Francis Xavier Velarde (1897 – 28 December 1960) was an English architect who practised in Liverpool, Merseyside, England.

Biography

St Gabriel's Church, Brownhill, Blackburn - geograph

Velarde was trained at the

Liverpool School of Architecture The School of Architecture is an architecture school in Liverpool, England, and part of the University of Liverpool. It was the first architecture school in the United Kingdom to be affiliated with a university, and the first to have degree pro ...

from 1920, and from 1928 taught at the school. In 1957 he was awarded the

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

. His works are located mainly in Merseyside and Northwest England, and the majority of them were Catholic churches. He was influenced by architectural developments on the Continent, in particular by the German

Dominikus Böhm Dominikus Böhm (23 October 1880 – 6 August 1955) was a German architect specializing in churches. He built churches in Cologne, the Ruhr area, Swabia, and Hesse. Many of his buildings are examples of Brick Expressionism. Life and caree ...

. It is unlikely that he was at all influenced by his Chilean father, who died when he was five years old. He was later destined for a career in the merchant navy but was conscripted from there into the RNVR and served in the trenches to be gassed at Passchendaele, thus inevitably shortening his life. On leaving the army he went to Liverpool art school where he was discovered by Charles Riley and given a place at Liverpool School of Architecture. His design of St Gabriel, Blackburn, is considered to be "one of the milestones in the development of English church architecture towards Modern Movement style". Although Pollard and Pevsner state that he "worked exclusively for the Roman Catholic Church", he did design one

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

church, St Gabriel, Blackburn. Five of his churches have been recorded in the National Heritage List for England as designated listed buildings. The

Church of St. Monica, Bootle St. Monica's is a Roman Catholic parish church in Bootle, Merseyside. The church building was designed by the architect F. X. Velarde. Construction was started in 1930 and completed in 1936, and the church was dedicated by Archbishop Richard Do ...

, was upgraded from Grade II to Grade I status in 2017; the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the North West England, northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the Borough of Blackpool, borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, betw ...

, and

English Martyrs' Church, Wallasey English Martyrs' Church is in St George's Road, Wallasey, Wirral, Merseyside, England. It is an active Roman Catholic church in the diocese of Shrewsbury. The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade& ...

are listed at Grade II*, and listed at Grade II are St Teresa's Church, Upholland and Holy Cross Church,

Bidston Bidston is a village, a parish and a suburb of Birkenhead, on the Wirral Peninsula, in the modern county of Merseyside. The area is a mixture of the well-preserved Bidston Village, Bidston Hill, a modern housing estate, and the Bidston Moss nat ...

. He also designed Roman Catholic schools, one of which is in Birkdale. His Church of St Vincent de Paul and St Louise of Marillac in Potters Bar (Hertfordshire) was completed in 1962, after his death, but subsequently demolished. The practice continued after his death as F. X. Velarde Partners whose work includes

St Michael and All Angels Church St Michael and All Angels Church may refer to: Africa * St Michael and All Angels Church, Blantyre Malawi * St. Michael and All Angels' Anglican Church, Weltevreden Park, Johannesburg, South Africa America * Cathedral Church of Saint Michael and ...

, Woodchurch, Birkenhead, by Richard O'Mahony (1965). Dominic Wilson reviewed his work more than sixty years after his death. He noted Velarde's frequent pairing of blue and gold in interior design, and his preference for brick, or stone when the budget stretched to it, rather than concrete. But Wilson criticised Velarde's engineering skill, his handling of rainwater, noting that his aversion to rainwater gutters and pipes on main frontages had left a legacy of leaks, and that there was a pattern of his underfloor heating having had to be replaced with other arrangements.''The Churches of F. X. Velarde''
Lecture by Dominic Wilkinson of John Moores University for the twentieth century society. retrieved 24th Oct 2020

References

Citations Sources * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Velarde, Francis Xavier 1897 births 1960 deaths Architects from Liverpool English ecclesiastical architects

Biography

See also

Further reading

References