Grahame Herbert left school at 16 and worked initially as a production runner on the Royal Festival Hall, London, during the latter years of its construction. He enrolled as a First Year student at the Architectural Association in 1950 and, as part of his final year’s studies in 1954-55, joined the first cohort of the AA Department of Tropical Architecture (DTA). In June 1955, upon graduation (with Honours), he was interviewed by Ivor Cummings, at the Colonial Office, along with his DTA colleagues, Michael Hurst, Kenneth Frampton and Dudley Duck, and travelled to Ghana, where he spent a year and a half working on the Tema New Town, designing a set of prototype housing types, and working with Architects’ Co-Partnership (ACP). He returned to the UK in April 1957 and continued to work for ACP, contributing to the design of their Roundacre Estate, Wandsworth (1959-61). He set up his own practice, Grahame Herbert Associates, with Tim Bell, their first work being to design a pair of houses for themselves, in Limpsfield Avenue, Wandsworth (1967). Grahame continued to practice for 18 years and amongst his many projects, is a celebrated scheme of offices for a complicated, intricate space behind the Third Church of Christ Scientist, Curzon Street, London (1981). In latter life it appears he designed a variety of prototypes for folding bicycles – and a suitcase with an incorporated seat! 

Sources: 

• Architectural Association Student Register 1945-1972, AA Archives
• Architectural Association Diploma Roll Book, 1924-1963, AA Archives
• Department of Tropical Architecture, student listing, Otto Koenigsberger Collection, Box OK27, AA Archives.
• The National Archives, London, England, UK; Board of Trade: Commercial and Statistical Department and Successors: Inwards Passenger Lists; Class: Bt26; Piece: 1379; Item: 47
• Jackson, Ian. “Development Visions In Ghana From Design Schools and Building Research To Tema New Town” Architectural History 65 (2022) 293-236.
• ‘Limpsfield Avenue, London SW19’ The Modern House website, accessed 13/11/24 https://www.themodernhouse.com/past-sales/limpsfield-avenue/