Gilbert Murray Simpson

Gilbert Murray Simpson (1869–1954) was a British architect from Brighton who did most of his work in the seaside resort. In 1890 Simpson joined his father Thomas, architect to the Brighton and Preston School Board and the Hove School Board, and helped to design some of the "distinguished group of board schools" for those institutions during the late 19th century. He took over the firm of Thomas Simpson & Son when his father died in 1908, and went on to design several other institutional buildings in Brighton. His elder brother Sir John William Simpson was also an architect.

Biography Simpson was born in Brighton in 1869 to the Scottish architect Thomas (1825–1908) and Clara Simpson (née Hart). He was 11 years younger than his "better-known" and became a partner in 1890 when the firm took the name Thomas Simpson & Son. From 1908, William Jackson Pywell (1884/5–1917) was articled to the firm. Simpson qualified as an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1893; his proposers were Thomas Lainson, Lacy Ridge and A. Cates.

In 1924, Simpson was commissioned to design a new school building for a girls' school which occupied "overcrowded" buildings in York Place, Brighton. Varndean School for Girls, named after a nearby farm and situated in the Withdean area, opened in 1926. Soon afterwards he designed a boys' school The schools have since merged and are known as Varndean School. Between these two commissions, he designed a building in nearby Portslade which later became the town hall. The Ronuk Hall and Welfare Institute on Victoria Road (1928) served two purposes: it was a social club and multi-purpose hall for workers at the nearby Ronuk wax polish factory, and it was a memorial to Robert Chignall, a director of the company. Simpson designed the brown-brick building in the Neo-Georgian style and gave it an "attractive" main hall with balustraded galleries. It became Portslade Town Hall in 1959. The school was needed because of overcrowding at the Ditchling Road Board School, on which Simpson had worked earlier in his career. His own death came in 1954, nine years after retiring