History of Great Yarmouth and Gorleston-on-Sea
Ralph Scott Cockrill, ARIBA
John William Cockrill and Deborah Cockrill's first child, Ralph was born toward the end of 1879. He was educated at a Methodist public school and was then articled in 1896 to his father in the Great Yarmouth Borough Surveyor's Department where he became his architectural assistant in 1899. In this capacity he prepared drawings and assisted in superintending many municipal works and workmen's dwellings in Great Yarmouth. He visited Belgium, Germany, Italy and France in the manner of his father. Later, he became Surveyor to Oulton Urban District Council, Suffolk.
In the early summer of 1904, Ralph married Agnes Beulah Curson at King's Lynn. They lived at 'Yellow Sands', Gunton Cliff, Lowestoft, which is where their only child, Philip Curson Cockrill, was born in 1911.
After qualifying as ARIBA in 1902 Ralph was in private practice in Lowestoft and Kings Lynn. His architecture was clearly influenced by the Arts & Crafts Movement, with a very distinctive, spare, drawing style reflected in his buildings; examples of which include Fastolff House, Regent Street, Great Yarmouth, The Great Yarmouth Hippodrome Circus(1903) and The Coliseum cinema, High Street, Gorleston(1913).
Fastolf House, Regent Street, Great Yarmouth
Hippodrome, Great Yarmouth
Coliseum Cinema, High Street, Gorleston
- Buildings attributed to Ralph Scott Cockrill:
- Crown Street Wesleyan Schools, Lowestoft (1901)
- Two pairs of Semi-detached houses for Jefferies, Gunton Cliff (1903-1906)
- Hippodrome for G Gilbert, Battery Green Road, Lowestoft (1904)
- In Oulton a detached house for Stranach, Cotmer Road (1906)
- Pair of cottages in Victoria Road (1905)
- Pair of cottages on Pond Farm Estate (1906)
- In Gorleston, six small detached houses in Springfield Road (1909)
- Arts & Crafts shop front for 59 and 100 London Road North, Lowestoft, J W Ling (his step-mother's family business) (1904)
- No's 111-113 London Road North, Lowestoft for Messrs Hows Bros (1907)
- Two shops for Mrs Thomas 1910
- Classrooms for the Congregational Church (1906)
- Single story shop for H Johnson, Bridge Road, Lowestoft (1905)
- Large detached house for Seago, Cliff Road, Kirkly (1906)
- Detached house for Gravelling, Acton Road, Lowestoft (1906)
- Large detached house for Colonel Cubitt, North Parade, Lowestoft 1906
- Detached house for Pegrum, Corton Road, Lowestoft (1908)
- Detached houses for Pulham and Harlow Jones, Kirkly Park Road (1909)
- Detached house for Wooley, Gunton Cliff (1910)
- Detached houses for Banks, Corton Road, Lowestoft (1910)
- Detached house for Battley, Kirkly Park Road (1911)
- Large detached house for Brittain, Dene Road/Warren Road (1912)
- Concert Hall, Tea Rooms plus six shops, Royal Plain (1912)
- Conversion of above to a Picture Theatre and Concert Hall (1913)
- The Coliseum cinema, High Street, Gorleston (1913)
- Re-fronting and alteration of commercial premises for Messrs Stewart, Beach Road, Lowestoft (1913)
- House for Coleman, Walmer Road, Lowestoft (1914)
During the Great War (1914-1918) Ralph worked in the new camouflage unit of the Royal Engineers. This meant the family had to leave Lowestoft and move to Kensington, London. After the War he was, for a while, the architect to the Bank of British South West Africa in London. He then joined the architectural firm of Lidbetter where he was involved in the design of several prominent London buildings including Friends' House, Euston Road which was the National Offices of The Society of Friends, Quakers, in Britain. Finally he moved to Sir Thomas Bennett and Son becaming a partner in the firm in 1939 and remained with them until retirement. He move to the West Country, near Bath, for his retirement where he died aged 77 in 1956 and Beulah died soon after her 86th birthday in 1967.
