Richard Reid
1939-2022

Richard was a renowned urban designer, town planner and architect. He was a member of RIBA and studied architecture at the Northern Polytechnic 1957-63, and later at the Academia Britannica, Rome, as a Rome Scholar in Architecture. He was also a lecturer and external examiner at numerous architectural schools in the UK, Europe and the USA before setting up in practice in 1987.

Richard was born in 1939. He joined Sevenoaks in 1952, first as a boarder at Park Grange, and later Johnsons, during the headships of James Higgs-Walker and Kim Taylor. When he started at Sevenoaks, the Art department was just a classroom in a corner of Park Grange. Big changes came with Kim Taylor and a group of hugely talented and enthusiastic teachers, including Bob White. New facilities were still years away, but the department was relocated above a Manor House garage and the art students helped Bob White to redecorate. Richard later said, ‘He didn’t just put a few colours in our paint boxes, so to speak, but provided the most profound, enthusiastic and inspirational teaching for a class I was so lucky to be a part of.’

Richard, who was known at school as Dick, lived in Sevenoaks all his life and walked home on many Sunday afternoons with his fellow boarders for tea and cakes at his parents’ house. His father, Robert, was a war correspondent who famously broadcast de Gaulle’s entry into Notre Dame during the liberation of Paris for the BBC. After university Richard travelled extensively throughout Europe and the Middle East, eschewing cameras in preference for drawing and painting the whole way.

Richard Reid and Associates is best known for its award-winning work at Lower Mill Estate in Cirencester, for the masterplan of Kleinzschocher, Leipzig, and for the masterplan and urban design of the Bertalia-Lazzaretto district of Bologna. They were awarded the prize for the best small house in The Sunday Times British Homes Award 2012. The achievement that gave Richard the most pleasure was the listing of Epping Civic Offices in 2017. The work of the practice has been included in numerous exhibitions at the Royal Academy, the Heinz Gallery, RIBA and the V&A. Richard worked for many years as a planner and urban designer for The Corporation of London and was a Freeman of The City of London.

Richard was married to Thalia and they had two daughters, the elder of whom, Tamasin, also attended Sevenoaks School.

He devoted his life to architecture and wrote and illustrated many books on the subject. He was still drawing right up until his death in November 2022.

Thalia Reid and Gerry Diebel (OS 1976)