September 29, 1908– July 2, 1959.
Wilfred Richmond “Wil” Onions is recognised as Bermuda’s most influential architect of the 20th century. Hamilton’s iconic City Hall & Arts Centre is the most famous of his landmark designs that revived traditional Bermudian architecture and created a local vernacular whose elements continue to inspire architects today.
Onions’ style recaptured the traditional spirit of the Bermuda cottage by creating well-proportioned houses with external chimneys and buttresses, white limestone roofs with Flemish gables, low overhanging eaves, top-hung shutters, U-shaped courtyards and butteries.
Born at Melville Cottage in Mangrove Bay, Somerset in 1908, Onions was the only boy born to Henry “Harry” Onions, a haberdasher in the village, and his Scottish wife Mary. They also had three daughters, Hilda, Edith and Frances.
In 1914, Henry bought Myrtle Cottage in Long Bay Lane, Somerset, renaming it Aberfeldy after Mary’s hometown in Scotland. Onions later modernised the house, which was originally built in 1800, and lived there until his death with his mother.
Onions was one of several boys who attended primary school at the Bermuda High School for Girls, before transferring to Saltus Grammar School. He showed an early gift for drawing and from a young age aspired to be an architect.
He studied architecture at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, where he won the McLennan Memorial Scholarship awarded for travel to study architecture. After graduating in 1932, he spent nine months touring northern Europe and Britain.
In Holland, Sweden and England, Onions discovered the roots of Bermuda’s architectural heritage, and in architects like Sir Edwin Lutyens in England, and Ragnar Östberg in Sweden, who were designing modern versions of traditional styles, Onions found the inspiration for its revival. In particular, Östberg’s Stockholm City Hall, designed in 1923 and one of the most photographed buildings in Europe, would later influence Onions’ design for City Hall.
Onions earned his first commission—Coral Chimneys on Point Finger Road, Paget— in 1928 while still a student when J. B. Astwood asked him to design a house as a wedding present for his son Jeffrey “Curly” Astwood, who was engaged to Wil’s sister Hilda.
After returning from Europe, Onions worked for architect Lawrence Smart and among his earliest designs was Quarries, built for Sir Gilbert Cooper, on the corner of Pitts Bay Road and Fairylands Road.
It was during his time with Smart that Onions began researching traditional forms of Bermudian architecture. Helped by sisters Edith and Frances, he meticulously measured and recorded the proportions and construction methods of more than 100 old structures.
In 1936, he formed a partnership with Valmer Dudley Bouchard, a young Canadian architect he had met at McGill, inviting him to Bermuda to form Onions & Bouchard. The firm became Onions, Bouchard & McCulloch with the addition of John McCulloch in 1953, and is now known as OBM International, one of the Island’s largest and most successful architectural companies.
During the 1930s, the firm carried out mainly residential designs and minor alterations and renovations. The most prominent Onions design of this period was Chelston, a long, low house with grounds sweeping down to Grape Bay in Paget, for C. P. Dobbs. It was later the residence of the US Consul General.
With its large steeply-pitched roof balanced by huge, solid chimneys and well-proportioned interiors, Chelston featured many of the elements that would distinguish Onions’ post-war work. It also highlighted Onions’ careful landscaping, with terraces leading from the ground floor down to the ocean.
Onions also paid great attention to interior woodwork and design, individually designing Bermuda cedar doors, beams and fireplace surrounds for clients and frequently furniture in his trademark spool pattern with onion feet.
Other early works of note included Cork Tree, designed for Munro Leaf, author of The Story of Ferdinand, and a major restoration of Stennetts Hotel in St. George’s Square (later a branch of Butterfield Bank).
In 1938, the Corporation of Hamilton held a competition to design a new City Hall and Onions’ design, based on Östberg’s Stockholm City Hall, was declared the winner. However, when the Second World War intervened, the building was delayed and it would be 20 years before work finally began.
Onions and Bouchard dissolved their partnership during the war and Onions was employed as resident architect at the Royal Naval Dockyard, renovating barracks and major buildings such as Commissioner’s House, The Admiralty and The Cottage, the official residence of the commanding naval officer, for wartime use. During the war, Onions also designed and built several church vestries and additions at St. James’ Church in Somerset, St. John’s in Pembroke and St. Paul’s in Paget, and often carried out the work for little or no fee.
The partnership resumed after the war with Onions concentrating on design while Bouchard handled the business side and Hinson Cooper and brothers William and Nathaniel Hutchings carried much of the building. In the space of six years, as Bermuda’s economy boomed during the golden years of tourism, the firm completed some 50 major residences for some of Bermuda’s wealthiest families as demand for Onions’ distinctive designs grew.
Among them was Buttonwood, built for Sir Eldon Trimingham in Tucker’s Town and based on Crosstrees, an abandoned old cottage near Mid Ocean Golf Club’s fourth fairway, that both Onions and Trimingham considered a perfect example of traditional Bermudian architecture. Crosstrees also influenced another well-known Tucker’s Town cottage, But ‘n’ Ben.
Other distinctive works included Crow Lane House on Harbour Road, Paget, with its distinctive Palladian baroque façade, built for the Van Clief family; Woodstock Cove, built for deForest “Shorty” Trimingham; and Socatean Ledge in Somerset. Onions was also responsible for major renovations in the early 1950s to hotel and guest properties such as Mid Ocean Club, Pink Beach, Lantana, Cambridge Beaches, Horizons, Newstead, Waterloo House and Elbow Beach. In Hamilton, he directed redesigns for Trimingham’s and Smith’s stores, the Bank of Butterfield and Gosling’s, Frith’s and Lighbourn’s liquor stores.
In 1954, the Hamilton Hotel in the centre of the city was destroyed by fire and the Corporation decided to finally build the long-delayed new City Hall on the vacant site. Another competition was held in 1956 and Onions submitted two designs, one based on his original 1938 entry, and the other, a more modern version. The older design, a huge version of a traditional Bermuda cottage, won and work began in 1957 with Bill Harrington, designer and court painter to King George VI, collaborating on the interior design.
The project was beset by problems during construction, mainly leaks caused by the settling of the massive Bermuda slate roofs and financial problems of the contractors, who went into liquidation shortly after the work was completed.
At the same time, Onions was troubled by problems with a residential project on Wreck Hill in Somerset. For 10 years, he had been seemingly at odds with American client Daly King over plans for Per Ketet, a three-storey house overlooking Ely’s Harbour. Amongst other things, King insisted on the house being built of concrete block— anathema to Onions, who built only in Bermuda stone—and replacing wooden windows with aluminum ones. Onions was depressed by the constant changes and King’s refusal to pay as construction costs duly escalated.
In addition to the growing pressure of work, Onions—who never married—was known to have been despondent about the sudden departure from Bermuda of his close friend and confidant, Packwood Hunter, a Californian designer who had joined OBM in the early 1950s.
On July 2, 1959, Wilfred Onions took his own life and was found in the grounds of Aberfeldy. He was buried the following day at St. James Church in Somerset. City Hall was completed after his death, opening on February 11, 1960, as were Per Ketet and Inglewood House, for Fenton “Jerry” Trimingham.
It was an unseemly end for someone who had not only come to be regarded as a national treasure, but had cheated death three times before. As a teenager he had clung to the bottom of a capsized boat for two days following a storm off Somerset Island. On December 18, 1929, he was among the 371 passengers and crew rescued from the liner SS Fort Victoria that sank after colliding with the SS Algonquin in thick fog off Sandy Hook, New Jersey. And in 1935, he survived a fall from three storeys while inspecting renovation work on the Hamilton Hotel. He suffered a fractured neck that left him with a slight tilt to his head.
Onions’ death also left a gap in Bermuda’s artistic community. With Gilbert and Arthur Cooper, he had been a member of the popular Harem Scarem revue that ran from 1923 to 1948 and That Somerset Lot, a west end group that performed skits and songs.
In 1978, Sir Gilbert Cooper, who as senior alderman had headed the committee which oversaw the planning and building of City Hall, and other Harem Scarem members unveiled a plaque at City Hall in Onions’ memory. In 2001, the main exhibition space in the Bermuda Society of Arts Gallery in City Hall was renamed the Onions Gallery in his honour.
In 1991, the Wilfred Onions Memorial Prize was established at McGill University by his family and friends. The prize “commemorates his passion for sketching and life-long commitment to the profession of architecture, and is awarded by a committee of staff of the School of Architecture to the student with the best single work in the Sketching School.”
Onions’ immeasurable contribution to Bermuda’s architectural and artistic heritage and culture was further recognised in 2004 when he was posthumously given the Founders Award by the Bermuda Arts Council.
