R.T. Longden, ARIBA, MPTI, was living at Huntly, Park Avenue at the time of his death in 1941, aged 62.
His father, John Jabez Longden, had been a prominent architect in Burslem and his uncle had served for many years in the Staffordshire Constabulary, rising to the post of Deputy Chief Constable.
Longden’s distinctive domestic architecture was well-known in the North Staffordshire area – including houses in the older part of the Westlands, near Newcastle – and in North Wales. He designed a number of important mills in Leek, whilst Longden and Venables were also responsible for the Leek and District Cripples’ Aid Society’s new clinic in Salisbury Street.
Correspondence in Mervyn Edwards’ archive shows that Longden was involved in plans to rebuild the George Hotel in Burslem from early 1926 at latest, when Longden and Venables, Architects expressed that in their view, the Potteries had always lacked height in its street architecture. The large new hotel, owned by Parkers Burslem Brewery, opened in 1929 and was fully described in the Architects’ Journal of April 9th, 1930. Its design and its monumental size should be compared with Longden’s 1911 emporium for the Leek and Moorlands Co-operative Society, opened in High Street, Leek, in 1911.
His building designs include the house on the corner of Watlands Avenue and Clarence Street, Wolstanton, built for the Arrowsmith family.
He was heavily involved with town planning, and before World War Two devised a notable scheme for the town planning of Stoke-on-Trent.
He also designed indoor air raid shelters adapted from Anderson garden shelters. Examples of four of the six types he designed were exhibited at Newcastle in early 1941.
He was a notable member of the North Staffordshire Architectural Association, founded in the 1920s and was its first President. This society devised a scheme of architects’ panels which was initially launched in North Staffordshire and Manchester. The panels, comprising of working groups that provided plans for small houses for a merely nominal fee, were intended to promote the architectural quality of housing estates and private dwellings from the point of view of utility and convenience. Responding to an article in The Evening Sentinel of 1934 calling for better house design, Longden responded that many architects had given up their leisure time in an unremunerated effort to pioneer “a better housing programme and a means whereby all development should be envisaged in a far-sighted and rational manner. These pioneers urgently seek that opportunity – so long denied to them by the public – to develop their art in accordance with the ideals which you voice in your leader.”
Longden was also an active member of the Council for the Preservation of Rural England, having helped to form a Staffordshire branch.
He was survived by family members Mrs. Longden and children, Mrs. J. W. Notman, Mr. J. A. T. Longden and Mr. R. H. F. Longden. A private funeral was held at Carmountside Crematorium.
– Longden’s drawing of a new chancel at St.Matthew’s Church Haslington (1909-10)
By Mervyn Edwards
Watlands Park 