Brigitte Marianne Whitehead

DPhil in Architectural History

Thesis

Thomas Edward Collcutt (1840-1924)

Research abstract

I study the work of a Victorian/Edwardian architect who was President of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) from 1906-08, tracing his progress through the various phases of his professional life.

Thomas Edward Collcutt was a successful and versatile commercial architect, a craftsmann (art furniture) and interior designer whose career spanned over forty years. He is is principally remembered as the architect of the (ill fated) Imperial Institute for which he won the RIBA Royal Gold Medal in 1902, the Lloyds Register of Shipping Building, Wakefield Town Hall, the Bechstein Hall (now Wigmore Hall) and work he carried out on The Savoy Hotel, London. My research seeks to place T. E. Collcutt into a broader discussion about late Victorian and Edwardian architecture and The Aesthetic Movement. 

Supervisor(s)

Dr Geoffrey Tyack, University of Oxford Department for Continuing Education

Dr Julian Holder, University of Oxford Department for Continuing Education

Biography

I started the D.Phil. in October 2021. 

MSc in English Local History, University of Oxford; my dissertation was on the Edwardian theatre architect W. G. R. Sprague.

MEd in Religious Education from the University of Birmingham; my dissertation was on the pastoral care and spiritual development. 

Two BA (Hons) degrees:  History/History of Art and French and Spanish Studies, both from the Open University.

PGCE in Modern Foreign Languages (German, French, Spanish), University of Oxford.

I am Austrian by birth.

Research interests

Victorian Architecture

Edwardian Architecture

Arts & Crafts Movement

The Aesthetic Movement

Wiener Werkstaette

Modernism (Architecture)

Social History, London (Victorian and Edwardian periods)