Steam Carriage

Though he never practised as an architect, Greeves’ architectural training grounds his work; his visionary ruins retain a sense of plausibility despite being creations of his imagination. In 1951, he won first place for the Architect’s Benevolent Society competition with his design “A Monument to Commemorate the Passing of the Good Old Days of Architecture.” His first drawing to be published was “Greeves Flying Machines” in The Saturday Book No. 26 in 1966. Due to popular demand, a colour spread of “A Steam Palace” and “Impelled Glider Ferry” followed in the next issue. Both featured fantasy technology, imagined from a nineteenth-century perspective. Greeves’ drawings were also published in Country Life, The Architects’ Journal, and The Design of Suburbia by Arthur M. Edwards (1981). The Royal Academy exhibited his work at six of their Summer Exhibitions. Robin Garton organised two exhibitions of his work in London: Robin Garton Gallery (1978) and Garton & Cooke (1987). The RIBA holds six works by Greeves.

Greeves was also an early advocate of the conservation of Victorian architecture. In 1958, he joined the newly founded Victorian Society, founded to protect Victorian and Edwardian architecture. In 1963, he co-founded the Bedford Park Society to campaign for the suburb’s preservation and Norman Shaw’s legacy. He published Bedford Park: The First Garden Suburb in 1975.

Greeves celebrated Victorian buildings when they were unfashionable, honouring them not only in his artworks but also by actively campaigning for their preservation. Greeves’ artistic output and activism exemplifies how his talent and passion had a concrete impact on a local and national scale.