Wallis was born in West Norwood and was the son of a bricklayer father and a grocer mother.
Buildings they designed included the Bunker, Hythe and Rochdale swimming baths, Barnsley swimming baths, an extension for Stoke-on-Trent Town Hall,[2] St Marylebone Town Hall and the Port of London Authority head office.
[4] He worked with the Trussed Concrete Steel Company (Truscon), based in Michigan, for ten years.
Collaborating with Truscon enabled Wallis to get around rules against architects engaging in commercial activities.
He was one of its four vice presidents when it merged with the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1925 so was automatically also made a fellow of that organisation.
[1][5] Wallis described his style, which featured large, adaptable spaces behind an elaborate Art Deco façade, as "Fancy".