Gordon Tait
Gordon Thomas Tait (1912–1999) was a British architect who worked mostly in London. He was the eldest son of the Scottish architect Thomas Smith Tait and began as a sculptor before studying architecture at the Architectural Association from 1930 to 1935, alongside his younger brother Kenneth. In 1933–34 he was a clerk of works for his father’s partner on the Mount Royal flats in Oxford Street. He then worked for Alliston & Drew and Hugh Minty before rejoining his father’s firm Burnet Tait & Lorne in 1936. In 1938 he collaborated with his father on the Tait Tower for the Glasgow Empire Exhibition and on housing schemes. He was admitted to the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1939 and became a partner that year, but soon joined the Royal Air Force, serving in Rhodesia and rising to Squadron Leader.
After the war, his father’s practice faced financial difficulties, and Gordon took charge of the London office from Bedford Square. He was elected a fellow of RIBA in 1948. With Francis Lorne moving the Edinburgh office to South Africa around 1949, Gordon brought in new partners and the London firm later became Burnet Tait (and, for a period, Sir John Burnet, Tait & Partners). The practice grew again, focusing on corporate headquarters, schools and housing, and even expanded to the Middle East with an office in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where it built the King Faisal Hospital.
Gordon Tait was active in public life as a Conservative councillor in Paddington and as Master of the Worshipful Company of Masons. He married Patricia in 1934 and had two children; their elder Gavin later continued the practice. Patricia died in 1960, and Gordon later married Marion, with whom he had three more children. He retired in 1979 and moved from London to a home in Ladymead, East Harting, West Sussex, a property he had owned since 1962. He enjoyed collecting vintage cars and also riding and sailing.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 07:23 (CET).