Thomas Edward Collcutt c.1890 Thomas Edward Collcutt (16 March 1840 – 7 October 1924) was an English architect in the

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the reign of Queen Victoria, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. Slightly different definitions are sometimes used. The era followed the ...

who designed several important buildings in London including the

Savoy Hotel The Savoy Hotel is a luxury hotel located in the Strand in the City of Westminster in central London, England. Built by the impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte with profits from his Gilbert and Sullivan opera productions, it opened on 6 August 1 ...

Lloyd's Register of Shipping Lloyd's Register Group Limited, trading as Lloyd's Register (LR), is a technical and professional services organisation and a maritime classification society, wholly owned by the Lloyd’s Register Foundation, a UK charity dedicated to research ...

and the Palace Theatre.

Early life

Collcutt was born in

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

, England, the son of James Collcutt, a servant at St John's College, and his wife, Emma, ''née'' Blake. He attended the Oxford Diocesan School.

Career

Collcutt was apprenticed to the London architect R. E. Armstrong, and then employed by the partnership Miles and Murgatroyd.Port, M. H
"Collcutt, Thomas Edward (1840–1924)"
''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, January 2008, accessed 20 May 2009 He began working in the establishment of

George Edmund Street George Edmund Street (20 June 1824 – 18 December 1881), also known as G. E. Street, was an English architect, born at Woodford in Essex. Stylistically, Street was a leading practitioner of the Victorian Gothic Revival. Though mainly an eccl ...

, with

Richard Norman Shaw Richard Norman Shaw RA (7 May 1831 – 17 November 1912), also known as Norman Shaw, was a British architect who worked from the 1870s to the 1900s, known for his country houses and for commercial buildings. He is considered to be among the g ...

, before setting up his own practice in 1873 and achieving recognition, winning the

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 109,766 in the 2021 census, up from 99,251 in the 2011 census. The city is the administrative centre of the wider Metropolit ...

Town Hall competition in 1877, the Grand Prix for Architecture at the Paris International Exposition in 1889, and the

Royal Gold Medal The Royal Gold Medal for architecture is awarded annually by the Royal Institute of British Architects on behalf of the British monarch, in recognition of an individual's or group's substantial contribution to international architecture. It is gi ...

in 1902.''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'', 24 June 1902, p. 10 He was a Fellow of the

Royal Institute of British Architects The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three suppl ...

, and served as its president from 1906 to 1908.''The Times'', obituary notice, 9 October 1924, p. 17 He was a member of the Société Centrale d’Architecture de Belgique, and the Société des Artistes Français. His most important building in London was the

Imperial Institute The Commonwealth Education Trust was a registered charity established in 2007 as the successor trust to the Commonwealth Institute. The trust focuses on primary and secondary education and the training of teachers and invests on educational pr ...

(1887–93), of which only the central tower remains, now part of

Imperial College Imperial College London, also known as Imperial, is a public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who envisioned a cultural district in South Kensington that included museums ...

. In 1899 Collcutt designed the

Building in London, extensively decorated with allegorical sculpture by

George Frampton Sir George James Frampton, (18 June 1860 – 21 May 1928) was a British sculptor. He was a leading member of the New Sculpture movement in his early career when he created sculptures with elements of Art Nouveau and Symbolism, often combinin ...

and a major landmark of the New Sculpture movement. For

Richard D'Oyly Carte Richard D'Oyly Carte (; 3 May 1844 – 3 April 1901) was an English talent agent, theatrical impresario, composer, and hotelier during the latter half of the Victorian era. He built two of London's theatres and a hotel empire, while also establi ...

, Collcutt designed the

, which has been subsequently altered, and the

Palace Theatre, London The Palace Theatre is a West End theatre in the City of Westminster in London. Its red-brick facade dominates the west side of Cambridge Circus, London, Cambridge Circus behind a small plaza near the intersection of Shaftesbury Avenue and Chari ...

(1889) in Cambridge Circus,

Charing Cross Road Charing Cross Road is a street in central London running immediately north of St Martin-in-the-Fields to St Giles Circus (the intersection with Oxford Street), which then merges into Tottenham Court Road. It leads from the north in the direc ...

, which was built as the Royal English Opera House. Sir

Arthur Sullivan Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan (13 May 1842 – 22 November 1900) was an English composer. He is best known for 14 comic opera, operatic Gilbert and Sullivan, collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including ''H.M.S. Pinaf ...

grand opera Grand opera is a genre of 19th-century opera generally in four or five acts, characterized by large-scale casts and Orchestra, orchestras. The original productions consisted of spectacular design and stage effects with plots normally based on o ...

, ''

Ivanhoe ''Ivanhoe: A Romance'' ( ) by Walter Scott is a historical novel published in three volumes, in December 1819, as one of the Waverley novels. It marked a shift away from Scott's prior practice of setting stories in Scotland and in the more ...

'', was the first production at the theatre. Collcutt also designed the Bechstein piano showrooms at 40 Wigmore Street (1889) and the

Wigmore Hall The Wigmore Hall is a concert hall at 36 Wigmore Street, in west London. It was designed by Thomas Edward Collcutt and opened in 1901 as the Bechstein Hall; it is considered to have particularly good building acoustics, acoustics. It specialis ...

(1901). The Palace Theatre and the Wigmore Hall remain essentially in their original forms. Both have strong pale buff

terracotta Terracotta, also known as terra cotta or terra-cotta (; ; ), is a clay-based non-vitreous ceramic OED, "Terracotta""Terracotta" MFA Boston, "Cameo" database fired at relatively low temperatures. It is therefore a term used for earthenware obj ...

ornamentation, characteristic of Collcutt's work.

RIBA

Both as president of the RIBA (1906–1908), and later, the causes he promoted included a scheme to move

Charing Cross Charing Cross ( ) is a junction in Westminster, London, England, where six routes meet. Since the early 19th century, Charing Cross has been the notional "centre of London" and became the point from which distances from London are measured. ...

railway terminus to the south bank of the

Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after th ...

, and another to improve housing conditions for the working classes by replacing slums with towers of flats eight or ten storeys high.

Death

Collcutt died in

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

on 7 October 1924 at the age of 84.

Gallery

File:Savoyhotel1.jpg, The Savoy Hotel in 1911 File:Imperial Institute London 1.jpg,

, demolished apart from the tower File:Coal Hole, Strand, WC2 (3614626953).jpg, The Coal Hole File:Monument Against Cruelty to Animals.jpg, Monument for the prevention of cruelty to animals, Richmond Hill

Notes

References

''Thomas E. Collcutt'' biography - Historic Fresno
{{DEFAULTSORT:Collcutt, Thomas Edward 1840 births 1924 deaths Architects from Oxford People associated with Gilbert and Sullivan Recipients of the Royal Gold Medal Presidents of the Royal Institute of British Architects