Alfred Waterhouse
Alfred Waterhouse RA (born July 19, 1830 in Liverpool , † August 22, 1905 in Yattendon ) was an English architect who can be assigned to the Victorian Neo-Gothic .
Waterhouse became particularly famous for planning the Natural History Museum in London . He designed a variety of other buildings in England . Although he was an expert on Gothic and Renaissance , Waterhouse did not limit himself to just one architectural style.
Life
Alfred Waterhouse was born in Aigburth , a suburb of Liverpool, to wealthy Quaker parents . In Tottenham , a part of London , he went to the Grove School . He then studied architecture under Richard Lane in Manchester . He spent much of his youth in Europe and studied in France , Italy and Germany . When he returned to England he set up an architectural practice in Manchester.
His first commissions were simple houses. He only became a well-known and successful public building architect when he won an architectural competition to design the Manchester Assize Court . This work demonstrated his ability to design large and complex buildings and that he was an expert in the Gothic art. Waterhouse stayed in Manchester for twelve years before moving to London with his architectural practice in 1865.
In 1865, Waterhouse was one of the architects selected to help design the Royal Courts of Justice . In 1868 - nine years after he designed the Manchester Assize Courts - he won another competition to design the Manchester Town Hall . In the same year he was involved in the renovation of Gonville and Caius College . This was not his first university job: between 1866 and 1867 he designed buildings for Balliol College and the Cambridge Union Society .
At Caius College , he purposely mixed up classical and Gothic elements for the old part of the college, while at Balliol and Pembroke College he stayed in his Gothic style and adapted these modern needs. The Girton College , a building of simple style, dates from the same creative period. Further projects by Alfred Waterhouse at the time were the expansion of Eaten Hall in Cheshire and Heythrop Hall in Oxfordshire .
In 1873 he got one of his most important commissions: the further planning of the Natural History Museum in South Kensington . He designed an idiosyncratic Romanesque terracotta facade , which found many imitators in architecture. The Natural History Museum became his most famous work. In London he also designed the National Liberal Club , University College Hospital , Surveyors' Institution and the Jenner Institute of Preventive Medicine in Chelsea .
He lived in the Reading area in the late 1860s and was responsible for the construction of important buildings there. So he designed his own residence ( Foxhill House , 1868), Yattendon Court , Reading Town Hall and Reading School . The Foxhill House is today by the University of Reading as used as White Knights House , which he built for his father. He planned the East Thorpe House , which is now the Museum of English Rural Life , for Alfred Palmer in 1880 .
In the 1890s he designed several branches and corporate offices for large companies such as the Prudential Assurance Company and the National Provincial Bank . With the Liverpool Infirmary he created his largest hospital . In 1895 he made several construction plans to expand Victoria University in Manchester.
In 1902 he retired from architecture and worked partly with his son Paul Waterhouse (also an architect). Alfred Waterhouse died on August 22, 1905 in the Yattendon Court he had created .
Buildings he designed include St. Mary's Hospital , Manchester, Alexandra Hospital , Rhyl, Strangeways Prison , Manchester, St. Margaret's School , Bushey, Metropole Hotel , Brighton, Hove Town Hall , Hove, Knutsford Town Hall , Knutsford, Alloa Town Hall , Alloa, St. Elisabeth's Church , Reddish, Weigh House Chapel , Mayfair and Hutton Hall , Yorkshire.
Memberships and honors
In 1861 Waterhouse became a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects , of which he was president between 1888 and 1891. He won the Grand Prize for Architecture at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1867 . In 1878 he received the Royal Gold Medal of the Royal Institute of British Architects and belonged to the Royal Academy of Arts . In 1885 he became a full member and in 1898 treasurer of the art institution. He was also a member of various academies ( Vienna , Brussels , Antwerp , Milan , Berlin , Académie des Beaux-Arts , Paris). After 1886 he was often involved in architectural competitions as an expert and in 1887 he was a member of an international jury that decided on the appearance of the western front of the Milan Cathedral .
family
Through the marriage of his daughter Mary, Alfred Waterhouse is the father-in-law of the English poet Robert Bridges .
Web links
Single receipts
- ^ NC Smith: Bridges, Robert Seymour in John Sutherland (ed.): Literary Lives - Intimate Biographies of the Famous by the Famous . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2002, ISBN 0-19-860642-7 . P. 44
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Waterhouse, Alfred |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | English architect |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 19, 1830 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Liverpool |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 22, 1905 |
| Place of death | Yattendon |