Ralph Covell

Ralph George Covington Covell (6 May 1911 – 16 December 1988) was an English modern architect, active during the post-war period to the early 1970s.

The practice expanded over the years, with Covell being elected FRIAS in 1965, and their work included the McCance Building, Livingstone Tower, and John Lewis store in Aberdeen.

He often incorporated unique design elements, such as dalle de verre windows and copper roofing, into his church projects.

[1] The family lived in Lee High Road in the 1930s[2] In late 1935 Ralph married Marguerite Latter but, after World War II, they had separated and both remarried.

The tallest, an office block originally called 'Sunley Tower', features a textured design on one side evoking circuit boards.

The third, 'Bernard House' featured a unique roof described as a "timber structure of hyperbolic paraboloid form, comprising of a main rib element on each of the four axes of twin Glulam Beams" but was demolished in 2001.

[18][19][20][21] However work in England continued including the residential estate at Bar Hill, Cambridge, and a pub in West Ham in 1968.

[22][23] In 1956 Covell designed St Agnes, Kennington Park as a replacement of the original 1874-7 G. G. Scott church following its demolition due to bomb damage.

Covell's church included a baptistry beneath a west gallery; north-east lady chapel; vestries and office/meeting room accessed via corridors and a hall complex all set in a small churchyard.

[29][30] Covell continued the use of dalle de verre and copper roofing at St Richard's Church, Ham, completed in 1966.

[32] Covell continued the open interior and copper roof themes with the octagonal William Temple church, Abbey Wood, also built in 1966.

Both have exposed reinforced concrete frames which continue over the church to form a corona and to a spirelet with a single bell over the chapel.