(b Great Lever, Bolton, Lancs, 12 May 1875; d Harmer Green, Herts, 1 May 1960). English architect. His childhood was overshadowed by the bankruptcy of his father’s drapery business and the death of his mother when he was eight years old. He attended various schools and found work as a clerk in a railway store and as a laboratory assistant in a chemical works. His architectural career began when he went to work for his brother-in-law, Frederick Green, a land-surveyor in Bolton. He was apprenticed to E. W. Leeson, a Manchester architect, and studied at the School of Art and Technical College in Manchester, with such success that he soon took charge of a class. At the same period (c. 1896) Holden contributed designs to the Building News Designing Club, under the pseudonym ‘The Owl’, which reveal his grasp of architectural form. Among his Manchester circle of friends were the painter and etcher Francis Dodd (1874–1949) and his brother-in-law, the etcher and draughtsman Muirhead Bone. Bone and his brother, James, remained lifelong friends.

• Holden, Charles (Henry)
  • collaboration
    • Epstein, Jacob
  • works
    • Bristol, §1(ii): History and urban development, after c 1700
    • England, §II, 6: Architecture, after c 1914
    • Library, §II, 3(i): 1900–39
    • London, §II, 5: Urban development, 1889–1945
    • London, §II, 6: Urban development, after 1945
    • Metro station