Thomas Rickman (architect)

St Peter ad Vincula in Hampton Lucy

Holy Trinity in Lawrence Hill, Bristol

The ruins of St. Thomas Church in Birmingham, which was destroyed in World War II

Thomas Rickman (born June 8, 1776 in Maidenhead , Berkshire , † January 4, 1841 in Birmingham ) was an English architect and art historian. His importance as an architectural historian is based primarily on his monograph An Attempt to Discriminate the Styles of English Architecture from the Conquest to the Reformation , published in 1817 . In addition to the chronological order of the architectural styles, he developed the terminology of medieval architecture in England. Among other things, the terms " Norman " for the English Romanesque and Perpendicular Gothic and Decorated Gothic for English late Gothic architectural styles go back to him. As an architect, Rickman was a representative of the so-called Gothic Revival .

life and work

Rickman helped his father, a Quaker , in his business as a grocer and druggist until 1797 . Until 1818 he worked in various professions. He devoted all of his free time to making sketches and carefully measured drawings. In this way, at a time when there was little sense of the beauty of Gothic-style architecture , he acquired a very remarkable knowledge of this form of architecture. In 1811 alone he is said to have studied 3,000 church buildings.

When the government approved large amounts of funding for the construction of new churches in 1818, Rickman successfully entered a public competition with his own design. Because of this success he was now able to pursue an activity as an architect for which he was ideally suited due to his natural talents. Rickman moved to Birmingham for this and became one of the most successful English architects of his time around 1830. He built churches in Hampton Lucy , Ombersley , and Stretton-on-Dunsmore . There are also many other churches from him: St. George's in Birmingham, St. Phillip's and St. Matthew's in Bristol as well as two churches in Carlisle , St. Peter's and St. Paul's in Preston , St. David's in Glasgow and Gray Friars in Coventry . The new courtyard of St John's College in Cambridge and the Episcopal Palace in Carlisle, as well as many large country houses, were designed by him.

Most of these buildings were built in the neo-Gothic style . However, the execution shows a rather limited knowledge of the architect, which is limited to the external form of the medieval style without real familiarity with the spirit and spirituality on which the Gothic style is based could be recognized. From an artistic point of view, they are therefore to be seen as rather clumsy copies of old works, which are particularly characterized by their lack of detail. Nevertheless, Rickman played an important role in the revival of medieval taste that began during his lifetime with the emergence of the neo-Gothic style , which in England was only surpassed by the work of Augustus Pugin . His book “ An Attempt to Discriminate the Styles of Architecture in England ” bears testimony to the most careful studies and has been reprinted many times. One of his students was Leonhard Zeugheer .

In 1921 Rickman made his former student Henry Hutchinson his partner, which he remained until his death in 1831.

In the 1820s, Rickman and Hutchinson also erected several church buildings in the Greek Revival style , including St. Peter's (1827) and St. Thomas (1829) in Birmingham .

Rickman died in Birmingham on January 4, 1841. He was married three times. First with his cousin Lucy Rickman from Lewes , then with Christina Hornor and finally with Elizabeth Miller from Edinburgh , who gave him a son and a daughter.

Fonts

• An Attempt to Discriminate the Styles of English Architecture, from the Conquest to the Reformation; Preceded by a Sketch of the Grecian and Roman Orders, with notices of Nearly Five Hundred English Buildings. Longman, Hurst etc., London 1817
• Thomas Rickman, John Sell Cotman , Dawson Turner : Specimens of Architectural Remains in Various Counties in England, but Principally in Norfolk. HG Bohn, London 1838
• [Essay on Chester Cathedral] . In: Journal of the Archaeological, Architectural, and Historic Society for the County of Chester 2, 1864 ( published posthumously )

Secondary literature

• Warwick William Wroth:  Rickman, Thomas (1776-1841) . In: Sidney Lee (Ed.): Dictionary of National Biography . Volume 48:  Reilly - Robins. MacMillan & Co, Smith, Elder & Co., New York City / London 1896, pp 267 - 268 (English).
• Megan Brewster Aldrich: Thomas Rickman (1776-1841) and Architectural Illustration of the Gothic Revival . Dissertation, University of Toronto 1983

Web links

• An Attempt to Discriminate the Styles of English Architecture, from the Conquest to the Reformation; Preceded by a Sketch of the Grecian and Roman Orders, with notices of Nearly Five Hundred English Buildings . Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, London 1862 (English) archive.org

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b c} Thomas Rickman - Dictionary of Art Historians. (No longer available online.) In: dictionaryofarthistorians.org. Archived from the original on March 6, 2016 ; accessed on February 14, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ ST. THOMAS, Birmingham (Bath Row, Holloway Head) . In: A History of the County of Warwick: Volume 7, the City of Birmingham . Victoria County History, London 1964 (digitized version on British History Online )