Arthur Blomfield

Sir Arthur William Blomfield (6 March 182930 October 1899) was an English architect. He became president of the Architectural Association in 1861; a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1867 and vice-president of the RIBA in 1886. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he studied Architecture.

Background

He was the ninth son of Charles James Blomfield, Anglican Bishop of London, who began a programme of new church construction in the capital. Born in Fulham Palace, Arthur Blomfield was educated at Rugby and Trinity College, Cambridge. He was then articled as an architect to Philip Charles Hardwick, and subsequently obtained a large practice on his own account.

The young Thomas Hardy joined Blomfield's practice as assistant architect in April 1862, and the writer remained friends with Blomfield. He became president of the Architectural Association in 1861; a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1867 (proposed by George Gilbert Scott, H. Brandon and J. P. Seddon); and vice-president of the RIBA in 1886. In 1889, he was knighted. He was awarded the Royal Gold Medal in 1891.

He was twice married. His first wife was Caroline Harriet Smith (1840–1882) and his second wife, Lady Blomfield, was an author and humanitarian.Memorial to a shining star
London, United Kingdom, 10 August 2003 (BWNS) Two of his daughters, Mary Esther and Ellinor Blomfield, were supporters of the suffragette movement and famously made a representation to the King. Two of his sons, Charles James and Arthur Conran Blomfield, were brought up to his own profession, and of which they became distinguished representatives. His nephew, Sir Reginald Blomfield, apprenticed under him, went on to design numerous buildings, public works, and sculpture, including the Cross of Sacrifice or War Cross, for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. These are in Commonwealth cemeteries in many countries.

He died at the Royal Society in London on 30 October 1899 aged 70 and was buried on 3 November in Broadway, Worcestershire, where he lived at Springfield House.

Major works

Blomfield designed St Peter's in Eastgate in 1870 as a replacement for a medieval church. The church as it now stands is the combined work of three eminent architects: nave and chancel by Blomfield, south aisle by Temple Moore (1914) and the chancel decoration by George Frederick Bodley (1884).

In 1882 Blomfield designed the Royal College of Music in London. In 1887 he became architect to the Bank of England and, in association with Arthur Edmund Street, designed the Law Courts branch of the Bank of England in Fleet Street. A. E. Street was the son of the architect G. E. Street.

In 1890–7 he rebuilt the nave of St Saviour's parish church, Southwark (now Southwark Cathedral), replacing an earlier reconstruction of 1839–40. It is a notable example of his use of a Gothic Revival style. He was highly regarded as a restorer; a spokesman for the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings said of his 1898 restoration of Salisbury Cathedral spire "conducted in the most conservative way possible ... I am confident that anyone who had been privileged to see the work that is being done ... would not withhold his subscriptions even though he was as ardent an anti-restorer as your obedient servant."

In 1899 he completed St George's Anglican Cathedral in Georgetown, Guyana, which was the tallest wooden church in the world until 2003 when the Peri Monastery near Săpânţa in northern Romania was completed.

Other works (in chronological order)

* St Leonard's Church, Linley, Shropshire, restoration, 1858
*Christ Church, Crouch End 1862
*Holy Trinity Church, Dartford