Ronald Gillings was born in 1931 and educated in the UK, qualifying as an architect in 1955. He joined the London practice of Gooday & Noble, where he acted as Senior Assistant to Lesley Gooday. In September 1956 he enrolled as a part-time student, auditing lectures in the Architectural Association’s Department of Tropical Architecture. From 1958 until 1962 he worked with the Tema Development Corporation, Ghana, before joining the practice of Gerald Murphy, a colleague from his time at Gooday & Noble (and AA graduate). Gillings was to remain as a partner in the successful, London-based practice until the early 1990s. Gillings and Murphy did a lot of work for the Catholic Church and in 1982 were responsible for fitting out Wembley Stadium to host an open-air mass by the Pope, on his visit to the UK, in front of a congregation of 100,000. Other works by Ronald includ the restoration of Tyburn Convent, Hyde Park and all UK branches of the Allied Irish Bank. Gillings was also active locally, in Islington, serving as President of the Islington Chamber of Commerce and of the Islington and Highgate Rotary Club. He also established the organisations ‘Discover Islington’ raising funds to design and convert a building into their headquarters. He also designed and built his own house (at weekends) in a derelict 1920s Japanese Garden in Hertfordshire.

Sources

• Architectural Association Student Register 1945-1972, AA Archives
• Department of Tropical Architecture, student listing, Otto Koenigsberger Collection, Box OK27, AA Archives
• Architectural Association Council Minutes Books, 25th February, 1957, p133. AA Archives
• Murphy, G. ‘A Catholic Life’, Matador, 2017
• Personal correspondence, Katherine Gillings, March, 2025