Edward Schroeder Prior
This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (November 2009) |
Edward Schroeder Prior | |
---|---|
Arts and Crafts Movement |
Edward Schroeder Prior
He was a major contributor to the development of the
Initially his buildings show the influence of his mentor
The buildings of his maturity, such as
Biography
Family
Edward Schroeder Prior was born in
Harrow School
In 1863 at the unusually young age of 11, Edward entered
Cambridge University
In 1869 Prior won the Sayer Scholarship "for the promotion of classical learning and taste" to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge to read the Classical Tripos. He augmented the Sayer Scholarship by also gaining a college scholarship. He matriculated in 1870, graduating B.A. in 1874, M.A. in 1877.[2]
In the same year B. F. Westcott was appointed
At Cambridge, Prior was also exposed to the work of
Prior was a noted
and won the British Amateur High Jump in 1872.Norman Shaw's pupil
In the autumn of 1874 Prior was articled to
By 1877, however, Shaw's health was deteriorating. Prior was appointed
He [Prior] went (to Ilkley) and then found that the idea of wonderful construction was all an imposture: there was no science of construction, but there was an experience of construction to be gained by the man who worked with his hands and not the man who made the drawing.
Practice and private life
Prior only stayed a few more months with Shaw on his return from Ilkley. In 1880 he began his own practice at 17, Southampton Road, near Shaw and others of his former employees; Reginald Blomfield leased an office on the second floor. Prior occupied the building until 1885 and again in 1889–94 and 1901.
His early commissions were primarily located in areas where he had connections, in Harrow and around Bridport in Dorset, where his father had lived and his mother's relatives, the Templers, were prominent inhabitants, and in Cambridge where he had been at university. The opening of the Metropolitan Railway to Harrow in 1880 and his connections with Harrow in particular encouraged Prior to work in the Harrow area.
His work in Dorset was to lead to his marriage. Whilst designing Pier Terrace at West Bay, Prior met Louisa Maunsell, the daughter of the vicar of nearby Symondsbury. They were married in Symondsbury Church on 11 August 1885, Mervyn Macartney being the best man.
The Priors lived in 6 Bloomsbury Square from 1885 to 1889. Here his daughters Laura and Christobel were born. Prior leased Bridgefoot, Iver, Bucks, as a country residence in 1889, but on the birth of his second daughter it was leased to the architect G. F. Bodley.
In 1894 Prior moved to 10 Melina Place,
Prior moved to Sussex in 1907 initially living in an early 18th-century house at 7 East Pallant,
After the First World War Prior unsuccessfully tried to restart his practice with
In the post war years he only undertook the design of war memorials at Maiden Newton in Dorset and for Cambridge University R.U.F.C.
The Arts and Craft Guilds
Prior played a crucial role in the establishment of the Guilds that were the intellectual focus of the
At the October 1883 meeting it was decided that it would be preferable to found a new organisation that would bring together "craftsmen in Architecture, Painting, Sculpture and the kindred Arts." The proposals stemmed from the members' alarm at the lack of relationship between architects and artists and their dissatisfaction with the
Painters, Sculptors, and Architects are in danger of settling permanently into three distinct professions, oblivious of one another's aims. A Society is wanted to restore their former union with one another with a programme of cohesion such as the Royal Academy
After various consultations invitations were sent out to 24 artists including members of The Fifteen, founded by the designer and writer Lewis Day and the illustrator and designer
The Guild was highly influential on the architecture of the
Prior was also active in various other organisations of the time, including the
Scholarship
During the late 1890s Prior's practice received few commissions. The study of Gothic art and architecture became one of Prior's major concerns the period. In 1900 he published A History of Gothic Art in England, which as rapidly recognised as a standard text. This was followed by The Cathedral Builders in England in 1905, An Account of English Medieval Figure-Sculpture in 1912, which provided an exhaustive account of figurative sculpture from the 7th –to the 16th Century for the first time.
A History of Gothic Art in England made Prior's scholastic reputation and contributed to his appointment as Slade Professor of Fine Art at
Stained glass
In 1889 he developed Prior's glass, also known as Prior's Early English glass, a slab glass which is similar to the "luminosity and varied colouring of early medieval glass."[5]
It was made by blowing glass into a rectilinear box and then cutting off the sides. This yielded flat panes of uneven thickness, often streaked with colour. Whereas the prevailing style of glass relied on meticulous draughtsmanship and line control to create rich backgrounds of flat surface decoration such as gothic mouldings or foliage, the new glass could be used to create backgrounds with a more abstract pattern, as in the St Pancras roll of honour, or combined with lead alone to create bold and dramatic effects such as the wings of the four archangels at St Andrew's, Chippenham.
Education
Prior first became involved in architectural education during the debate over the professionalisation of architectural practice in the 1890s. The protest against examination and registration was launched by the
As a result of the controversy members of the Guild became very interested in architectural education. The
He became increasingly interested in education, giving lectures at various conferences, to the RIBA and schools of design. Moves were instigated to establish a School of Architecture at Cambridge in 1907. The syndicate seeking the establishment of the school included Prior's old headmaster Dr H.M. Butler, who was by then Dean of Trinity College, Charles Waldstein, Slade Professor of Fine Art and William Ridgeway the Disney Professor of Archaeology. The establishment of examinations were approved in 1908. Waldstein favoured Prior as his successor. Prior was elected Slade Professor on 20 February 1912 with the role of developing the new School of Architecture. In 1915 the tenure of the Professorship was extended to life.
Prior established the syllabus for the School, oversaw the establishment of the Department and instigated a research programme. The latter included experimental studies into the performance of limes and cements.
Works
Early buildings 1880–1894
Date | Building | Location |
---|---|---|
1880 | Carr Manor | Meanwood, Leeds |
1880–1881 | Highgrove House | Eastcote |
1881–1882 & 1889–1891 | St Mary and St Peter | Kelsale, Suffolk |
1883–1884 | The Red House | Middlesex |
1883–1884 | St Mary's Mission Hall, West Street | Harrow |
1883–1884 | Manor Lodge | Harrow |
1884–1885 | Quay Terrace, West Bay
|
West Bay, Dorset |
1884–1889 | Holy Trinity Church, Bothenhampton | Bridport |
1885–1887 | Henry Martyn Hall
|
Cambridge |
1885–1889 | Church of St Michael the Archangel
|
Framlingham, Suffolk |
1885 | Elmside | Grange Road, Cambridge |
1886–1887 | Woolaston Road houses | Cambridge |
1887 | Middle Terrace | Harrow |
1887–1889 | Harrow School Laundry, Superintendent's House and Worker's Dining Hall | Middlesex |
1888 | Herschel Lodge, Herschel Road | Cambridge |
1889 | Billiard Room, Mount Park Road | Harrow |
1890 | Harrow School Music Room | Middlesex |
1891–1892 & 1895–1896 | Pembroke College Mission | Walworth, London
|
1891 | Kelsale Village Club | Suffolk |
1893 | Downe Hall | Bridport |
1899–1901 | Prior Hall | Walworth |
Later works
Date | Building | Location |
---|---|---|
c. 1894 | Club, Promenade and Baths at West Bay | Dorset |
1895 | Model of a Butterfly Cottage | |
1896–1897 | The Barn | Exmouth, Devon
|
1895–1897 | St Mary's Church, Burton Bradstock | Dorset |
1897–1900 | All Saints' Vicarage | Westbrook, Kent |
1899 | Cambridge Medical School | University of Cambridge |
1901–1904 | Winchester College Music School | Hampshire |
1903–1905 | Home Place, Kelling | near Holt, Norfolk |
1905–1907 | St Andrew's Church, Roker | Sunderland
|
1907–1909 | St Mary & All Saints | Whalley, Lancashire |
Combelands, Pulborough | Sussex | |
The Small House, Lavant | Sussex | |
1909 | Dysart House | Cambridge |
1910 | The Oaks, Goudhurst | Kent |
1911 | Windacres, Warren Road, Guildford | Surrey |
1911–1914 | Greystones & Greystone Lodge, Highcliffe | Dorset |
1911–1914 | Mount Joy, Highcliffe (Demolished but photograph available) | Dorset |
1913–1916 | Church of St Osmund
|
Parkstone |
Final years
Prior remained as Slade Professor until his death from cancer on 19 August 1932. He spent his final year writing letters about architectural education. He was buried in an unmarked grave at St Mary's Church, Apuldram. Few of his friends remained, Lethaby, Newton, and Horsley were all dead, and none of his former architectural colleagues attended his funeral.[1]
His obituary in the Architect and Building News perhaps best summed him up:
And he could be something of a grizzly old bear at times, for he was pertinacious and his opinion once formed was hardly to be changed. To hear an argument – and we have heard several – between Prior and Leonard Stokes was an education. Yet it was a kindly bear withal, that would emerge, honours divided, from a wordy warfare with a joyous twinkle in its eye; and for any small personal attention or service, it could be immensely grateful and appreciative.[1]
Prior's writings
- Architecture; a Profession or an Art, Jackson, T.G. and Shaw, N
- Cathedral Builders in England, Prior, E.S., 1905
- An Account of Medieval Figure-Sculpture in England, Prior, E.S. and Gardner, Arthur, 1912
- A History of Gothic Art, Prior, E.S., Geo Bell & Sons, London, 1900
- The Origins of the Guild; Lecture to the Guild, 1895, in Masse, H.J.L.J., The Art Workers Guild 1884–1934, Oxford, 1935 p 11.
- Church Building as it is and as it Might Be, The Architectural Review, Vol. IV 1898
- The Architectural Review, Prior, E.S., The Decoration of St Paul's, 1899, vol. 6, p. 43
- The New Cathedral for Liverpool, The Architectural Review, Oct 1901, vol. 10.
Bibliography
- Cook, Martin Godfrey, Edward Prior: Arts and Crafts Architect, 2015
- Davidson, T.R., Modern Homes, 1909
- Davidson, T.R. (ed), The Arts Connected with Building, 1909
- Fellows, R., Edwardian Style and Technology, Lund Humphries, 1995
- Franklin, J, Edwardian Butterfly House, 1975 pp 220–225
- Grillet, C, Edward Prior, in Edwardian Architecture and Its Origins, ed Service A., The Architectural Press Ltd, 1975, pp. 143–151
- Hoare, G, and Pyne, G. Prior's Barn and Gimson's Coxen, 1978.
- Muthesius, Hermann, Das Englishe Haus, vol. II, 1904
- Naylor, G, The Arts and Crafts Movement, 1971
- Saint, A., Richard Norman Shaw, pp165–171
- Service, A., Edwardian Architecture and Its Origins, The Architectural Press Ltd, 1977
- Sparke, P. et al., Design Source Book, Macdonald Orbis, 1986.
- Valinsky, David, An Architect Speaks: The Writings and Buildings of E. S. Prior, 2014
- Walker, Lynne, E.S. Prior 1852–1932, PhD thesis, Birkbeck College, London University, 1978
- Weaver, Lawrence, Small Country Houses Their Repair and Enlargement, 1914
- Weaver, Lawrence, The Small Country Houses of Today, 1919
Periodicals
- The Architect
- 24 May 1889, vol. 42, p. 299
- 19 July 1889, vol. 42, p. 35, Manor Lodge Harrow
- 2 May 1890, vol. 43, p. 277, Carr Manor, Meanwood Leeds
- 5 September 1890, vol. 44, p. 141
- 3 October 1890, vol. 44, p. 205
- 30 January 1891, vol. 45, p. 71
- Architectural Review
- 1897, vol. 2, pp. 246 & 253
- 1898, vol. 4, pp. 106–108, 154–158
- 1898, vol. 5, pp. 132–134
- 1899, vol. 6, pp. 42–44
- 1900, vol. 7, p. 202
- 1900, vol. 10, p. 79
- 1901, vol. 9, p. 256
- 1901, vol. 10, p. 145
- Feb 1906, vol. 19, pp. 70–82
- Jan 1924, vol. 55, pp. 30–1
- 1952, vol 112, pp. 302–308
- British Architect
- 4 September 1885, vol. 24, p. 106
- 17 May 1895, vol. 43, pp. 348–9
- 21 December 1900, vol. 54, p. 452
- 5 May 1899, vol. 51, p. 307
- The Builder
- Vol XCIII, 23 November 1907, Randall Wells, p563
- Building
- 14 June 1884, vol. 46, pp. 866–7
- 25 October 1890, vol. 59, p. 328
- 5 December 1896, vol. 71, p. 470
- 12 October 1907, vol. 93, p. 386
- Builders Journal
- 4 June 1895, vol. 1, p. 259
- Building News
- 21 July 1882, vol. 43, p. 81
- 8 December 1882, vol. 43, p. 700, High Grove Harrow
- Northern Architect
- Vol XVII, 1979, pp. 19–24, Walkew, A., The Church of St Andrew Roker.
- The Studio
- 1901, vol 21, part I, pp. 28–36, part II, pp. 86–90, 93–5, part III, pp. 176, 180–86 189–90
References
- ^ ISBN 978-1785000119.
- ^ "Edward Schröder (PRR870ES)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
- ISBN 9781785007965.
- ^ The Book Collector, Volume 29. 1980. p. 213.
- ^ Lest We Forget. Building Conservation. Retrieved 1 October 2012.