ASHBEE, Charles Robert
(b. 1863, Isleworth, d. 1942, Godden Green, Kent)

Biography

English architect, interior designer, silversmith, and art theoretician. He was an influential designer, writer, and leader of the Arts and Crafts Movement. In 1888, he founded the Guild and School of Handicraft at Toynbee Hall in the East End of London. In 1891, he moved the school and guild to Essex House in Mile End, London, and in 1902 it moved out of London to Chipping Camden in the Cotswolds, where it remained until its bankruptcy in 1908. He also founded the School of Arts and Crafts (1904-14).

As an architect, Ashbee built with a view to simplicity and function, concentrating mainly on the detached family house, where the building and its interior formed a homogenous unit.

Ashbee took an interest in the problems of art in the industrial age and published many books and essays on this subject.