He was well known in his home borough of Islington as the designer of pioneering housing, both conversions of Victorian terraced housing and human-scale apartment blocks. In 1991 he published Cities are Good for Us (Paladin Books) which laid out in vigorous terms the case for 21st Century high density urban living. Throughout his term as president he helped with our research on “compact communities”. This generated educational booklets on the kind of designs for residential and mixed-use development needed to avoid high towers and make for liveable neighbourhoods.
Harley was a leading member of the Islington Society which had a fine record of contribution to planning in ways which helped conserve heritage elements. He was active in RIBA and in 1986-88 chaired their planning advisory group. In 2001 he published An Architect in Islington in which he recounted the politics of his work in designing social housing for the council. Later books drew on his memories of growing up in the then village of Sanderstead (Croydon) in the thirties and soldiering in Palestine in 1946-48. Harley and his wife Folly were also well known as founder members of CAMRA, the campaign for real ale, which has had a notable impact on traditional pubs across London.
In our recent critical review of steps towards “liveable London” we studied the rebuilding of the Packington Estate in south Islington which has kept rooflines close to those of surrounding streets and made best use of canal frontages. Harley continued to support Islington’s better new building while encouraging local citizens to engage with more questionable proposals. We will continue with our educational work along the lines we learned from Harley. Indeed, we will continue to use examples from his housing design work in Islington to illustrate what can be done on the small and medium scale to make decent new homes in pleasing streets.
Harvey Sherlock wrote his own obituary before his death in May this year. This was reproduced by the Islington Tribune on 23 May 2014 and there is a link here.
Harley’s daughter Sarah Jane provided an obituary in the Guardian of 25 May 2014 which may be found here:
CPRE London trustees 2014
