A plaque celebrating the redesign of three wards in Stanley Royd Asylum by the disgraced and later jailed architect JGL Poulson. (Found hung in the corridor outside the wards)
I’ve been in several of Poulsons buildings that are now demolished - I got artifacts from most, including Keighley college and Leeds International swimming pool.
John Poulson (1910–93) lived in various Yorkshire mansions. Poulson was sentenced to seven years in jail for rigging planning decisions and bribing councillors. The judge called him ‘incalculably evil’ and even his defence QC called him ‘self-righteous, and something of a megalomaniac’. His connections with Home Secretary Reggie Maudling led to Maudling’s resignation but his concrete monuments remain: flats, offices and [blocks next to] Cannon Street Station, Waterloo Station and East Croydon Station, all of which have worsened Monday mornings for millions. He was not even a properly trained architect. When his first employer heard that Poulson was setting up a practice he said, ‘Christ, he couldn’t design a brick shithouse.’
The description below is shamelessly copied from Wikipedia - (who shamelessly keep copying me)
John Poulson came from a strict Methodist family and inherited a strong faith which stressed the importance of self-help. He did badly at school and at Leeds College of Art but nevertheless was articled to a Pontefract firm of architects, Garside and Pennington. He left to start his own architecture practice with financial backing from his father. He never registered with the ARCUK (Architects' Registration Council of the United Kingdom), later claiming "I was too busy to complete my examinations". Poulson soon began to cultivate contacts in the local borough council and officials at the larger West Riding County Council. Work soon began to arrive and Poulson told friends that he was "on his way". Poulson also became politically involved with the National Liberals, although he never let political differences stop him from making "friends" who were in charge of commissioning public buildings. He was a Freemason.
Manasseh, Poulson's former residence
Poulson obtained a medical exemption from wartime service in 1939. The same year he married Cynthia Sykes, whose sister Lorna was married to John King, who many years later was enobled as John King, Baron King of Wartnaby. He was thus well placed to expand his business throughout the wartime years. He was a workaholic and demanded the same commitment from his staff, dismissing staff who would not work his way. He had his own firm build him a house called Manasseh at a cost of £60,000, helped by building contractors donating services for free in the hope of getting contracts in the future. The house won the Ideal Homes "House of the Year" competition in 1958.
Poulson revolutionised the accepted architectural method of completing a design then handing it over for costing, planning and building. He developed a combined architecture and design practice, an all-in-one service which employed all the separate disciplines in integrated teams. This approach facilitated the development process and reduced costs. In the post-war years Poulson's business boomed and by the 1960s was one of the largest in Europe. He later admitted that the practice expanded "beyond my wildest dreams" and offices were opened in London, Middlesbrough, Newcastle upon Tyne, Edinburgh, Beirut and Lagos, Nigeria.
Poulson's Leeds International Swimming Pool, opened in 1966
Poulson designed Pontefract Library in his home town. The library opened in 1975.
Luke Williams House is the centrepiece to the Horsefair flats in Pontefract, designed by Poulson. The pitched roof was added later
In 1958, the National Liberal MP Sir Herbert Butcher advised his friend Poulson to set up a servicing company to win business for his architect's practice. Poulson established Ropergate Services Ltd., named after the street in Pontefract where he was based. This company also had the advantage of reducing Poulson's tax liability considerably. In the late 1950s, there was a building boom as many local authorities embarked on major building schemes.
In Newcastle upon Tyne, council leader T. Dan Smith's ambition to redevelop Newcastle attracted the attention of the construction firm Bovis which had worked for Poulson. Bovis' managing director suggested formalising links and in February 1962 Smith was appointed as a consultant to the Poulson organisation. This connection was extremely valuable to Poulson as Smith had a network of contacts among other authorities in the north-east, many of whom were also recruited as Poulson consultants. Smith's involvement with the Labour Party reassured many Labour councillors wary of dealing with someone involved in the Conservative-allied National Liberals.
Poulson also won other public sector work in the North East, such as Sunderland Police Station.
Poulson also found a useful contact in Andrew Cunningham, a senior figure in both the General and Municipal Workers Union and the Labour Party in North East England. Some of Poulson's largest residential blocks were built in Cunningham's home town of Felling, County Durham. Cunningham later went to prison for his dealings with the architect.[10] Poulson's work in Felling consisted of the building of one 16-storey high-rise apartment block with six seven-storey blocks of maisonettes surrounding. These were approved in 1966. Four of the low-rise maisonette blocks were demolished in 1987 owing to their poor state of repair and unpopularity with tenants. Two maisonette blocks and the high-rise block Crowhall Tower remain.
In his home town of Pontefract, Poulson won much local authority work for the then Pontefract Municipal Borough Council; such as the town's library and the Horsefair flats, a high-rise social housing project consisting of four six-storey blocks and one twelve-storey block constructed between 1963 and 64 which has proved controversial owing to its proximity to Pontefract Castle.
Poulson designed three wards to add to Stanley Royd Asylum in the 1950’s over 20 years ago (I took it myself along with the JG Poulson sign listed separately)
Definitely a ‘sign of the times!’
Nowadays most ‘Tradesman’ (if you can find one) would see such a sign as demeaning.
They (the NHS) demolished most of the Asylum and all the utilitarian parts (the workshops and boiler house etc.) - and later the much loved Stanley Royd Church. Bloody NHS vandals they were more in the pockets of developers than any of Poulsons men.
I’m getting old now and need to sell my collection of over 20,000 genuine original items - many salvaged from old Mills, Factories and Asylums.
Such artifacts show Britains industrial heritage at its best - the stuff we buy now from China shows Britain at its worst.
Unfortunately no bugger seemed interested in old stuff when I caught the collecting bug in the 1960’s
It all started after hitting my head falling out of an apple tree - thus discovering gravity in a slightly different way to Isaac Newton.
Seems unfair that he was knighted and all I got was a bump on the head.
The price seems high but when you factor in inflation it gets cheaper by the minute!
(A decent offer will buy it)
