About us
The Birth of Craftsmanship:
Where It All Started
Pearce Bottomley Architects is a chartered architectural practice based in Yorkshire. The business was founded in 1957 by Messrs Anthony Pearce and Derek Bottomley. Today, the team prides itself on blending cutting-edge thinking with the founders' original values and beliefs.
Current partner Tom Robbins reflects on how their legacy influences the business to this day...
"When I joined the business in 2006, the practice was being managed by its third generation of partners but Mr Pearce and Mr Bottomley still had a presence.
One of the first jobs I was tasked with was to design a new house for Anthony Pearce and his wife Gill.
I visited them in their impeccable modernist villa in Linton, Wetherby. The house was astounding: a faded exemplar of the kind of post-war optimism that infected the architects of that generation like a bug.
But the house as a 'machine for living' was never intended as a durable entity. By then, the plot out-valued the house’s beauty and function and the family decided to sell up and move to town.
Mr Pearce gave me exact instructions on how to convert a cottage in the centre of Wetherby into the home they needed. Under his guidance, we fitted the accommodation to their specific personal requirements and created a home that would pay dividends with time. We collaborated on every detail of the process; the whole-house ventilation system, the choice of timbers, the points of contract and, most importantly, the nature of space.
I worked with Mr Pearce on the assumption that he and Gill were downsizing for their autumn years but after practical completion, I realised that we’d been crafting well-loved plans for Gill's future without him.
I didn’t get to know Mr Bottomley so well before he and Anthony both passed away, within a month of each other in 2010. By all accounts they were the perfect partnership, complementing and accommodating each other in their joint intentions and ambitions. Anthony maintained a dogged attention to detail and Derek Bottomley had no fear or limit to his horizons.
I can remember him arriving at our offices in his pristine Fiat X 1/9. He must have officially retired a good 20 years previously but he still had an insatiable drive and passion for architecture. His house, named Non-Such, was a modernist villa of equal prominence to Mr Pearce’s but of a more brutal and decisive style.
The other building I know Mr Bottomley through is the medical centre in his town. Pearce Bottomley Architects built the GP surgery in 1976.
When we work on the building today, we can’t help but go back to Derek’s original hand-drawn, imperial scale blueprints, although the fact that they are as old as I am makes me nervous to handle them.
The building is typical of the functional optimism of the time and might easily have suffered from neglect, but we still work closely with the centre management.
By adapting the original building to current needs and expanding the facility into the adjacent listed property, we have continued Derek’s loving relationship with the building, its owner and its surrounding community."
Meet the team
Sally Beeden
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As practice manager, Sally is responsible for the day-to-day running of the business and the financial management of Pearce Bottomley Architects.
Sally has extensive experience of business strategy, financial planning and project management. Her ability to bring skills and experiences gleaned from other sectors into our business has made her an invaluable member of the partnership.
Approaching issues with creativity and enthusiasm, Sally often offers a fresh approach to the management of other areas of the practice.
Richard Appleyard
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Richard oversees the commercial, education and healthcare activities of the practice.
With more than 20 years’ experience of designing and delivering projects across all sectors, he's developed particular expertise in healthcare.
This experience, coupled with an awareness of wider legislative and good healthcare practice, has maintained Pearce Bottomley Architects' position at the forefront of healthcare delivery.
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Awards
These accolades not only celebrate our team's dedication but also showcase the remarkable outcomes that have left an indelible mark on the architectural landscape.