old office memories…

One of the Christmas cards we’ve received this year was from my good friend Matthew - former partner from my old architecture practice, Brocklehurst Architects. Amongst his ‘news’ was the fact that, after 43 YEARS(!), they’d recently moved offices to Stokenchurch (5 miles up the road) from West Wycombe High Street.
I had joined the Practice in 1977 and was made a partner 18 months later. At that stage, our offices were located in High Wycombe, but I ended up designing a courtyard extension to the Grade II Listed building for a developer client and so we moved to West Wycombe in 1982. By the time I retired from practice in 2005, we’d already been in those offices (rented from the National Trust) for 23 years.
As you might imagine, the offices conjure up all sorts of memories for me (as well as reminding me just how old I’d become!).
There used to be up to 15 of us at any one time working there.
We initiated a ‘proper coffee break’ at 10.30am every day – the entire office staff (AND any visiting clients or consultants!) sitting around the conference table… and all of us (including partners!) taking it in turns to make the coffee (and wash up).
I introduced a 9-day fortnight work regime – probably 30 years ago (way ahead of the game!).
We seemed to spend ‘quite a few’ lunchtimes (and ‘after works’) at the George+Dragon pub in West Wycombe High Street!
The post office was just across the road – very convenient!
The daily 20-minute drive to the office from home in Thame, over the beautiful Chilterns (I used to start work at 7am most mornings).
The practice used to play the occasional game of cricket at West Wycombe House’s rather beautiful cricket ground at the end of the High Street.
Happy times!
Photo: This is my sketch of the West Wycombe office - drawn in 1982, shortly after we’d moved there (it’s the building on the right, just beyond the archway… and you can see the G+D pub sign just a few metres down the High Street!).