Roy Stout and Patrick Litchfield met whilst studying at the RWA School of Architecture in Bristol between 1948-53. Upon graduation they moved to London, where they both expanded their experience of working in larger practices – Litchfield worked with Richard Sheppard and Partners, whilst Stout worked in different housing groups in the London County Council Architects department, led by Colin Lucas (of Connell Ward and Lucas).

In 1962 Stout and Litchfield launched their own joint practice. Amongst their first commissions were two new-build properties – one in Bishops Stortford, the other in Shipton-under-Wychwood – both of which boast the pitched roofs which would later become characteristic of their work. The Grade II* listed Shipton property (which featured in the 1972 film ‘A Clockwork Orange’) was conceived as a series of open-sided barn-like structures with mono-pitched roofs – it marked a simple reaction against the rigidity of structure, a breaking down of scale, and an acceptance that designs did not have to stick solely to Corbusian right angles. Stout and Litchfield accepted, however, that they had to thoroughly understand functionalism in order to react against its formal order.

Meanwhile Stout and Litchfield established a reputation for town house conversions, principally in London. At the same time as the Shipton commission, Stout and Litchfield bought a four-storey Thomas Cubitt house in Pimlico which they extensively altered and converted into two maisonettes for their own use – this property also served as a showcase for their conversion schemes.

Throughout the 1960s and 70s Stout and Litchfield continued to developed their characteristic style in their new-build schemes. They designed a number of iconic properties, many of which were built with white bricks and mortar with recognisable pitched roofs, including the Pyramids at South Harting, a distinctive residence in Highgate and a house in Somerton which has now been awarded a Grade II listing.

Their work also extended to housing schemes after they were approached in the late 1960s by the Greater London Council, including schemes for the Clapham Park Estate and later Myatts Field in Lambeth. Throughout the later decades of their careers Stout and Litchfield undertook a number of commissions in the south west, as well as on the Isle of Dogs in London’s Docklands, all of which were direct developments of the distinctive vernacular – particularly that of the pitched roof – established in their earlier houses.