Gerald de Courcy Fraser

Gerald de Courcy Fraser FRIBA (25 November 1873 – 23 November 1952) was an architect who worked mostly in Liverpool and Birmingham. He was the company architect for Lewis's and built large department stores in a neo-classical and art deco style across the North of England in the first half of the 20th century. and two of his buildings, in Glasgow and Liverpool, have been designated as listed buildings for their architectural and historic interest. Biography Gerald de Courcy Fraser was born in Bradford, Yorkshire in 1873. His parents were Robert Fraser and Barbara Ellenor Atkin Fraser. He was brought up in Hightown, north of Crosby. In 1905 Fraser married Sibyl Constance Graham in Lancashire with whom he had 7 children. They lived at Warren Mount in Freshfield, Formby, Lancashire. Fraser was a keen entomologist.

Career as an architect Fraser was articled to Walter William Thomas of Liverpool by 1891. His offices were at 26 North John Street, Liverpool and by 1924 at 27 Dale Street, Liverpool. Fraser's work was mostly commercial buildings: department stores, warehouses, cinemas and offices for companies in the North of England. In 1910 he designed the new Dental School and Hospital in Liverpool, and in 1911 he built a Liverpool University settlement house with funds raised by Frederick Marquis, later Lord Woolton. In 1912 he started work on several shops on Church Street that transformed Liverpool city centre with 'convenient, handsome and up-to-date "stores" at which the shopper can buy almost anything': Boots (now the Premier Building), Bon Marché, William Henderson & Sons, and Cooper & Co.

Most of Fraser's work was as the company architect for Lewis's department stores in Liverpool. He began redesigning the original shop on Renshaw Street, expanding it towards Ranelagh Street between 1910–1923 and remodelling it in 1931–32. However, he had to completely rebuild the flagship store after it was destroyed during the Liverpool Blitz in 1941. When Lord Woolton announced the reconstruction, the Liverpool Echo noted that Fraser's 'long process of reconstruction of Lewis's buildings' had 'led to the popular rumour that the directors of Lewis's had an arrangement whereby building shold never cease or Lewis's luck would cease.' Throughout the 1920-30s Fraser built Lewis's department stores in Birmingham, Glasgow and Leicester and was involved in the large civil engineering projects of Lewis's stores designed by local architects in Manchester, Leeds, Hanley and Bristol. Fraser also designed department stores for Beatties in Wolverhampton, and Owen Owen in Coventry, the latter of which was destroyed in the worst night of the Coventry blitz just 3 years after opening.

Fraser also designed hotels, cinemas, housing schemes and Litherland Town Hall. His own practice, Fraser, Sons and Gearey, was often named as building contractors on projects like the Lewis's stores in Liverpool. Grade II Listed Dental School and Hospital, Pembroke Place, Liverpool (1910), demolished 1969 Liverpool University Settlement House, 12-14 Nile Street, Liverpool (1911–1912) Bon Marché, Basnett Street, Liverpool (1912–1918) Cooper's, Church Street, Liverpool (1915) Beresford Cinema, Park Road, Liverpool (1922) Casino Cinema, Prescot Road, Liverpool (1923) Lewis's, Old Square, Birmingham (1924–25, addition of bridges across Minories 1928) 66-69 New Street, Birmingham (1929) Tea Factory warehouse, Wood Street, Liverpool (c.1930) Lewis's, Humberstone Gate, Leicester (1935–6), demolished 1995 apart from tower destroyed by bombing 14 November 1940 41 Bull Street, Birmingham (1936–37)

He died on 23 November 1952 until 1967.