Desmond Williams OBE -7/7/32 - 31/01/26

We were very sad to hear this week of the passing of an old friend of The Modernist Society, the architect Desmond Williams.

Desmond was best know for his ecclesiastical architecture and his work has been integral to the Society from it's very inception with the glorious St Augustine's church in Manchester first bringing him to our attention. The more we learnt about his work the more our appreciation grew and we were lucky to get him to attend a couple of events for us and to share his wisdom.

Desmond was born in Whalley Range Manchester in 1932. He attended Xaverian Grammar School and it was here, on a field trip to East Anglia, that his interest in architecture was piqued. He studied Architecture at The Manchester School of Architecture and after graduating in 1956 he joined the firm of Arthur Farebrother based in Altrincham. Farebrother's were well known as church architects and Desmond's first job as project architect was St Catherine of Siena in Didsbury. Although work came thick and fast for Desmond he found Farebrother's too restrictive and conservative and after 16 months he left to set up his own practice. At the relatively young age of 28 Desmond Williams and Associates was set up with offices on Oxford Road in Manchester. 

Continuing his ecclesiastical work with his own firm, commissions for churches and schools soon came. Initially with the Salford Diocese, they, like many of other diocese, were busy rebuilding inner city churches that had been destroyed in the war or building new ones in  the burgeoning outer suburbs. The baby boom had also seen the need for more schools and Desmond Williams profited from this building surge and despite only having a relatively small team began a period of great productivity. As the work grew so did Desmond’s confidence and he was moving further away from the more Romanesque style that he had started out with at Farebrother’s to a much more Modern approach. His evolution in style also coincided with the introduction of Vatican II whereby the Catholic Church sought to modernise not only the faith but the architecture and as such architects were able to be bolder and more daring in their designs.

Whilst flirting with the prevailing styles of the time Desmond insisted he never had any strong influences. This assertion rings true because there was never a ‘Desmond Williams style’ and although there is some commonality across his body of work what is notable about his churches is how different they all are. There is definitely a touch of Brutalism at St Patricks in Rochdale but at St Augustine’s there is a more humanistic, Scandinavian approach. Although site considerations often dictated the brief Desmond never stuck to a common form. St Augustines is essentially square in plan  but at St Mary’s in Dunstable and St Dunstan in Birmingham he adopted swooping curves and a circular plan. Internal fittings and furniture were also of the highest quality and Desmond had many successful collaborations with artists to produce decorative features and artworks. He collaborated with the artist Robert Brumby on several occasions most notably at St Augustines and St Michaels in Wolverhampton.

The 1960s were an extremely productive decade for Desmond Williams and Associates with many educational projects as well as the church work. So much so that by the late 60s Desmond was finding it hard to keep pace. As a very hands on head of practise he was struggling to balance the design work with the day to running of the company. So in 1968 he joined forces with the Liverpool based J B Ellis Architects to form Ellis Williams. Not only did this add capacity to the firm it opened up more opportunities in the education sector, as the boom in church building was coming to an end.

Ellis Williams is a thriving practise to this day, still renowned for its educational projects but also specialising in arts and cultural venues.

Later on in his career Desmond found himself doing more consultancy work, especially in the area of educational buildings, but he continued working up until the mid 1990s. In retirement he followed his other passions - a life long interest in aviation and orchestral organ music. He is quoted as saying “My loves are AAM…Architecture, aviation and music….but in no particular order “

I was lucky enough to get to know Desmond and he attended our Sacred Suburbs event and talked about his buildings. To celebrate the listing of St Augustine’s his family organised a celebration in the church that included organ recitals and reunited Desmond with Robert Brumby. In 2023 I interviewed Desmond at his care home in Wilmslow. His memory was failing and such was his productivity in the 1960s he was struggling to remember many of the buildings he had produced. His passion was still clearly there  though and he was modest about the work he had produced.

It is testament to the quality of his work that Desmond was in the exclusive ‘Living Listed’ club - in so much that he had four of his buildings listed during his lifetime. This put him amongst the greats of British architects and I’m sure in future we shall see more of his buildings listed.

Desmond was an innovative and considered architect and he has left an incredible legacy. He was always humble about this legacy and as a person I always found him very good company. He will be sadly missed.

He is survived by his wife Susan and his 4 children. His son Dominic and daughter Sarah are architects - with Dominic still a director at Ellis Williams and Sarah with her own practise S Williams Architects. His twin sons Andy and Jez are musicians and make up the band Doves.

Picture credits - Jack Hale, Ellis Williams and the Williams family