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Cyril A Farey (1888-1954)

Design for Huncoat Power Sation, Accrington, Lancashire, 1948
Drawn for the architect R Norman MacKellar FRIBA

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Cyril A Farey (1888-1954)  Huncoat Power Station, Accrington, Lancashire 1948, Gallery Lingard

Pencil & watercolours
Signed:  Cyril A Farey pinxit 1948
23 x 44 inches (58.5 x 112 cms)

Price:  please apply to jbl@gallerylingard.com

Huncoat Power Station was begun in 1950 and opened in 1956.  A ready supply of coal was provided by the Huncoat Colliery in the Burnley coalfield via a half-mile railway line to the power station until 1968.  Huncoat Power Station was closed in 1984 and the building demolished in 1988-90.

Cyril Arthur Farey served articles with Horace Field, FRIBA and studied at the Architectural Association and Royal Academy school of architecture.  He won the Tite Prize in 1913, the Soane Medallion in 1914 and the Gold Medal of the Royal Academy School.  After working as an assistant to Ernest Newton, he set up in practice for himself.  In 1931 Farey published, with A Trystan Edwards, Architectural Drawing, Perspective and Rendering (reprinted in 1949).  He was the dominant architectural draughtsman of this time and year after year the Architectural Room at the Royal Academy would include perhaps a dozen or more of his admirable watercolour perspectives.  So much so, it has been recorded that Sir Edwin Lutyens, looking into the room on one occasion was heard to remark, "What ho, the Farey Glen".  The meticulous finish of his technique and the accurate realism of his drawing appealed greatly to both clients and architects.  His distinctive technique was to place his buildings on a reflective surface, creating is characteristic 'wet road' style.

Raymond Myerscough-Walker commented in The Perspectivist (1958),

"The success of Farey lay in his ability to work on very detailed and large-scale drawings and yet regain the original freshness of the white whatman paper upon which he worked ... No one could compete with him in his ability to handle this very difficult medium .. No architect could draw as well as this perspectivist and I doubt whether his equal will ever been seen again in this country.".