G. Topham Forrest

George Topham Forrest, F.R.I.B.A. FGS FRSE (1872 – 1945) was a Scottish architect who became chief architect for the London County Council and was responsible for the design of many public housing estates, and also co-designed two bridges over the River Thames.

Early life and training Forrest attended Aberdeen Grammar School. He apprenticed with the architecture firm of Brown and Watt from 1890 to 1894 and also took classes at Robert Gordon's College. He then moved to London and worked as an improver for John Macvicar Anderson while taking classes at King's College and attending the Architectural Association studios.

Local government career From 1898 to 1899 he was chief assistant in the Leeds City Engineer's Office, primarily working on overseeing improvements in working-class housing. From 1899 to 1905 he was principal assistant in the West Riding County Architect's Department, Yorkshire; at first he worked on asylums, but in 1903 he was put in charge of all county education design.

In 1919 he became architect to the London County Council and held that post until his retirement in 1935. and Chelsea Bridge.

His time at the LCC coincided with most of the great interwar period of construction of council houses and flats: approximately 61,000 units by the outbreak of World War II. In particular, he was in charge of the development of the Becontree estate, which had 26,000 units by itself;

Forrest oversaw the design, layout and construction of the council dwellings, so those built during his tenure reflect his preference for plain neo-Georgian architecture, with houses having square-paned sash windows, unadorned brick facades, and plain front doors with small canopies above. there is an overall impression of uniformity. However, on the LCC's most important non-suburban estate built during this period, Ossulston Estate in Camden Town, he was influenced by Modernist workers' housing he had seen in Vienna. Also, under the influence of the Garden city movement, he had the buildings on LCC estates laid out informally and grouped at road junctions and around small greens. whilst in the northern section built under Forrest after the war, the housing is less dense and is grouped around an axis where tennis courts and a community club were provided; there were also originally 4 allotments. At the St Helier Estate, he retained trees and hedgerows where possible and had shrubberies and greens planted, and the housing is deliberately varied in appearance. Even at the high-density Ossulston estate, the flats are grouped around courtyards and greens accessed through archways.

He died on 31 March 1945 in Port Appin.

Selected publications Forrest wrote several journal articles and papers for professional societies on designing for county councils, particularly on the design of schools,

"County Council Schools: Their General Arrangement and Method of Building". The Surveyor and Municipal and County Engineer Supplement 28 February 1908, p. 16. Report on the Construction and Control of Buildings and the Development of Urban Areas in the United States of America. LCC, 1925. OCLC 500353265 "London One Hundred Years Hence". Public Administration 4.2, April 1926, pp. 156–74. "Guiding a Modern City". Municipal Journal 15 April 1927, pp. 585–86.