Neville Marsh

Neville Marsh was born in Perth in 1931. He travelled in Europe in the 1950s and worked with Heal’s, a furniture store in London, returning to Australia in 1958 to work with interior designer Leslie Walford.

In the early 1960s, he worked with Robert Haines at the David Jones Art Gallery. By 1965 he had begun Neville Marsh Interiors based in Edgecliff, Sydney.

As Neville Marsh Interiors, with designer Ray Seide as a design partner (ca.1971), he designed the interiors of architect John James’ famous Reader’s Digest Building in Surry Hills in 1967 and in 1970-73 the practice re-designed the new Her Majesty’s Theatre interiors in Quay St, Haymarket. He also designed cinema interiors for Hoyts Cinemas in Perth and Melbourne. Although he had a number of corporate clients his practice centred on, and often preferred, domestic interiors.

In 1975 he formed a partnership with George Freedman with the practice embracing more commercial projects including the new State Bank building interiors in Martin Place. This project introduced a level of opulence and craft skills rarely seen in Australian corporate interior design of the time. Other commercial projects by Marsh Freedman Associates include the Leighton’s HQ building and Bilson’s for chef Tony Bilson in the Overseas Passenger Terminal Building at Circular Quay.

Marsh was an active member of the Society of Interior Designers (SIDA), participating in the organisation’s fund-raisers and the Black and White Committee’s exhibitions. His work was also included in Babette Hayes’ books, Australian Style (1970) and Design for Living (1978).

Marsh left the design partnership in 1986 for life in Italy, later returning to Australia to work with Carole and Peter Muller on the Amandari Hotel, Ubud, Bali. Declining health reduced his design output and he died in Sydney in November 1994.