Charles Cowles-Voysey

Charles Cowles-Voysey (24 June 1889 – 10 April 1981) was a 20th-century English architect. He was born into a dynasty of architects, his father being C. F. A. Voysey.

Voysey designed a number of municipal buildings for local authorities in the south of England, among them Bognor Regis Town Hall and Watford Town Hall.

Early life Charles Cowles-Voysey was born Charles Voysey in London on 24 June 1889, the son of the architect and designer C. F. A. Voysey.

Education and career Voysey studied architecture at the Architectural Association School in 1906 and then at University College London Bartlett School of Architecture from 1907 to 1909. John Brandon-Jones joined the partnership as an assistant for Cowles-Voysey, later becoming a partner, and he finally took over the firm. His great-grandfather was Annesley Voysey (1794-1839), an engineer and architect who had built lighthouses and churches, and has been credited with the design of the first purpose-built office block in London in 1823.

In 1912, Charles married Dorothea Denise Cowles (1885-1980) and amended his surname to Cowles-Voysey. Bridgeton Public Halls (1924), Glasgow Municipal Offices, High Wycombe (1932), High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire Worthing Town Hall (1933), Worthing, West Sussex Watford Town Hall (1937-1939), Watford, Hertfordshire Cambridge Guildhall, Peas Hill Guildhall (1939), Cambridge Bromley Town Hall extension (1939), Bromley, Kent Magistrates' Court (1939), Bromley, Kent Maybridge Estate (1940s), Worthing, West Sussex Morley College reconstruction (1958), Waterloo, London

Awards In 1912, Cowles-Voysey was elected an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (ARIBA), and became a Fellow (FRIBA) in 1927. In 1908-09, he was a Donaldson Medallist, and in 1932, he was awarded the RIBA Architecture Bronze Medal for Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxford.