ERNEST GIMSON (1864-1919)

Born in Leicester, Gimson was inspired by a meeting with William Morris to take up architecture. He was in Sedding’s office, where met Ernest and Sidney Barnsley. After the brief experiment with Kenton Co. architectural partnership […] Gimson went with the Barnsleys to live and work in the Cotswolds. His architectural work took second place to furniture and metal work design in revived vernacular technique and style. At his death Sidney Barnsley completed his unfinished architectural commission and his assistance Peter Waals continue the furniture workshop, which survived at Chalford until 1938.

(extracts from Charlotte Gere and Michael Whiteway, Nineteenth-Century design from Pugin to Mackintosh)