mr Loudon’s London, John Claudius Loudon 1783-1843, Oriel Press 1970
Tone Wheeler is an architect / the views expressed are his / contact at [email protected]
