I first met Gordon and Ursula some years ago when I visited their home in Greenwich. Welcomed by a couple whose shared life went back to the days before the Festival of Britain and on which they had worked, I found them fascinating. 

They had met while students at Regent Street Polytechnic in the years after WWII and thus began a partnership which lasted the rest of their lives. Both were architects of the generation which could see the good in both old and new, incorporating their wide interests and understanding of how people lived and worked into their architectural projects. Famously, when Jim Callaghan became Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1964 and moved to 11 Downing Street, his wife bemoaned their leaving the home the Bowyers had designed for them - 'The rare kind of house that exactly suits one's way of life is like a second skin'

During a lifetime of working and collecting, they assembled a large and varied library, covering Modern British art and the Twentieth Century masters, but also printmaking, design, architecture, sculpture and furniture. We are pleased to be able to offer a selection from these fields to you and hope that they find appreciative homes in your own libraries.

Part 1:
Imagined Realities: Edward Bawden, Paul Nash, John Piper, Eric Ravilious and Keith Vaughan

Part 2:
Modernism in Britain between the Wars: Volumes from the library of Gordon & Ursula Bowyer 

Part 3: 
Modern British, European and American Art, Design, Architecture and Printmaking

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Paintings and Works on Paper, Prints and Design from the Ursula & Gordon Bowyer Collection will be offered at auction by Lyon & Turnbull in their Modern Made auction on 30th October 2025.