C. H. B. Quennell
Charles Henry Bourne Quennell (1872–1935), was an English architect, designer, illustrator and historian. According to the heritage architect Cath Layton, "his great influence [as an architect and urban planner] can be felt in the houses and streets of London’s suburbs and across the country." His obituary in Nature noted that his books for children and young people had "strongly stimulated interest in the cultural background of the more formal study of history".
Also recorded as Charles Henry Bourne Quennell
C. H. B. Quennell

No Swan So Fine · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Name
- C.
- Birth Name
- Charles Henry Bourne Quennell
- Died
- 1935
- Education
- Architecture
- Born
- 1872 · London.
- Occupation
- architect · illustrator · historian
- Languages
- English
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Documentary summary
Charles Henry Bourne Quennell (1872–1935), was an English architect, designer, illustrator and historian. According to the heritage architect Cath Layton, "his great influence [as an architect and urban planner] can be felt in the houses and streets of London’s suburbs and across the country." His obituary in Nature noted that his books for children and young people had "strongly stimulated interest in the cultural background of the more formal study of history".
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Note VALÉORINE
C. H. B. Quennell (1872–1935) was an architect, historian and illustrator. Born in London, the architect died in Berkhamsted. Languages used include English.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 01 October 2026
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wikidata · Q5006485 · wikipedia · C. H. B. Quennell
In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — C. H. B. Quennell • Birth Name — Charles Henry Bourne Quennell • Died — 1935 • Education — Architecture
Life and career
Life and career
Quennell was the son of Henry Quennell, a builder, and his wife Emma Rebecca (née Hobbs), and grew up in a house at Cowley Road on the Holland Town Estate, Kennington, London. He was articled to Newman and Newman, and worked in the offices of J. McK. Brydon and of J. D. Sedding and Henry Wilson. He obtained the National Gold medal for Architecture, and RIBA Medal of Merit and £5 in the Soane Medallion competition in 1895. He began practice in 1896 working with his brother William developing houses at Hampstead Garden Suburb and then with developer George Washington Hart. He designed a house for Francis Crittall, window manufacturer (Crittall Windows) at Braintree, Essex in 1908. He designed a house for Walter Crittall, son of window manufacturer Francis Crittall at Braintree, Essex in 1912. He co-designed a 'show house' with Walter Crittall at 156-158 Cressing Road, Braintree, Essex. the house incorporated many modernist features such as a drying yard for clothes, a scullery, a larder, fuel store, outside lavatory, living room, parlour, three bedrooms and an inside bathroom and hot press. Discussing the leading English furniture designs of the time, Herman Muthesius wrote in his book The English House (1904): '... that inspired artist Henry Wilson and the excellent designer C. H. B. Quennell far outshine the rest of the group and produce work of high artistic sensibility.' In that book Muthesius discussed certain features of Quennell's illustrations and designs: fireplaces, garden furniture and garden gates.
Positions
Positions
• 1912–15: Member of the Council of Royal Institute of British Architects • 1914–25: Member of the Town Planning Committee of Royal Institute of British Architects • 1928–30: Member of the Board of Architectural Education
Personal life
Personal life
He was the husband of Marjorie Quennell whom he met in 1903 at the Junior Art Worker's Guild and father of Peter Quennell. With his wife, he wrote extensively on social history. Quennell died in December 1935. His brother, Walter, a builder and property developer, was father of Joan Quennell, a Conservative M.P.
Architectural works
Architectural works
• Illustration — 14 Templewood Avenue, Hampstead, designed by Quennell between 1910-11. • Illustration — 24 Heath Drive, Hampstead, designed by Quennell in 1907. • 1899 The Chapel, Cambridge House • 1899 Design for Liskeard Church • 1904 Gallops Homestead, Sussex • 1904 Campbell Mausoleum, St Mary's Cemetery, Harrow Road, Hammersmith, London • 1905 Vale Cottage and Burnt Oak Cottage, Bickley • 1905 Four Beeches, 3 Denbridge Road, Bickley • 1905 Phyllis Court, Rosecroft Avenue, Hampstead • 1905-6 St John's Church, Hall and Vicarage, Edmonton • 1906 1 Denbridge Road, Bickley • 1906 Barn Hawe, 2 Denbridge Road, Bickley • 1906 8 Denbridge Road, Bickley • 1906 The Grosvenor Gallery, 157 New Bond Street (interior) • 1907 19 Woodlands Road, Bickley • 1907 24 Heath Drive, Hampstead (Listed Grade II) • 1907 12 Denbridge Road, Bickley • 1907 19 St George's Road, Bickley • 1907 Halstow, 22 St George's Road, Bickley • 1908 Southborough House, 2 New London Rd, Chelmsford for F W Crittall • 1908 10 Edward Road, Bromley • 1909 21 St George's Road, Bickley • 1909 Linden Oaks, 24 St George's Road, Bickley • 1909 Denbridge House, Bickley • 1910 Englefield, 8 Woodlands Road, Bickley • 1910 St Mark's School, Masons Hill, Bromley, Kent • 1911 Hadlow, 6 Woodlands Road, Bickley • 1911 Lynch House, Allerford, Somerset, Now called Bossington Hall • 1912 Deerwood, 7 Woodlands Road, Bickley • 1912 Mowden School, The Droveway, Hove • 1912-4 Aultmore, Inverness-shire • 1913 Orchard House, 5 Woodlands Road, Bickley • 1918–20 Houses at Braintree (1–41 Clockhouse Way and 152–194 Cressing Road) for Crittall • 1920 Southcourt Housing Estate, Barton Hartshorn, Buckinghamshire • 1923 Housing Scheme, Aylesbury • -?- 19–21 Holbrook Lane, Chislehurst, Kent" • -?- Crabtrees, Gravel Path, Berkhamsted • -?- 'Crockies' (assisted by Thomas Tait – location unknown) • 1926–32 Houses at Silver End, Essex for Crittall • 1926 The Manors, Silver End • -?- Houses on Eastbury Road and Carew Road, Northwood, London • 1931 New House, Oak Lodge, 47, Newlands Avenue, Radlett, Hertfordshire
Identity and origins
Identity and origins
The authorities additionally record the heading Charles Henry Bourne Quennell. His recorded language was English.

15 Templewood Avenue, Hampstead. Designed by C. H. B. Quennell, built in 1905. This is a photo of listed building number 1378975.
No Swan So Fine

14 Templewood Avenue, Hampstead. Designed by C. H. B. Quennell, built in 1910-11. This is a photo of listed building number 1378974.
No Swan So Fine
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1872
C. H. B. Quennell born at London.
1935
C. H. B. Quennell died at Berkhamsted.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
London.
Birth place
Berkhamsted.
Death place
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Planning the peripheries: CHB Quennell and early 20th Century suburban housing, heritagearchitecture.co.uk. Retrieved 10 November 2022.
- 2.C. H. B. Quennell. Nature. 137. 3454. 58. 1936. 10.1038/137058b0.
- 3.Oxford Index. ref:odnb/98233. 2004. 978-0-19-861411-1.
- 4.RIBA Journal, 22 December 1935, page 212
- 5.Alistair Service (1989) Victorian and Edwardian Hampstead
- 6.Finn Jensen 'Modernist semis and terraces in England' p. 15
- 7.Finn Jensen 'Modernist semis and terraces in England' p. 15
- 8.Herman Muthesius (1904) The English House
- 9.Muthesius, 1904, p. 189
- 10.Muthesius, 1904, p. 186
- 11.Muthesius, 1904, p. 123
- 12.Muthesius, 1904, p. 104
- 13.Elizabeth McKellar, "C. H. B. Quennell (1872-1935): Architecture, History and the Quest for the Modern", Architectural History, Vol. 50 (2007), pp. 211-246. Retrieved 10 November 2022.
- 14.Architectural History, the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, vol. 50, pg 219, 2007
- 15.Dod's Parliamentary Companion, ed. C. R. Dod and R. P. Dod, Dod's Parliamentary Companion Ltd., 1967, pg 461
- 16.Dictionary of Scottish Architects - DSA Architect Biography Report (September 15, 2021, 1:55 am).
- 17.Academy Architecture; Volume 15, 1899, page 137
- 18.Academy Architecture; Volume 15, 1899, page 120
- 19.Muthesius, 1904, p. 134
- 20.Bromley Urban District Council Plans No 3437, 1905
- 21.Small Country Houses of To-day, Edited by Lawrence Weaver, 1911, pages 130–3
- 22.Architectural Review, March 1905
- 23.The Builder, 25 March 1927, page 480
- 24.Bromley Urban District Council Plans no 3890, November 1907
- 25.Bromley Urban District Council Plans no 3735, January 1907
- 26.Bromley Urban District Council Plans no 3814, June 1907
- 27.Bromley Urban District Council Plan no 4255, March 1910
- 28.Bromley Urban District Council Plans dated 22 September 1910
- 29.Bromley Urban District Council Plans no 4387, March 1911
- 30.Read the House History of Bossington Hall luxury B&B. 2 July 2021.
- 31.Bromley Urban District Council Plans no 4471, January 1912
- 32.Modern Building Record, 1912
- 33.Academy Architecture; ii, 1913, pages 34 -5
- 34.Architectural Review No.51, 1922, pages 154–5,
- 35.The Architects' Journal, 19 May 1926
- 36.Bromley Urban District Council Plans no 4609, February 1913
- 37.Architectural Review, January 1919, pages 64–66
- 38.The Buildings of England, Buckinghamshire, N. Pevsner, E. Williamson and G. K. Brandwood
- 39.The Architects' Journal, 3 January 1923
- 40.Daylight Saving in the Suburbs, Victorian Society walk notes
- 41.Homes and Garden magazine, June 1931, page 23
- 42.Conservation Today, David Pearce, 1989
- 43.Women's Suffrage Supplement, 3 November 1910
- 44.The Architects' and Builders' Journal, 1 January 1919, page 3
- 45.The Architects' Journal, 9 April 1919
- 46.The Architects' Journal, 19 October 1921
Bibliography printed in the source article · 22
- 1906 Modern Suburban Houses, Batsford, London, 1906
- 1906 A Guide to Norwich Cathedral, (Bell's Cathedral Series), 1906.
- 1910 "Symposium on Town Planning" Women's Suffrage Supplement, 3 November 1910
- 1911 "The House and its Equipment", Country Life (various articles)
- 1919 "Standard Types of Standardised Methods?", The Architects' and Builders' Journal, 1 January 1919, page 3
- 1919 "Berkhamsted War Memorial Town Improvement Scheme" The Architects' Journal, 9 April 1919
- 1921 "How to Revive Public Confidence in Building" The Architects' Journal, 19 October 1921
- Marjorie & C. H. B. Quennell, A History of Everyday Things in England, London, B. T. Batsford Ltd, 1918–1934
- Volume I 1066–1449
- Volume II 1500–1799
- Volume III 1733–1851
- Volume IV 1852–1914
- Marjorie & C. H. B. Quennell, A History of Everyday Life in.., London, B. T. Batsford Ltd, 1921–1926.
- Everyday Life in Anglo-Saxon, Viking, and Norman times
- Everyday Life in Roman Britain
- Everyday Life in Prehistoric Times (vol. 1 The Old Stone Age, vol. 2 The New Stone Age)
- Marjorie & C. H. B. Quennell, Everyday Things in Greece, London, B. T. Batsford Ltd, 1929–1932.
- Vol 1, Homeric Greece
- Vol 2, Archaic Greece
- Vol 3, Classical Greece
- Marjorie & C. H. B. Quennell, The Good New Days, London, B. T. Batsford Ltd., 1935.
- C. H. B. & P. Quennell Somerset. (Shell Guide.) London: Architectural Press, 1938
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 17 August 2026.
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