Alfred Waterhouse (19 July 1830 – 22 August 1905) was an English architect, particularly associated with the Victorian Gothic Revival architecture, although he designed using other architectural styles as well. He is perhaps best known for his design for Manchester Town Hall and the Natural History Museum in London, although he also built a wide variety of other buildings throughout the country. Besides his most famous public buildings he designed other town halls, the Manchester Assize buildings—bombed in World War II, and the adjacent Strangeways Prison. He also designed several hospitals, the most architecturally interesting being the Royal Infirmary Liverpool and University College Hospital London.
Introduction
Alfred Waterhouse
Alfred Waterhouse | Introduction
19 July 1830 19 July 1830. 19 July 1830 19 July 1830
who designed the ceilings of the natural history museum in london?
user
Alfred Waterhouse
assistant
what drawings do those depict?
user
The central hall depicts plants considered significant to the history of the museum, o the British Empire and the smaller North Hall depicts plants growing in the British Isles.
assistant
what special antique pieces will you find under that roof?
user
Sorry. I cannot find the answer based on the context.
assistant
are they any room sections in the museum that come that ceiling?
user
Sorry. I cannot find the answer based on the context.
assistant
are they any room sections in the museum that come under that specific ceiling?
user
The Central Hall and the North Hall
assistant
could you tell me the date of birth of that designer you had mentioned?
user
All the ground floor galleries open to the south off an east-west corridor that links them to the Main Hall. Leading off the corridors are links to the ground floor galleries along the Museum's main facade.
Alfred Waterhouse | Natural History Museum
In addition to the collection at the RIBA, the Natural History Museum holds a significant quantity of drawings by Waterhouse relating to the design of the terracotta sculpture on the building. The 136 pages of drawings are bound together in two volumes and cover the period 1874 to 1878. The subject matter is not just flora, insects, fish, lizards, snakes and animals, some of extinct species, but ornament as well. Extinct species decorated the eastern side of the building internally and externally, living species likewise decorated the western half of the building as well as the North Hall and Main Hall.
Alfred Waterhouse | The Waterhouse drawings collection
All this meant Waterhouse had to keep amending the designs for the museum. The solution to the reduced budget that Waterhouse came up with including omitting the large lecture theatre that had been part of the design from the beginning, and to build the Museum in two stages. That first stage is the Museum as it was opened. The second stage that was never built, was to build the side facades and the rear facade of the Museum. As late as 1911-13 plans were produced to complete the east and west facades, but the outbreak of World War I prevented its execution.
Alfred Waterhouse | Natural History Museum
Alfred Waterhouse was educated at the Quaker Grove House School in Tottenham. He began his architectural studies in 1848 under Richard Lane in Manchester. He was taught to produce architectural drawings with crisp lines and pale tints, very different from the style he would develop later. He was taught theory by copying extracts from books, including Henry William Inwood's "Of the Resources of Design in the Architecture of Greece, Egypt, and other Countries, obtained by the Studies of the Architects of those Countries from Nature" (1834) and William Chamber's "A treatise on civil architecture" (1759), he also traced the designs in Frederick Apthorp Paley's "Manual of Gothic Mouldings" (1845).
Alfred Waterhouse | Early life and education (1830–1854)
The Main Hall has a gallery at first floor level running down both its flanks, that links the two parts of the main staircases. Immediately north of the Main Hall is the North Hall. Although Romanesque in style, the drama is more akin to Baroque architecture. The front part of the building has three floors of public galleries. Flanking the Main Hall on each side are three large top lit galleries, the large galleries are separated from each other by narrower galleries. The roofs of these single floor galleries is the same form as the Main and North Halls, the lower half of the slope is glass the upper solid.
Alfred Waterhouse | Natural History Museum
"The Magazine of Art", vol 4, 1881 p36 described the style of the Museum: The distinctive features of the building's facade are the end pavilions with their octagonal attic towers supporting steep roofs, and the twin towers 190 feet high flanking the arched main entrances. Entering through the main doors, these are reached via an exterior staircase. The visitor passes from the Entrance Hall beneath the arch supporting the main staircase from the 1st to the 2nd floor, ahead on the end wall of the main hall, lies the main staircase imperial in form, rising from the ground to the first floor.
Alfred Waterhouse | Natural History Museum
Records do not survive of how the plants to be represented were chosen and who created the initial designs. Knapp & Press (2005) believe that it was almost certainly Waterhouse himself, likely working from specimens in the museum's botanical collections, while William T. Stearn, writing in 1980, believes that the illustrations were chosen by botanist William Carruthers, who at the time was the museum's Keeper of Botany. To create the painted panels from the initial cartoons, Waterhouse commissioned Manchester artist Charles James Lea of Best & Lea, with whom he had already worked on Pilmore Hall in Hurworth-on-Tees. Waterhouse provided Lea with a selection of botanical drawings, and requested that Lea "select and prepare drawings of fruits and flowers most suitable and gild same in the upper panels of the roof"; it is not recorded who drew the cartoons for the paintings, or how the species were chosen.
Ceilings of the Natural History Museum, London | Central Hall
As a consequence, it posed a difficulty to Waterhouse's plans to decorate the building. As the skylights were lower than the ceiling the roof was in relative darkness compared to the rest of the room, and owing to the routes to be taken by visitors, the design needed to be attractive when viewed both from the floor below, and from the raised balconies to the each side. To address this, Waterhouse decided to decorate the ceiling with painted botanical panels. Acton Smee Ayrton, the First Commissioner of Works, was hostile to the museum project, and sought to cut costs wherever possible; he disliked art, and felt that it was his responsibility to restrain the excesses of artists and architects.
Ceilings of the Natural History Museum, London | Central Hall
The superintendent of the natural history departments, Richard Owen, envisaged that visitors would enter a large central hall containing what he termed an "index collection" of representative exhibits, from which other galleries would radiate, and a smaller hall to the north would display the natural history of the British Isles. Waterhouse's Romanesque design for the museum included decorative painted ceilings. Acton Smee Ayrton, the First Commissioner of Works, refused to permit the decoration of the ceilings on grounds of cost, but Waterhouse convinced him that provided the painting took place while the scaffolding from the museum's construction was still in place it would incur no extra cost; he further managed to convince Ayrton that the ceiling would be more appealing if elements of the paintings were gilded.
Ceilings of the Natural History Museum, London | Introduction
Waterhouse became a fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1861, and was president from 1888 to 1891. Waterhouse's presidential address included the following: He was awarded a rappel to the grand prix for architecture at the Paris Exposition of 1867. In 1878 he received the Royal Gold Medal of the Royal Institute of British Architects. Waterhouse first exhibited one of his designs at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1857, and then from 1868 to 1901 with the exception of 1873 he exhibited mainly designs of his own buildings annually. But in later years he sometimes exhibited topographical views from both his British and European travels.
Alfred Waterhouse | Recognition and professional life
Under the supervision of one of the seniors a team would be assembled for each job, for example forty draughtsmen were involved at Manchester Town Hall, although it was usually below twenty at any given time. The drawings from 1858 were consistent in style throughout Waterhouses's career, it was a crisp style with strong lines with colour coding, buff red for brick, yellow for stone, brown for timber, blue for metal. Blueprints were introduced into the office in c.1890.
Alfred Waterhouse | Organisation of Waterhouse's architectural office
Alfred Waterhouse (19 July 1830 – 22 August 1905) was an English architect, particularly associated with the Victorian Gothic Revival architecture, although he designed using other architectural styles as well. He is perhaps best known for his design for Manchester Town Hall and the Natural History Museum in London, although he also built a wide variety of other buildings throughout the country. Besides his most famous public buildings he designed other town halls, the Manchester Assize buildings—bombed in World War II, and the adjacent Strangeways Prison. He also designed several hospitals, the most architecturally interesting being the Royal Infirmary Liverpool and University College Hospital London.
Alfred Waterhouse | Introduction
Waterhouse's design was a Romanesque scheme, loosely based on German religious architecture; Owen was a leading creationist, and felt that the museum served a religious purpose in displaying the works of God. The design was centred around a very large rectangular central hall and a smaller hall to the north. Visitors would enter from the street into the Central Hall, which would hold what Owen termed an "index collection" of typical specimens, intended to serve as an introduction to the museum's collections for those unfamiliar with natural history. Extended galleries were to radiate to the east and west from this central hall to form the south face of the museum, with further galleries to the east, west and north to be added when funds allowed to complete a rectangular shape.
Ceilings of the Natural History Museum, London | Waterhouse's building
Other institutions have holdings of Waterhouse drawings: the Public Record Office have drawings for the Natural History Museum; the Victoria and Albert Museum holds several of his perspective drawings; Manchester School of Architecture have drawings and perspectives of Manchester Town Hall and some of his other buildings; Balliol College, Oxford, drawings for his work at the College; The Waterhouse family still own some of his drawings, sketches and watercolours.
Alfred Waterhouse | The Waterhouse drawings collection
Each of the completed drawings is also dated, some surviving sheets are either unnumbered or damaged. A smaller commission may have needed as few as fifty drawings. Most of the drawings are anonymous and thanks to the uniform style of production it is not possible to distinguish individuals, though some of the seniors in the office like G.T. Redmayne were allowed to initial drawings. In the very early years of his practice the lettering used on the drawings was Gothic, but this was abandoned by the mid-1860s for a plain script. Waterhouse was known for his ability to paint watercolour perspectives, sometimes they were produced for architectural competitions such as the entry for The Royal Courts of Justice competition and Manchester Town Hall, but based on their dates sometimes they were produced towards the end of the building process, most likely for publication.
Alfred Waterhouse | The Waterhouse drawings collection
Farmer & Brindley were favoured for sculpture, working on nearly one hundred of Waterhouses's buildings, including a tombstone in West Norwood Cemetery, the pulpit in Stanmore Church and the extensive carving on Eaton Hall, plus all the models for the terracotta decoration on the Prudential Assurance buildings. The ceiling of the Great Hall, at the Natural History Museum, is decorated with paintings of plants from across the world, the paintings are executed in a subdued palette and with gilding for highlights, the individual panels have the Latin name of the plant below. Designed by Waterhouse the ceiling was painted by Best & Lea of John Dalton Street, Manchester.
Alfred Waterhouse | Artists, suppliers and sub-contractors
and the North of England School Furniture Co.; ironwork was by Hart Son Peard & Co. and R. Jones; the main clock was by Gillett & Bland. the clerk of works was T.M. Rickman
Alfred Waterhouse | School buildings
Paul Waterhouse was born on 29 October 1861 in Manchester, England. He was the son and business partner of Alfred Waterhouse, an architect who designed many well-known buildings in England and had been President of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). Waterhouse was educated at Balliol College, Oxford, obtaining his MA in 1887.
Paul Waterhouse | Early life
Waterhouse was made an associate of the Royal Academy on 16 January 1878, of which body he became a full member on 4 June 1885. His diploma piece is an 1887 pen and ink drawing with colour washes, a perspective of the main facade of Manchester Town Hall and he was the Royal Academy's treasurer from 17 November 1897 to 5 December 1901. 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). In 1895 Victoria University of Manchester, made Waterhouse an LL.D.
Alfred Waterhouse | Recognition and professional life
Having already insisted that Waterhouse's original design for wooden ceilings and a lead roof be replaced with cheaper plaster and slate, Ayrton vetoed Waterhouse's plan to decorate the ceiling. Waterhouse eventually persuaded Ayrton that provided the ceiling were decorated while the scaffolding from its construction remained in place, a decorated ceiling would be no more expensive than a plain white one. He prepared two sample paintings of the pomegranate and magnolia for Ayrton, who approved £1435 (about £ in 2020 terms) to decorate the ceiling. Having obtained approval for the paintings, Waterhouse managed to convince Ayrton that the paintings' appeal would be enhanced if certain elements were gilded.
Ceilings of the Natural History Museum, London | Central Hall
Some of the drawings were produced onsite with annotations by the clerk of works alerting the office staff to problems in the design, in a few cases the replies to these have survived. Some drawings were annotated by the client for example The Duke of Westminster queried the design of the screen in the Chapel at Eaton Hall. The collection allows a detailed picture of how the office functioned to be built up, although not unique for the period it is rare. None of the sets of drawings is complete and several of Waterhouse's commissions are no longer represented in the collection.
Alfred Waterhouse | The Waterhouse drawings collection
Waterhouse designed furniture but only for his own buildings, and only for a specific commission, ensuring stylistic harmony. His first known design being a desk in the 1850s for his father. Buildings that have Waterhouse designed furniture include Manchester Town Hall, both the grand rooms and the office areas; classroom desks at Reading Grammar School; office furniture for the Prudential Assurance offices and the National Liberal Club. He preferred simple sturdy designs for his furniture. For eighteen of his buildings including Manchester Town Hall, he used the contractor Robert Pollitt to execute the painted decoration. Extensive correspondence survives between Waterhouse and Minton's and Maw's about patterns and colours that their tiles came in, both for floors and walls.
Alfred Waterhouse | Interior design, furniture and fittings
But John Gibson dropped out leaving eleven: Waterhouse, William Burges, George Gilbert Scott, John Pollard Seddon, Edward Middleton Barry, the little known Henry Robert Abrahms, the also obscure Henry B. Garling, John Raphael Rodrigues Brandon, Henry Francis Lockwood, Thomas Deane and the eventual winner George Edmund Street. All the competitors chose to produce Gothic designs .Waterhouse's design was based around two large halls that formed a cruciform design. The lower level of the north-south hall was for the general public with short corridors linked to staircases leading to public galleries in the courtrooms. The east-west hall 478 by 60 feet, crossed the lower one at upper level reserved for the use by lawyers.
Alfred Waterhouse | London practice (1865–1902)
The scrapbook he used survives in which he sets out Chambers and Paley's opposing views. He also is known to have read during this period John Ruskin's The Stones of Venice (1849) and Augustus Pugin's "Contrasts" (1836) and "The True Principles of Pointed or Christian Architecture" (1841). He joined a sketching club, where he met Frederic Shields and Alfred Darbyshire. In May 1853 he set out to tour Europe with school friend Thomas Hodgkin who stated that Waterhouse ""was entirely under the influence of Ruskin, and communicated his own admiration for Gothic art and a perfect detestation of that beastly Renaissance"", the trip lasted nine months.
Alfred Waterhouse | Early life and education (1830–1854)
The Royal Institute of British Architects Drawings Collection housed in the dedicated study room at Victoria and Albert Museum contains over 9,000 of the drawings from Waterhouse's practice. The collection covers pages from note-books up to metre square drawings, rough onsite sketches to highly finished watercolours perspectives of complete buildings. The drawings span Waterhouse's full career from the 1850s to 1901. Each finished drawing has two numbers normally in the top left corner: the first of upper number is the 'office number' that related to a now lost register in which the draughtsmen's time was recorded; the second number is the 'job number', records the sequence of drawings for an individual commission, against which charges for the client were calculated.
Alfred Waterhouse | The Waterhouse drawings collection
Finally in spring 1873 work began on the building, the contractors who worked on the building were for the general construction of the building G. Baker & G. Shaw and Mowlem, with the structural iron work being manufactured by J.S. Bergheim, all the terracotta used was manufactured by the firm of Gibbs & Cannings. The Museum opened to the public in April 1881, only two years before the director and driving force behind the museum Richard Owen retired. The design which marks an epoch in the modern use of architectural terracotta and which was to become his best-known work. The eventual cost of the building was £412,000 (roughly £47,000,000 in 2019).
Alfred Waterhouse | Natural History Museum
The names of the buildings and the names of the county they are located in, both in the lists and gallery, are those in use when Waterhouse designed the buildings.
Alfred Waterhouse | List of architectural work
Conway; mosaic flooring by J.F. Ebner; ironwork by Hart Son Peard & Co.; furnishing and decoration by Heighway & Sons; the cost was £17,565. The final phase (1898-1902) cost £36,350.
Alfred Waterhouse | Northern universities
Burke & Co. and the oak chimneypieces used in other rooms were by W. Farmer; decoration was by J. Hankins; decorative iron work was by Hart Son Peard & Co. and F.A. Skidmore & Co.; the decorative plasterwork was executed by J.W. Hindshaw. The clerk of works was Alexander Gray.
Alfred Waterhouse | Domestic buildings
Alfred Waterhouse (1830–1905) was a prolific English architect who worked in the second half of the 19th century. His buildings were largely in Victorian Gothic Revival style. Waterhouse's biographer, Colin Cunningham, states that between about 1865 and about 1885 he was "the most widely employed British architect". He worked in many fields, designing commercial, public, educational, domestic, and ecclesiastical buildings. Waterhouse was born in Liverpool of Quaker parents. After being articled to Richard Lane in Manchester, he took a ten-month tour of the Continent, then established his own practice in Manchester. Many of his early commissions came from Quakers and other nonconformist patrons.
List of educational buildings by Alfred Waterhouse | Introduction
The rainwater heads are dated 1900.
Clayton Hall | Architecture
Sir Ellis Kirkham Waterhouse (16 February 1905 – 7 September 1985) was an English art historian who specialised in Roman baroque and English painting. He was Director of the National Galleries of Scotland (1949–52) and held the Barber chair at Birmingham University until his official retirement in 1970.
Ellis Waterhouse | Introduction
On the opening day the floor gave way, pitching two prize bulls and a spectator into the basement. The problem was traced to a faulty casting and Waterhouse was exonerated of any blame. This left him distrustful of the material, though he did use it in his designs. When using the material he used either Andrew Handyside and Company or J.S. Bergheim, both of whom supplied the iron for Manchester Town Hall. He was more at home using decorative wrought iron, especially for balustrades, iron screens and gates, finials and other decorative uses of the material.
Alfred Waterhouse | Building materials and service technology
Waterhouse began collecting art in the 1920s. He was a discerning collector of fine pieces from China, Persia and Europe. In particular he collected Persian rugs and bowls and Chinese scrolls, porcelain, roof tiles and paintings. The Tang was a favoured period. Contemporary photos of the interior of Eryldene show the walls covered in Chinese art and watercolours of camellias. He was a trustee of the Art Gallery of New South Wales 1938–1962, the last two years as President.
Eben Gowrie Waterhouse | Collecting
The house was the childhood home of Reginald Marsh, the distinguished American painter. In 1892, he was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member, and became a full Academician in 1900.
Frank Fowler (artist) | Introduction
George was born in Somers Town to James Edward Waterhouse and Mary Newman. His father was a solicitor's clerk and an amateur entomologist. He was the brother of Frederick George Waterhouse, who also became a zoologist. George went to school at Koekelberg, near Brussels. He returned to England in 1824 and worked as an apprentice to an architect. Part of the work was in designing the garden of Charles Knight in the Vale of Health, Hampstead and the ornamentation for St. Dunstan's Church.
George Robert Waterhouse | Early life
Waterhouse was to design three northern English universities, Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool, all would be in the Gothic style. All three would form The Victoria University. What is now Manchester University began as Owens College later Victoria University of Manchester, for which the first buildings by Waterhouse were erected between 1869 and 1875. This first phase of 1869 was E-shaped in plan. Extensions followed, first the medical school (1882–83). The main facade behind which was the Council Room approached by a dramatic curved staircase, the museum lined Oxford Road, this being stone, brick with stone dressings was used for the earlier stages (1884–88), then the extensions to the engineering laboratory (1886–88).
Alfred Waterhouse | Northern universities
In addition to his design work as an architect, Waterhouse was an assessor for about 60 architectural competitions. He was awarded the Royal Gold Medal of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1878 for his design for Manchester Town Hall, and was president of that institution from 1888 to 1891. He was gained international diplomas, and in 1895 was awarded an honorary LL.D by Manchester University. Waterhouse was also a painter, exhibiting 80 watercolours at the Royal Academy. He suffered a stroke in 1901, and died in his home at Yattendon, Berkshire, in 1905. His practice was continued by his son Paul, followed by his grandson, Michael, and his great-grandson.
List of educational buildings by Alfred Waterhouse | Introduction
But by the time the costs of the fittings were added the total cost was £549,045 (approx £63,000,000 in 2019) with additional expenditure of £7,200 in 1882 when the Spirit Room (where animal specimens were preserved in spirit) was built as a separate building, it has been demolished, and £2,500 in 1884 for two entrance lodges to the grounds. The building was the first in England to have its facades completely clad in terracotta. The style of the building is Romanesque Revival architecture, and is especially influenced by German buildings, notably The Liebfrauen Kirche, Andernach and Worms Cathedral. The main facade is 750 feet in length.
Alfred Waterhouse | Natural History Museum
They are of red brick with stone dressings. He went on to design the new Hall in (1875–79), fellows' sets and a new library (1877–78), with its bold clock tower. In (1878–80) the Oxford Union commissioned an extension from Waterhouse, consisting of a new debating hall. He was commissioned by Emily Davies to design his only new college at either of the ancient universities, the Women's college Girton College, Cambridge. Gothic of red brick and terracotta. Emily writing in a letter in 1866 to her friend Anna Richardson, in which she outlined her vision for the college:
Alfred Waterhouse | Oxford and Cambridge universities
In 1909 the hall was purchased by the artist Peregrine Feeney and his wife Emily. She was the sister-in-law of the noted pre-raphaelite painter John William Waterhouse who became a regular visitor and painted the hall on at least one occasion.
Clippesby | Clippesby Hall
The house contained 190 rooms. The servants' wing contained a double-height kitchen that was 55 by 25 feet. Running through the building from the Library at the southern end to the chapel at the northern was a corridor 330 feet in length, at its southern end rose the Grand Staircase. Built from stone lined with granite columns and stone arches. The balustrade unusually for a staircase in a Waterhouse house, was also of stone. The corridor then opened out into the entrance hall and saloon, both rooms were heighten to two floors. Passing on through the new service wing, until it met the corridor linking the Chapel to the large new private wing.
Alfred Waterhouse | Eaton Hall
In 1854, the Waterhouses returned to England and moved to a newly built house in South Kensington, London, which was near to the newly founded Victoria and Albert Museum. Waterhouse, or 'Nino' as he was nicknamed, coming from an artistic family, was encouraged to become involved in drawing, and often sketched artworks that he found in the British Museum and the National Gallery. In 1871 he entered the Royal Academy of Art school, initially to study sculpture, before moving on to painting.
John William Waterhouse | Early life
Alfred Waterhouse (1830–1905) was a prolific English architect who worked in the second half of the 19th century. His buildings were largely in Victorian Gothic Revival style. Waterhouse's biographer, Colin Cunningham, states that between about 1865 and about 1885 he was "the most widely employed British architect". He worked in many fields, designing commercial, public, educational, domestic, and ecclesiastical buildings. Waterhouse was born in Liverpool of Quaker parents. After being articled to Richard Lane in Manchester, he took a ten-month tour of the Continent, then established his own practice in Manchester. Many of his early commissions came from Quakers and other nonconformist patrons.
List of domestic works by Alfred Waterhouse | Introduction
The builders were John Wood; heating and ventilation was by G.N. Haden and D.O. Boyd; the modelling of the terracotta was by Farmer & Brindley; the ceramic tiles were made Craven Dunnill & Co. and W. Godwin; glass was provided by F.T. Odell; chimney-pieces were by the Hopton Wood Stone Co.; furniture was made by Wells & Co. of Bedford; decorative iron work was executed by Hart Son Peard & Co. and R. Jones; locks and door furniture was made by J. Gibbons.
Alfred Waterhouse | Public buildings
Archways flanking the northern staircase to the balcony level lead to the North Hall, intended by Owen for a display of the natural history of the United Kingdom. Waterhouse designed a ceiling for the North Hall representing this theme. As with the Central Hall, this ceiling comprises rows of panels above a long skylight along each side of the room; there are two rows per side rather than three, and nine panels on each row. Unlike the archaic panels in the top row of the Central Hall, the upper rows on each side consist of plain green panels, each containing a heraldic rose, thistle or shamrock in representation of England, Scotland and Ireland, the three nations then constituting the constituent parts of the United Kingdom.
Ceilings of the Natural History Museum, London | North Hall
Waterhouse was the son of the architect Percy Leslie Waterhouse, through whom he possessed the means to pursue a largely independent career. His fellow student at Marlborough College was Anthony Blunt, with whom he continued a lifelong professional friendship; he went on to New College, Oxford. In 1927–29 he studied at Princeton University with Frank Jewett Mather and received a fellowship to study El Greco in Spain. He returned to London to take up an Assistant Keeper's post at the National Gallery, London, under its Keepers, C. H. Collins Baker and H. Isherwood Kay. He then joined the British School in Rome as librarian until 1936, working on the combination of connoisseurship and archival material that resulted in "Roman Baroque Painting" (1937), on the strength of which he was elected a Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford (1938–47) and prepared the catalog for a Royal Academy exhibition, "17th-Century Art in Europe".
Ellis Waterhouse | Early life and career
Elizabeth also organised between 1890 and 1914 evening craft classes in Yattendon. She also arranged amateur theatricals at home. The eldest of the five children the couple had was Paul Waterhouse (1861-1924), after being educated at Eton College and taking a degree in Classics at Balliol College, Oxford he would follow his father's profession joining the practice in 1884, his father made him a partner in 1891. Paul's son Michael Theodore Waterhouse (1888-1968) would also become an architect. In turn Michael's son David Barclay Waterhouse (1921-1998) was the fourth generation to follow the profession retiring in 1989. Alfred's and Elizabeth's other children were: Mary Monica Waterhouse (1863-1949) who married Robert Bridges in 1884; Florence Eliot Waterhouse (1866-1953); Alfred Maurine Waterhouse (1868-c.1881) and Amyas Theodore Waterhouse (1872-1956).
Alfred Waterhouse | Personal life and family
Additionally the building had a large number of bathrooms and toilets. Much decorative use is made internally of faience of varying colours to clad columns and other features. The major rooms are all lined by rows of columns along their walls, each room having a slightly different style of column and colour of faience cladding. The original main staircase used a variety of different types of marbles for the balustrade and Tuscan columns that use to support it. Waterhouse also designed most of the furniture and furnishings.
Alfred Waterhouse | National Liberal Club
A senior draughtsman would typically be responsible for several projects, T. Cooper worked for Waterhouse from 1865-76 covered Backhouse's Bank, Strangeways Prison, Allerton Priory, Foxhill, The Natural History Museum and Eaton Hall. Supervision was entrusted to assistants such as Giles Redmayne who worked for Waterhouse 1859-64, occasionally they would take over jobs in their own right. However, there were never many in the office, Waterhouse would regularly check and correct drawings himself, often he worked alone in the office long after the staff had left for the day. The office had to produce vast numbers of drawings, up to 1875 there were 88 known employees of the office, 29 worked for less than a year some of whom lasted less than a month, 25 draughtsmen were employed for a year or two, of the remaining 33 only 5 lasted through 1865-75.
Alfred Waterhouse | Organisation of Waterhouse's architectural office
The Reading Room, opened in 1862, was designed by Alfred Waterhouse, the Victorian architect, when he was only 32 years old. The building was largely financed by Joseph Pease who was Britain's first Quaker MP.
Allonby | History
He holds an MA in Art History from the Courtauld Institute of Art, London; an MA in Visual Arts Administration from New York University; and a BA in History and Art History from the College of William and Mary, Virginia. His 250-page biography of the British painter J. W. Waterhouse R.A. (1849–1917) was published by Phaidon Press (London) in 2002, and has sold more than 50,000 copies. He contributed two chapters to the catalogue accompanying the exhibition "A Grand Design: The Art of the Victoria and Albert Museum" (1997, organized by the Baltimore Museum of Art and published by Abrams).
Peter Trippi | Introduction
of Faith, Hope and Charity (1877). He also designed the stables, the walled garden, a lodge, and cottages. The builders were William Cubitt and Company; the heating and ventilation was by D.O. Boyd; stone carving internally and externally was by Farmer & Brindly; decorative ceramic tiles were designed by J.M. Akllen, W. Godwin and William De Morgan; apart from Morris & Co., stained glass was also made by Edmundson & Sons and F.T. Odell; the chimneypieces were made by W.H. Burke & Co.; decorative iron work was by Hart Son Peard & Co. and R. Jones; plaster-work was executed by G.
Alfred Waterhouse | Building restoration
Waterhouse and Lea's design for the ceiling is based on a theme of growth and power. From the skylights on each side, three rows of panels run the length of the main hall, with the third, uppermost rows on each side meeting at the apex of the roof. The two lower rows are divided into blocks of six panels apiece, each block depicting a different plant species. Plants spread their branches upwards towards the apex, representing the theme of growth. The supporting girders of the ceiling are spaced at every third column of panels, dividing the panels into square blocks of nine; the girders are an integral part of the design, designed to be barely visible from the ground but highly visible from the upper galleries, representing industry working with nature.
Ceilings of the Natural History Museum, London | Main ceiling
Whilst Cadbury-Brown was away teaching at Harvard with J. L. Sert, Wells Coates and Serge Chermayeff, Goodden developed the brief in detail. Upon his return the design started again in earnest. The brief identified rooms which required space with both normal and higher ceiling heights and Cadbury-Brown developed an L-shaped step in section to allow this to be easily accommodated. This design device was similar in principle to one in Göldfinger's Willow Road house between the lower entrance hall and higher studio and dining hall.
H. T. Cadbury-Brown | Royal College of Art
Paul Waterhouse, (29 October 1861 – 19 December 1924), was a British architect.
Paul Waterhouse | Introduction
In addition to his design work as an architect, Waterhouse was an assessor for about 60 architectural competitions. He was awarded the Royal Gold Medal of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1878 for his design for Manchester Town Hall, and was president of that institution from 1888 to 1891. He was gained international diplomas, and in 1895 was awarded an honorary LL.D by Manchester University. Waterhouse was also a painter, exhibiting 80 watercolours at the Royal Academy. He suffered a stroke in 1901, and died in his home at Yattendon, Berkshire, in 1905. His practice was continued by his son Paul, followed by his grandson, Michael, and his great-grandson.
List of domestic works by Alfred Waterhouse | Introduction
Harriet Hallowell was born in Boston on June 15, 1873. Her father was architect Lewis Morris Hallowell (1844–1909) and her mother was Harriet Hawley Hallowell. Harriet had a brother born in 1871, George Hawley Hallowell who was an artist. He died in 1926 and the following year Harriet donated one of his works, "St. George and the Dragon, after Carpaccio," to the Fogg Museum of the Harvard Art Museums.
Harriet Hallowell | Early life
Also of importance to the success of Waterhouse's architectural practice were good quality subcontractors, for example for stained-glass in his early career he favoured Lavers, Barraud and Westlake, whereas the more famous Clayton and Bell only received two orders from Waterhouse, later he preferred Heaton, Butler and Bayne. Frederic Shields designed the sixteen stained-glass windows in the Chapel at Eaton Hall as well as the accompanying mosaic decoration. Hardman & Co. was used occasionally for metalwork. In the 1860s he used Mintons or Maw & Co for ceramic tiles. Later he preferred Craven Dunnill or William Godwin. For furniture Maple & Co.
Alfred Waterhouse | Artists, suppliers and sub-contractors
As with the architectural styles he used when designing his buildings, the materials and decoration also show the use of diverse materials. Waterhouse is known for the use of terracotta on the exterior of his buildings, most famously at the Natural History Museum. He also used faience, once its mass production was possible, on the interiors of his buildings. Such as the Victoria Building, University of Liverpool. But he also used brick, often a combination of different colours, or with other materials such as terracotta and stone. This was especially the case with his buildings for the Prudential Assurance Company, educational, hospital and domestic buildings.
Alfred Waterhouse | Introduction
The ceilings of the Natural History Museum are a pair of decorated ceilings in the main Central Hall (officially Hintze Hall since 2014) and smaller North Hall of the Natural History Museum in South Kensington, London, unveiled at the building's opening in 1881. They were designed by the museum's architect Alfred Waterhouse and painted by the artist Charles James Lea. The ceiling of the Central Hall consists of 162 panels, 108 of which depict plants considered significant to the history of the museum, to the British Empire or the museum's visitors and the remainder are highly stylised decorative botanical paintings.
Ceilings of the Natural History Museum, London | Introduction
During the construction of the building Waterhouse had been under intense pressure from the trustees to cut costs, and consequently was forced to abandon his proposed wooden ceiling. Instead, beneath a slate roof, the ceilings were constructed of lath and plaster. The ribs that frame the panels were reinforced with animal hair, but the panels themselves were not reinforced. As a consequence, the ceiling panels are unusually susceptible to vibration and to expansion and contraction caused by temperature variations. The elaborate nature of the building's design means that its roof slopes at multiple angles, with numerous gutters and gullies, all of which are easily blocked by leaves and wind-blown detritus.
Ceilings of the Natural History Museum, London | Deterioration, restoration and conservation
Clifton A. Hall (1826-1913) was an American architect from Providence, Rhode Island.
Clifton A. Hall | Introduction
Starting in 1864 with Congleton Town Hall won by Edward William Godwin, he was constantly called upon to act as assessor in architectural competitions. By the time of the last competition he assessed in 1899 for Cartwright Hall, Bradford won by John William Simpson and E.J. Milner Allen, a total of sixty. The more notable include: Plymouth Guildhall selected 1869 the design by Edward William Godwin; Barrow-in-Furness Town Hall 1877, selected the design by William Henry Lynn; Victoria Law Courts, Birmingham 1886, selected the design by Ingress Bell and Aston Webb; He was a member of the international jury appointed to adjudicate on the designs for the west front of Milan Cathedral in 1887; Sheffield Town Hall 1889 design by Edward William Mountford; The Victoria and Albert Museum, then known as the South Kensington Museum 1891 selected the design by Aston Webb; Belfast City Hall 1896 design by Brumwell Thomas and City Hall, Cardiff 1897 by Lanchester, Rickards and Stewart.
Alfred Waterhouse | Recognition and professional life
He was particularly active in designing buildings for universities, including both Oxford and Cambridge but also what became Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds universities. He designed many country houses, the most important being Eaton Hall in Cheshire, largely demolished in 1961-63. He designed several bank buildings and offices for insurance companies, most notably the Prudential Assurance Company. Although not a major church designer he produced several notable churches and chapels. He was both a member of The Royal Institute of British Architects, of which he served a term as President, and a Royal Academician, acting as Treasurer for the Royal Academy.
Alfred Waterhouse | Introduction
Financially speaking, Waterhouse was probably the most successful of all Victorian architects. He designed some of the most expensive buildings of the Victorian age. The three most expensive were Manchester Town Hall, Eaton Hall and the Natural History Museum all under construction during the 1870s. They were also among the largest buildings of their type built during the period. He also attracted loyal clients, often across decades. For example, the Mistresses of Girton College, who from the initial commission in 1871, kept returning to him for new phases in the building's construction until he retired. The same was true of the Prudential Assurance Company, from the first phase of their headquarters Holborn Bars in 1876.
Alfred Waterhouse | Introduction
The interior designs for the hall included a marble hall which was formally the entrance hall before Repton’s alterations to the entrance in 1828. The room has four walnut doors which were a gift of Queen Caroline the wife of George II. The room also contains a fireplace with an overmantel of white marble and coloured agate by Richard Fisher of Ripon. The room has a classical motif stucco ceiling. Horace Walpole’s study was decorated and designed by Italian painter Jacopo Amigoni in the late-Baroque/Rococo style. Other rooms of the house are also embellished with fire-surrounds by Fisher (eight in total) and many of the walls have family portrait paintings.
Wolterton Hall | The interior
The house is accessed by two sets of wide steps connecting ground to terrace and then to porch. Mies found the large open exhibit halls of the turn of the century to be very much in character with his sense of the industrial era. Here he applied the concept of an unobstructed space that is flexible for use by people. The interior appears to be a single open room, its space ebbing and flowing around two wood blocks; one a wardrobe cabinet and the other containing a kitchen, toilet, and fireplace block (the "core"). The larger fireplace-kitchen core seems to be a separate house nesting within the larger glass house.
Farnsworth House | Configuration
In (1873–78) he designed the new Great Hall. Charles Eastlake in 1872 described the style of the new buildings: In 1866 he was approached to rebuild and extended part of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, this is Tree Court built (1868–70), that provided sixty sets of rooms in a four-storey building. "Building News" magazine reviewed the design of Tree Court in the May 1869 issue: At Gonville and Caius, out of deference to the Renaissance treatment of the older parts of the college, this Gothic element was intentionally mingled with classic detail, the steep roofs are reminiscent of French Renaissance buildings.
Alfred Waterhouse | Oxford and Cambridge universities
Waterhouse's early works were not Pre-Raphaelite in nature, but were of classical themes in the spirit of Alma-Tadema and Frederic Leighton. These early works were exhibited at the Dudley Gallery, and the Society of British Artists, and in 1874 his painting "Sleep and his Half-brother Death" was exhibited at the Royal Academy summer exhibition. The painting was a success and Waterhouse would exhibit at the annual exhibition every year until 1916, with the exception of 1890 and 1915. He then went from strength to strength in the London art scene, his 1876 piece "After the Dance" being given the prime position in that year's summer exhibition.
John William Waterhouse | Early career
The most famous artworks to adorn one of Waterhouse's buildings are The Manchester Murals, painted by Ford Madox Brown in the Great Hall at Manchester Town Hall.
Alfred Waterhouse | Artists, suppliers and sub-contractors
On the upper portion of the walls, Bas-reliefs in gilded stucco by Paul Vera illustrated "Summer" and "Autumn". The room also featured a fountain and faucets with sculptural decoration of gilded bronze.
André Mare | Art Deco
"Design and Decorative Arts of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries" (1960) "A Guide to the Winterthur Collections" (1962) "American Furniture: The Federal Period" (1966)
Charles F. Montgomery | Select bibliography
Backhouse was born in Ipswich, Suffolk in England in May 1851. He was one of seventeen children to Benjamin Backhouse (1829–1904), an architect, and Elizabeth Prentice, née Fuller. His middle name, Paxton, was selected to honour the creator of The Great Exhibition's Crystal Palace – Joseph Paxton – as it was on show during the year of his birth. His parents, who were married on 20 August 1849, were forced by financial constraints to emigrate to Victoria, Australia in 1852 to make their living. The family moved back unsuccessfully to England in 1860 before then relocating first to Brisbane and then to Sydney.
Alfred Paxton Backhouse | Early life
The years shown are the years in which the arms were approved, not necessarily the years in which the arms were designed. If the original drawings are signed with earlier dates, these will be indicated within parentheses. Drawings below may differ slightly from Hallvard Trætteberg's original drawings.
Hallvard Trætteberg | Gallery
Bertrand James Waterhouse (8 February 1876 – 2 December 1965) was an English-born Australian architect and artist.
B. J. Waterhouse | Introduction
The art collection of Holkham Hall in Norfolk, England, remains very largely that which the original owner intended the house to display; the house was designed around the art collection acquired (a few works were commissioned) by Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester, during his Grand Tour of Italy during 1712–18. To complete the scheme it was necessary to send Matthew Brettingham the younger to Rome between 1747 and 1754 to purchase further works of art. The design of the house was a collaborative effort between Thomas Coke, Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington, and William Kent, with Matthew Brettingham the elder acting as the on-site architect.
Art collections of Holkham Hall | Introduction
During his ten years in America (1868-1878), Hawkins designed exhibit halls for the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and began to create an enormous paleontological museum for New York City. The museum was to have been in Central Park. His work was all destroyed in 1871 by "Boss" Tweed, a corrupt politician, who wasn't adequately compensated for his patronage. Following the tragic loss of his studio through destruction of all of his dinosaur models at the hands of Tweed's vandals, he returned to England in 1874, but almost immediately returned, doing dinosaur reconstructions at Princeton University (then called the College of New Jersey) in Princeton, New Jersey, (where he also created paintings of dinosaurs).
Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins | United States of America
Knapp & Press (2005) speculate that the apparent lack of public interest in the design of the ceiling could be owing to the prevalence of William Morris's ornate floral wallpaper and fabric designs rendering the decorations of the ceiling less unusual to Victorian audiences than might be expected.
Ceilings of the Natural History Museum, London | After completion
The library was long, the dining room with its ante room was long, and the octagonal great hall contained an organ. For the interior, Henry Stacy Marks painted a frieze of the Canterbury Pilgrims for the morning room, Gertrude Jekyll painted panels for the drawing room, and in other rooms were paintings by Gainsborough, Stubbs and Reynolds. Pevsner wrote that it "was an outstanding expression of High Victorian originality", and added "this Wagnerian palace was the most ambitious instance of Gothic Revival domestic architecture anywhere in the country". "The Daily Telegraph" described it as "one of the most princely and beautiful mansions that these islands contain".
Eaton Hall, Cheshire | Waterhouse Hall
Waterhouse was born the third child of seven at Chatham Kent on 22 January 1883, his father being a shipbroker. He was educated at Bancroft's School from 1894–1900 and then at the University of London. At the time of the UK 1901 national census, the family were living in East London, where Gilbert's occupation, aged 18, was given as a ship's Draughtsman. He later qualified as an architect (RIBA) and gave his profession as "architect-surveyor" when he enlisted in the army on 8 September 1914. One of his architectural projects is recorded here
Gilbert Waterhouse | Early life
Waterhouse was born in the city of Rome to the English painters William and Isabella Waterhouse in 1849, in the same year that the members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, including Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais and William Holman Hunt, were first causing a stir in the London art scene. The exact date of his birth is unknown, though he was baptised on 6 April, and the later scholar of Waterhouse's work, Peter Trippi, believed that he was born between 1 and 23 January. His early life in Italy has been cited as one of the reasons many of his later paintings were set in ancient Rome or based upon scenes taken from Roman mythology.
John William Waterhouse | Early life
From the late 1860s, Waterhouse lived in Reading, Berkshire, and was responsible for several significant buildings there. These included, alterations to and a new stable block (1861–62) at his parents' home Whiteknights House, his own residences of Foxhill House (1867–68) both houses are now used by University of Reading. Waterhouse built a new country house for himself at Yattendon, called Yattendon Court (1877–78), demolished c.1926. Foxhill House was built with the main block containing the hall, morning room, drawing room and dining room, upstairs were five bedrooms, two dressing rooms and a night and day nursery. The servants wing projected to the east, it was hidden by a conservatory to its south.
Alfred Waterhouse | Domestic buildings
Captain Michael Theodore Waterhouse (1888–1968) was a British architect. Waterhouse was the third generation to be President of the Royal Institute of British Architects (1948–1950), following his father Paul Waterhouse and grandfather Alfred Waterhouse.
Michael Waterhouse | Introduction
Alfred-Philibert Aldrophe (February 7, 1834 – October 29, 1955) was a French architect.
Alfred-Philibert Aldrophe | Introduction
The ceiling of the Central Hall consists of six rows of painted panels, three on each side of the roof's apex. Above the landing at the southern end of the building, the ceiling is divided into nine-panel blocks. The uppermost three panels in each block consist of what Waterhouse termed "archaic" panels, depicting stylised plants on a green background. Each of the lower six panels in each block depicts a plant considered of particular significance to the British Empire, against a pale background. Above the remainder of the Central Hall the archaic panels remain in the same style, but each set of six lower panels depicts a single plant, spreading across the six panels and against the same pale background; these represent plants considered of particular significance either to visitors, or to the history of the museum.
Ceilings of the Natural History Museum, London | Introduction
He designed the state rooms at Kedleston and lightened the design of the entrance hall. This was the future of domestic design, the grand style of Holkham would never be repeated in a British House. Although Palladio would remain a major influence in British architecture, never again would a great house be built that was so closely influenced by the Italian's designs and theories.
Art collections of Holkham Hall | Influence of the design
In 1946 he won a gold medal for his bronze fountain figure for the New Council House, College Green, Bristol, which however was never erected.
Alfred Frank Hardiman | Life
Janniot also contributed the gilded panel "Paris and New York Joining Hands Above Figures of Poetry, Beauty and Elegance" on the façade of the Maison Française, Rockefeller Center, circa 1930.
Alfred Janniot | Biography
His son's efforts to change this by adding a decorated archway, plastering over the ceilings and using charcoal to marbleize some of the walls suggest he was uncomfortable with the already dated style of the house as well as its physical limitations to his family. A similar impulse may have been behind Maurice Hasbrouck's additions of distinctly contemporary features to the house later in the 19th century.
Major Jacob Hasbrouck Jr. House | Aesthetics
Building restoration, though never a major part of his work, Waterhouse was occasionally commissioned to restore buildings. Heythrop Park, Oxfordshire, originally built (1706–13) designed by Thomas Archer, was gutted by fire in 1831. The restoration 1871-77 for Albert Brassey, left the exterior virtually as built, Waterhouse was freer with the reconstruction of the interiors of the house. Though using the original English Baroque style. The major interior is the saloon, in the style of John Vanbrugh, stone-walled, rising through two floors, with a stone staircase rising behind an arcade. Above the large stone chimneypiece are three stained glass windows by Morris & Co.
Alfred Waterhouse | Building restoration
He also designed Day Hall, Cornell's main administrative building, in 1947.
Frederick L. Ackerman | Introduction
He died March 17, 1909 in Pasadena, California. Howland was a member of the National Academy of Design and was member of the Academy council from 1880 to 1884.
Alfred Cornelius Howland | Introduction
(Wales was not represented, as in this period it was considered a part of England.) In keeping with Owen's intent that the room be used for a display on the topic of the British Isles, the nine lower panels on each side each illustrate a different plant found in Britain or Ireland. The plants depicted were chosen to illustrate the variety of plant habitats in the British Isles. Uniquely in the building, the ceiling panels of the North Hall make use of silver leaf as well as gilt. (During conservation work in 2016 it was found that initially some panels in the Central Hall had also made use of silver leaf, but the silver sections had subsequently been overpainted with ochre.) The style of illustration is similar to that of those over the south landing, but instead of the pale backgrounds of the main ceiling and the panels above the landing, the illustrations in the North Hall are set against a dark green background; Waterhouse's intent was that the darker colour scheme would create an intimate feel by making the ceiling appear lower.
Ceilings of the Natural History Museum, London | North Hall
Water House was constructed in 1762 and was Morris' family home in his teenage years from 1848 to 1856. The building and its grounds were sold on to newspaper proprietor Edward Lloyd in 1856, whose son donated the house and grounds (which then became Lloyd Park) to Walthamstow in 1900.The building was not opened as a museum until 1950, by Prime Minister Clement Attlee. In 2007, as a result of cost saving exercises, by owners Waltham Forest Borough Council, the museum's opening hours were cut back. This broke a "stipulation of gifts" by Sir Frank Brangwyn, that works should be on view for a minimum amount of time weekly.
William Morris Gallery | History
Alfred Waterhouse (1830–1905) was a prolific English architect who worked in the second half of the 19th century. His buildings were largely in Victorian Gothic Revival style. Waterhouse's biographer, Colin Cunningham, states that between about 1865 and about 1885 he was "the most widely employed British architect". He worked in many fields, designing commercial, public, educational, domestic, and ecclesiastical buildings. Waterhouse was born in Liverpool of Quaker parents. After being articled to Richard Lane in Manchester, he took a ten-month tour of the Continent, then established his own practice in Manchester. Many of his early commissions came from Quakers and other nonconformist patrons.
List of commercial buildings by Alfred Waterhouse | Introduction
Henry Augustus Lukeman was born on January 28, 1872, in Richmond, Virginia, and was raised in New York City. He is "said to have begun lessons at the National Academy and the Cooper Union School at age eleven," though a National Academy of Design source notes that that school's "registration records do not bear… out" this historical supposition. It is also reported that he began sculpting at age 10 at a boys' club miniature workshop, working in clay and wood from ages 10 to 13. At a young age he became a studio assistant of Launt Thompson, an Irish-American sculptor and National Academician, and, like Launt, pursued medically related studies (anatomy)—Lukeman at New York's Bellevue Hospital (for two year prior to 1890).
Henry Augustus Lukeman | Early life and education
Jackson. The total cost was £153,000 (approx £16,800,000 in 2019). Between 1887-91 he restored St Ann's Church, Manchester, completed 1712. The Baroque style north door is probably by him. Internally he panelled the apse, a platform was created to support a new altar and reredos. The carved cherubs and swags were copied from the contemporary to the church, work of Grinling Gibbons in the choir of St Paul's Cathedral. He also rebuilt three galleries supported by Tuscan columns. Plus he added the north and south vestries. He commissioned stained glass designs from Frederic Shields. It was made by Heaton, Butler & Bayne.
Alfred Waterhouse | Building restoration
Benjamin Backhouse was born in England in 1829. He was a Bachelor of Arts and was educated as an architect.
Benjamin Backhouse | Early life
The Dutch graphic artist M.C. Escher, known for his often mathematically inspired woodcuts, lithographs, and mezzotints, was born in the middle house in 1898.
Princessehof Ceramics Museum | History of the building