The search of archival resources for information about Reggie Cooper is coming to a close. Several sources consulted since last year have provided some fascinating insights into his personality, and his design of the orangery for Sir Philip Sassoon (1885-1939).
The search of archival resources for information about Reggie Cooper is coming to a close. Several sources consulted since last year have provided some fascinating insights into his personality, and his design of the orangery for Sir Philip Sassoon (1885-1939).
Chief among these are the papers of the architect Oliver Hill (1887-1968) in the RIBA’s collection at the V&A Museum. Hill had been commissioned by Reggie’s mother, Lady Cooper, to remodel 1 Upper Terrace, Hampstead. Reggie’s letters and postcards (some adorned with drawings) to his old friend, Christopher Hussey (1889-1970), Country Life’s architectural editor, who lived at Scotney Castle in Kent (archive held by the National Trust; copies very kindly provided by the House and Collections Manager) and, the most recently consulted, the archive of Sir Philip Sassoon relating to Trent Park. This small but wonderful archive, held at Houghton Hall, Norfolk and very kindly made available by Lord Cholmondeley, Sassoon’s great nephew, provided crucial details about how Reggie came to design the orangery and enabled me to understand more fully how this delightful building sat within the gardens and wider landscape.
In other cases it was a case of ruling out some archives as sources. Fostered by reading Allyson Hayward’s biography of Norah Lindsay (1873-1948), an old friend of Cooper’s, hopes were high that the Whitbread archive at Southill Park might be useful (Lindsay was Madeline Whitbread’s sister) but the archivist couldn’t find anything.
At the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS)’s Lindley Library, the absence of Reggie’s name in the society’s list of members and list of library users confirmed my view that he was more of an architect and designer manqué, content to follow the tastes of Johnston and Lindsay in his garden schemes. But I may be proved wrong. Access has yet to be granted to the archive of Lawrence Johnston (1871-1958) at Hidcote, held by the National Trust.