Leonard Rome Guthrie

Leonard Rome Guthrie (1880 in Glasgow – 1958 in Blyth, Suffolk)^[1] was a Scottish architect.^[2] His parents were the decorator John Guthrie and his wife Jessie Finlay Stark, Scots who had married in London in 1876 and would later return there. He joined the Wimperis & Simpson partnership in 1925 to form Wimperis, Simpson and Guthrie.^[3][4]

Works

His works included:

• In 1912, Townhill Park House, Southampton. Italianate Gardens with planting schemes by Gertrude Jekyll.^[5][6]
• In 1913 he was appointed architect to the Royal Institution and masterminded its major reconstruction.
• Between 1926 and 1931, Grosvenor House, Park Lane London. The design was started by Guthrie but finished by Edwin Lutyens.^[7]
• In 1929, the University of London Observatory.^[8]
• In the 1930s, the BBC transmitter building at the Brookmans Park transmitting station near London, followed by others at Moorside Edge, Westerglen, Washford, Lisnagarvey, Burghead, Stagshaw, Start Point and Droitwich.^[9] These buildings had impressive Art Deco facades in Portland stone, and many of them survive. The Washford building is Grade II listed.
• In 1932, as part of the firm Wimperis, Simpson and Guthrie and with Maurice Bloom: Marine Gate, Brighton.^[10]
• In 1936, Winfield House, the Official Ambassadorial residence of the U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom.^[11]