ABSTRACT
On that first working morning in late 1956, I was being shouted at by Alec Jackson, son of the founder of Jackson and Greenen of Bournemouth, the first architectural office that I had ever been in. An efficient instrument within a comfortable south-coast culture, for in addition to Alec, there was his contemporary Frank Greenen, Alec’s father, plus another older partner, who had been their original assistant. There were four secretaries and a tiny handful of assistants – only one or two fully qualified. A very successful business, investing in land and buildings and enjoying this top-heavy structure of partners and secretaries. I was immediately told to design and draw-up furniture for the Kinson Methodist Church. ‘Go to that drawer and pull out some details’ was the instruction – and the font, pulpit and communion table are probably still there as drawn by this rookie whose only ‘inspiration’ came from looking at some pictures of Basil Spence’s furniture for Coventry Cathedral. ‘Going to the drawer’ dealt with interiors and fittings, with the bigger stuff available in another drawer. According to Frank Greenen I was fearfully inaccurate, but made up for it by working like a demon. Probably true, but the experience did me no harm and the system of ‘banging-out’ one working drawing per day (in pencil of course since it’s quicker) has become almost instinctive. The glamour end might be a shopfront for a building society, the nightmare job a survey (which I nearly always got wrong), and the ‘responsible’ job would be the design of toilet blocks for a cheap holiday camp.
