Leonard Vincent is one of the few architects to have a whole town as his memorial. If they are lucky most architects will have a few buildings associated with them in posterity. Other more prominent architects will have catalogues of works pored over by acolytes and critics alike. Of the garden cities of Hertfordshire, Letchworth was laid out by Barry Parker and Raymond Unwin, and Louis de Soissons will forever be associated with his work at Welwyn. As for the post war new towns of the county, the architect as supreme being ideal was subsumed by the development corporation model with responsibility allocated to many designers. However at Stevenage one man left his imprint on the town. Vincent, who replaced Gordon Stephenson as Chief Architect to the Stevenage Development Corporation (a role Erno Goldfinger applied for), designed every type of building essential to the new town, from the town square, to leisure centres, factories, warehouses, homes, tower blocks, community centres and more.
Leonard Grange Vincent was born in 1914 in Ilford, Essex. His father was a postmaster, and Leonard had two brothers. He attended Forest House school and then moved to London to train as an architect. The Second World War interrupted his studies, as Vincent joined the Eighth Army through the North Africa and Italy. After the war he completed his studies and went into private practice in Essex. He joined the Stevenage Development Corporation in 1949 as Assistant Chief Architect, and within a few years had the top job himself. One of the first and most prominent projects Vincent completed, alongside Clifford Holliday, was the new Town Centre inspired by the Lijnbaan in Rotterdam. The pedestrian town centre features covered walkways as well as a variety of public art such as the central clock tower designed by Vincent himself. It was the first traffic free town centre in Britain and set a template for pedestrianisation in town centres that is still being followed today. Vincent also designed within the town centre area, a range of buildings in different materials; the brick Locarno Dance Hall (1961), Daneshill House, the curtained walled Development Corporation HQ, (1961) and the concrete Gordon Craig Arts Centre (1976). Across St. Georges Way from the town centre lie the Vincent designed Bowes Lyon youth centre (1964), (featuring a concrete PJ Ellis mural) and the Swim Centre (1963). Further out in Stevenage's many neighbourhood areas, Vincent designed shopping areas, public houses and community centres, as can be seen in Marymead and Broadhall. Aside from the buildings he personally designed, Vincent used his team of architects and planners like Holliday, LW Aked, DP Reay, EC Claxton and Stirling Craig to design a range of progressive buildings and infrastructure for the new residents, such as the cycle network around the town designed by Claxton. Vincent and his family lived in the corporation housing when they first moved in before Vincent designed and built a house, Medbury, in Rectory Lane in 1958, which features a cylindrical tower staircase, alongside monopitch roofs. The Development Corporation was nearly wound up in 1962, and narrowly saved to continue their work. Vincent saw the near miss as a sign of things to come and set up in partnership with Raymond Gorbling as consultants to the corporation. They also produced buildings and designs for other local authorities like Letchworth Garden City, Luton and Ipswich. Vincent was made a CBE in 1960, and carried on working until 1979 when he reached 65. Vincent spent his retirement studying Egyptology and painting, before passing away in 2007 aged 93. Vincent's name is not among the most prominent British architects of his age, but he may be among the most influential and impactful , having designed a whole new town where his buildings are an integral part of a thriving community.
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