Francis Golding: A life in clothes

Francis Golding was a leading architectural, planning and conservation consultant who influenced the look of modern London.

Golding was passionate about collecting menswear. His personal style mixed vintage and contemporary clothing – including pieces by iconic British brands like Barbour, Aquascutum, Tommy Nutter and Alexander McQueen.

But he was also a collector of ‘things’ – receipts and tickets stuffed into his pockets that give us an insight into how and where he wore his wardrobe.

Tragically, Golding died from injuries sustained in a cycling accident in central London on 5 November 2013. London Museum acquired a collection of his clothes and accessories in 2016.

Born in Macclesfield in 1944, Golding received his degree from Cambridge University in 1966. He moved to London the following year, right in the midst of the ‘Swinging Sixties’ and a creative boom in the capital. Golding, a self-identified gay man, also entered his adulthood after the Sexual Offences Act (1967) partly decriminalised homosexuality.

He worked for a number of public sector, arts and heritage institutions, including the Department of the Environment and English Heritage (now Historic England and English Heritage Trust). He was also head of the Royal Fine Art Commission in the late 1990s.

From 2000 to his death in 2013, Francis Golding was an independent consultant for several high-profile architectural projects in London, including Norman Foster’s Gherkin and Rafael Vinoly’s 20 Fenchurch Street (aka, the Walkie Talkie). Due to Golding’s involvement in the development of the Walkie Talkie, the Sky Garden located on the top floor of the building is named The Francis Golding Terrace in his honour.

Golding was known for his style. He regularly bought clothing from London designers and tailors such as Thea Porter, Malcolm Levene, Voyage, Wildsmith, Fake London, Nigel Hall and Oliver Spencer.

Golding also collected and wore 19th century items. Some of these were worn by his ancestors and passed down to him, while others were vintage purchases mixed into his wardrobe.

We acquired more than 150 items from Golding’s wardrobe, including 13 ensembles and 34 separate pieces. They record key moments in his life – from the mid-1960s, when he first moved to London, to items worn shortly before his death in 2013. There are also photographs of Golding wearing many of these garments in the collection.

The selected items include:

• an early 20th-century trench coat by Aquascutum, originally his father’s, which Golding wore throughout his adult life
• a tailored jacket acquired for his first job as a civil servant
• flamboyant examples from the late 60s and 70s, when Golding was coming to terms with his sexuality
• ensembles showing his experimental approach towards more formal menswear connected to his impresive career
• clothing items from around the world purchased during his travels
• suits worn by Golding and his partner, Satish Padiyar, for their civil partnership ceremony

Golding’s London-focused wardrobe reflects the city’s own changing identity after the Second World War. His clothes also give us an insight into his own life in London. Each item tells a different story about an aspect of his life and experiences.

He left clues in many of the pockets of his clothes which give us information as to where and when the items were worn. There are crumpled theatre and train tickets – some from decades apart, but found in the same pocket. Other clues come from dated pamphlets he picked up on trips to places like London’s Kew Gardens or Penrhyn Castle in Wales.

We’re left asking: why did he keep these memorabilia over the years? And what does that tell us about how he valued and wore the clothes we found them in?

Through these items, we can catch a glimpse of not only how Francis Golding was impacted by a life spent in London, but how he came to shape the face of the modern capital itself.

Writing/researching credits: Timothy Long and Cyana Madsen