Born in Hammersmith, West London, Hollamby served in the Royal Marines during the Second World War before embarking on his career in architecture.

[2] On 18 May 1941, he married Doris Isabel Parker (1920–2003), who worked as a clerk and who, like Hollamby, was a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB).

[5] In August 1941, during Britain's involvement in World War II, Hollamby received his conscripted into the Royal Marine Engineers and served at Trincomalee, Ceylon.

[1] He first worked as an architect for the Miners' Welfare Commission from 1947 to 1949, in this position designing pithead baths and a colliery extension at Lofthouse, Yorkshire.

[6] After gaining further qualifications from the Royal Institute of British Architects, he proceeded with a three-year evening course in town planning, run by William Holford and Arthur Ling at the Bartlett School of Architecture, London.

[2] Amid the growing neo-liberal, Thatcherite economic changes brought about under the Premiership of Margaret Thatcher, Hollamby moved in 1981 to the London Docklands Development Corporation as its first director of Architecture and Planning until 1985 when he retired.

He proposed a mix of redevelopment and conservation of existing buildings to create an urban design structure guide for the regeneration of the Isle of Dogs.

[9] Over the course of his career Hollamby served on the boards of English Heritage (1986–90), the Historic Buildings Council (1972–82), and the Royal Institute of British Architects (1961–5 and 1966–72).

[7] Born in London, Richard "Dick" Toms (1914–2005) was largely self-taught as an architect, and had met and befriended Edward during the war before gaining employment alongside him at the LCC.

Rearranging the former ownership arrangements, the Macdonalds and Hollambys agreed to legally own half of the property each, while Jones remained as a lodger.

[18] As the number of those attending such tours grew, especially in the 1996 centenary of Morris' death, Hollamby began to search for a way of securing future public access.

[19] Hollamby also authored two books on Red House; the first, Red House, Bexleyheath: The Home Of William Morris, was published by Phaidon Press in 1991 as part of its series on "Architecture in Detail",[18] and the second was a short guide book for visitors co-written with Doris and published by the William Morris Society in 1993.

[21] His funeral was held on 21 January 2000 in Eltham, with a secular humanist service conducted by Barbara Smoker;[7] the Friends of Red House took over the building's public openings.

[24] National Life Stories conducted an oral history interview (C467/22) with Edward Hollamby in 1997 for its Architects Lives' collection held by the British Library.