Robert Maguire

Robert Alfred Maguire (1931–2019) was an influential British modernist architect and leading thinker in the British liturgical architectural movement of the Church of England. Maguire's St Paul's Church at Bow Common was voted the best church of the 20th century in the United Kingdom.

Early and personal life Robert (Bob) Maguire was born in Paddington, London, on 6 June 1931. He was the son of Arthur Maguire, a furniture maker and his wife Rose , a shop worker.

He attended Droop Street Board School and won an LCC scholarship to attend Bancroft's School, Woodford Green. There he learnt woodwork from a Bauhaus-oriented master, and built on the woodworking skills learnt from his father.

At the age of 16, Maguire began working for the church architect Laurence King, who recommended he attend the Architectural Association School of Architecture. Maguire was able to do so by winning a Leverhulme scholarship. While studying at the AA he was awarded the Howard Colls Travelling Studentship for his first-year portfolio.

Practice with Keith Murray

Maguire and Murray formed an architectural practice in 1959 (Maguire & Murray). Their practice designed a number of important modernist churches including:

St Paul's, Bow Common (1960) – a Grade II* listed building This church was also voted best 20th-century church in the United Kingdom by the judges of the UK's Best Modern Churches competition (2013). St Matthew's Perry Beeches, Birmingham (1963) – a Grade II listed building The church at Malling Abbey, West Malling, Kent (1966) – a Grade II* listed building All Saints', Crewe (1967) St Joseph the Worker, Northolt (1970)

Families by Choice

Maguire had been introduced to a charismatic teacher of existential psychotherapy, Catherine Ginsberg, through his friend Joseph Rykwert. Ginsberg founded a community in West London which Murray and Maguire (and their then wives and families) joined. Later the community moved to four Victorian villas in Kew. The living arrangements comprised flats that shared a kitchen with one or two others.

This experience influenced how Maguire & Murray approached the design of student accommodation, which emphasised the concept of a large house sharing communal living and dining rooms. housing for Lutheran students at King's Cross, London, and award-winning student accommodation for the University of Surrey.

Later work

Between 1976 and 1985, Maguire was head of the School of Architecture at Oxford Polytechnic (later Oxford Brookes University). One of the areas that Maguire’s department focused on was environmentally responsive architecture that developed modern design enriched by local traditions.

Maguire died on 8 February 2019 from a combination of metastatic prostate cancer, ischaemic heart disease, and congestive cardiac failure.

Publications