Everything about Alfred Waterhouse totally explained
Alfred Waterhouse (
July 19,
1830 –
August 22,
1905) was an
English architect, particularly associated with the
Victorian Gothic revival. He is perhaps best known for his design for the
Natural History Museum in
London, although he also built a wide variety of other buildings throughout the country. Financially speaking, Waterhouse was probably the most successful of all Victorian architects. Though expert within Gothic and
Renaissance styles, Waterhouse never limited himself to a single architectural style.
Early life
Waterhouse was born on the
19th July 1830 in
Aigburth,
Liverpool, the son of wealthy mill-owning
Quaker parents. His brothers were
accountant Edwin Waterhouse, co-founder of the
Price Waterhouse partnership that now forms part of
PriceWaterhouseCoopers, and
solicitor Theodore Waterhouse, who founded the firm of
Waterhouse & Co. that continues to practice in the
City of London.
Alfred Waterhouse was educated at the Quaker run
Grove School in
Tottenham near
London. He studied architecture under
Richard Lane in
Manchester, and spent much of his youth travelling in
Europe and studying in
France,
Italy and
Germany. Upon his return to England, Alfred set up his own architectural practice in Manchester.
Waterhouse continued to practice in Manchester for 12 years, until moving his practice to London in
1865. Waterhouse's earliest commissions were for domestic buildings, but his success as a designer of public buildings was assured in
1859 when he won the open competition for the
Manchester Assize Courts (now demolished). This work not only showed his ability to plan a complicated building on a large scale, but also marked him out as a champion of the
Gothic cause.
In 1860, he married Elizabeth Hodgkin (1834-1918), the sister of the historian
Thomas Hodgkin.
Domestic Buildings in County Durham
Waterhouse had connections with wealthy Quaker industrialist through schooling, marriage and religious affiliation. Many of these Quaker connectons commissioned him to design and build country mansions, especially in the areas near Darlington. In
Hurworth-on-Tees Waterhouse built Pilmore Hall for Alfred Backhouse, as well as The Grange in Hurworth, which Alfred Backhouse had commissioned as a wedding gift for his nephew, James. E. Backhouse. This building is now known as
Hurworth Grange Community Centre. Another Backhouse family mansion designed and built by Waterhouse was Dryderdale Hll, near Hamsterley, which many might recognize as the home of head gangster Cyril Kinnear in the movie "Get Carter."
London practice
In
1865, Waterhouse was one of the architects selected to compete for the
Royal Courts of Justice. The new
University Club of New York was undertaken in
1866. In
1868 and nine years after his work on the Manchester Assize Courts, another competition secured for Waterhouse the design of
Manchester Town Hall, where he was able to show a firmer and more original handling of the Gothic style. The same year he was involved in rebuilding part of
Caius College, Cambridge; this wasn't his first university work, for he'd already worked on
Balliol College, Oxford in
1867, and the new buildings of the
Cambridge Union Society, in
1866.
At Caius, out of deference to the
Renaissance treatment of the older parts of the college, this Gothic element was intentionally mingled with classic detail, while Balliol and
Pembroke College, Cambridge, which followed in
1871, are typical of the style of his mid career with Gothic tradition tempered by individual taste and by adaptation to modern needs.
Girton College,
Cambridge, a building of simpler type, dates originally from the same period (
1870), but has been periodically enlarged by further buildings. Two important domestic works were undertaken in
1870 and
1871 respectively —
Eaton Hall in
Cheshire for the
Duke of Westminster, and
Heythrop Hall,
Oxfordshire, the latter a restoration of a fairly strict classic type.
Waterhouse received, without competition, the commission to build the
Natural History Museum in
South Kensington (
1873–
1881), a design which marks an epoch in the modern use of
architectural terracotta and which was to become his best known work. Waterhouse's other works in London included the
National Liberal Club (a study in Renaissance composition),
University College Hospital, the Surveyors' Institution in London's Great George Street (
1896), and the
Jenner Institute of Preventive Medicine in
Chelsea (
1895).
From the late
1860s, Waterhouse lived in the
Reading area and was responsible for several significant buildings there. These included his own residences of
Foxhill House (
1868) and
Yattendon Court (
1877), together with
Reading Town Hall (
1875) and
Reading School (
1870). Foxhill House is still in use by the
University of Reading, as are his
Whiteknights House (built for his father) and
East Thorpe House (built in
1880 for
Alfred Palmer).
For the
Prudential Assurance Company, Waterhouse designed many offices, including their Holborn Bars head office in
Holborn and branch offices in
Southampton,
Nottingham and
Leeds. He also designed offices for the
National Provincial Bank in
Piccadilly (
1892) and in Manchester. The
Liverpool Infirmary was Waterhouse's largest hospital; and
St. Mary's Hospital in Manchester, the
Alexandra Hospital in
Rhyl, and extensive additions at the
Nottingham General Hospital, also involved him. He was involved in a series of works for the
Victoria University of Manchester, of which he was made LL.D. in
1895.
Other educational buildings designed by Waterhouse include
Yorkshire College, Leeds (
1878), the
Victoria Building for the
Liverpool University College (now University of Liverpool) (
1885),
St Paul's School in
Hammersmith (
1881); and the
Central Technical College in London's
Exhibition Road (
1881).
Among works not already mentioned are the
Cambridge Union building and subsequently a similar building for the
Oxford Union;
Strangeways Prison;
St Margaret's School in
Bushey; the
Metropole Hotel in
Brighton;
Hove Town Hall;
Knutsford town hall;
Alloa Town Hall;
St. Elisabeth's church in
Reddish; Darlington town clock, covered market hall and Backhouse's Bank (now Barclay's Bank); the
King's Weigh House chapel in
Mayfair,
Hutton Hall in
Yorkshire, St. Mary's Church in
Twyford,
Hampshire (
1878) shows interestingly similar patterning to the
Natural History Museum and was designed at the same time.
Recognition
Waterhouse became a fellow of the
Royal Institute of British Architects in
1861, and was President from
1888 to
1891. He obtained a grand prix for architecture at the
Paris Exposition of 1867, and a "Rappel" in
1878. In the same year he received the
Royal Gold Medal of the Royal Institute of British Architects, and was made an associate of the
Royal Academy, of which body he became a full member in
1885 and treasurer in
1898. He was also a member of the academies of
Vienna (
1869),
Brussels (
1886),
Antwerp (
1887),
Milan (
1888) and
Berlin (
1889), and a corresponding member of the
Institut de France (
1893). After
1886 he was constantly called upon to act as assessor in architectural competitions, and was a member of the international jury appointed to adjudicate on the designs for the west front of
Milan Cathedral in
1887. In
1890 he served as architectural member of the Royal Commission on the proposed enlargement of
Westminster Abbey as a place of burial.
Later life
Waterhouse retired from architecture in
1902, having practiced in partnership with his son,
Paul Waterhouse, from
1891. He died at
Yattendon Court on the
22 August 1905.
Further Information
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