Home > About Voysey > Biography

Biography of Charles Francis Annesley Voysey

Professional life

Voysey's buildings and the Arts & Crafts movement

• Voysey's principal buildings

Voysey at the Royal Academy

Voysey's interiors

Voysey as a designer of furniture

Voysey's fireplaces

Profiles and grotesques in Voysey's work

Voysey's pupils and assistants

‘C.F.A. Voysey: the man and his work’ : the articles in Architect and building news in early 1927.

The jubilee certificate of 1927, signed by many of Voysey's peers and clients in recognition of his 70th birthday.

• "My work was never popular ..." : Voysey's speech of thanks on receipt of the certificate.

The Architectural review special issue on Voysey of 1931.

• Catalogue of the associated exhibition of Voysey's work at the Batsford Gallery, October 12th to 17th, 1931.

Further sections of this brief biography are in preparation. See also our Chronology and Other information resources.

Archival sources

New transcriptions and summaries of Voysey's original working records:

• the Black Book (his personal record of his architectural projects)
• the White Book (project expenses)
• the address book
• the office expenses book

Index of Voysey's designs in journals included in his scrapbook

Archival material relating to C.F.A. Voysey at the RIBA and the V&A

Correspondence between Voysey and Hermann Muthesius : Hermann Muthesius (1861-1927) was a German architect, author and diplomat, perhaps best known for promoting many of the ideas of the English Arts and Crafts movement within Germany and for his subsequent influence on early pioneers of German architectural modernism such as the Bauhaus. He was the author of Das englische Haus (Ernst Wasmuth, 1904-5). Alternative source with notes in English

Correspondence about reproduction of the River Rug design : a lengthy negotiation in 1911 between Voysey, his assistant Gerard Fairtlough and Messrs Epworth & Co. regarding the purchase of a water-colour drawing of the "River Mat"

Online talks

'Never look at an ugly thing twice': an online talk by our Secretary.

Reminiscences of John Brandon-Jones

John Brandon-Jones was born in Hendon in 1908 and was christened by the Reverend Charles Voysey, C.F.A. Voysey's father. At the age of 18, he was apprenticed to the architect Oswald Milne (former assistant to Edwin Lutyens), and in 1929 attended the Architectural Association School of Architecture. In 1933, he joined the partnership of Charles Cowles-Voysey (the son of C.F.A. Voysey) as an assistant and later a partner. In 1955 Cowles-Voysey retired and Brandon-Jones and the other partners inherited the firm. He helped to found The Victorian Society in 1958 and was Master of the Art Workers' Guild in 1967. He died in London on 1st May 1999.

Brandon-Jones wrote a number of books and articles about C.F.A. Voysey, which are listed in our bibliography. His extensive collection of Voysey material is now held principally by the RIBA and the Victoria & Albert Museum.

The British Library sounds archive has a series of nineteen recordings of Brandon-Jones reminiscing about his life. Key sections regarding C.F.A. Voysey are:

• Part 1: "... remarks on Edwin Lutyens, Philip Webb, William Butterfield and C.F.A. Voysey".
• Part 2: "... remarks on Richardson, Geoffrey Jellicoe and Voysey".
• Part 3: "... JBJ’s association with the Voysey family. ... remarks on lettering, including that of C.F.A. Voysey. ... Discussion of the qualities of C.F.A. Voysey and Cowles Voysey as architects".
• Part 5: "... discussion of influence of JBJ’s Unitarian background on his architecture, and of the sources of moral principles adopted by architects, with remarks on A.W.N. Pugin, Walter Gropius, John Soane, Le Corbusier, W.R. Lethaby and C.F.A. Voysey".
• Part 10: "... effect of religious beliefs on JBJ’s and C.F.A. Voysey’s approaches to design".
• Part 11: "... Public responses to styles in architecture (including C.F.A. Voysey’s style)".

Go to The British Library recordings.

Page last amended 4th May 2023