Clough Williams-Ellis: Errant in Northern Ireland

One of the most unique connections between the architectural cultures of Ireland, Northern Ireland and Great Britain in the early twentieth century is the built work in Northern Ireland of London-based architect Clough Williams-Ellis. His housing, schools and church in Country Antrim represent a significant portion his architectural legacy. This paper re-examines previous scholarship on Williams-Ellis’s Northern Irish projects through an analysis of multiple sources: original drawings held in the Royal Institute of British Architects’ (RIBA) drawing collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; primary materials held in Williams-Ellis’s archive in the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth and Williams-Ellis’s own prolific writing. The piece relates the Northern Irish projects to one another, scrutinizes Williams-Ellis’s own practice within the Northern Irish context and situates the significance of this body of work in the larger, ongoing discussion of 20th century architecture in Western Europe.