Robert Atkinson

Robert Atkinson was born on 1 August 1883, at 23 West Street, Wigton, in Cumberland, the son of Robert Atkinson, a joiner and cabinet-maker, and his wife, Elizabeth Johnston. He was educated at Nottingham School of Art and became assistant to architect John Belcher, first opening a practice in London in 1907.  He was also a talented draughtsman and illustrator who worked for C E Mallows and garden designer Thomas Mawson. In 1924, he entered into a partnership with the Ecole des Beaux-Arts trained Alexander Frederick Berenbruck Anderson (1888-1968), a move which reinforced the American Beaux-Arts nature of his practice. In 1932, he became a director of the Building Centre, and, stylistically, the practice moved from Beaux-Arts and neo-Georgian into a very accomplished brick modern, particularly for cinema and housing work. Between 1929 and 1933 he was involved with a scheme, eventually abandoned, to redevelop the old Cattle Market in Cross Lane, Salford, as an exhibition centre.