Reginald Blomfield

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Blomfield in 1921

Sir Reginald Theodore Blomfield

Edwardian
period.

Early life and career

Blomfield was born at

Queen Anne Revival style, of which he was later ashamed. During his years in his uncle's office, the practice produced two uncharacteristic schemes (for work at Marlborough College and Shrewsbury School) that appear to foreshadow Blomfield's enthusiasm for classicism, and in the design of which he was presumably involved. He was an occasional cricketer and played in matches with J. M. Barrie's Allahakbarries
XI.

Design work

At the beginning of 1884, having completed his training, he left his uncle's office and spent a further four months travelling in France and Spain before returning to London and establishing a practice at 17 Southampton Street, off the Strand, in London;

Art Workers Guild and was at first made its Honorary Secretary, but he attended infrequently and when admonished about this, resigned in a huff. In retrospect, however, he paid tribute to these efforts as formative in setting a new direction for architecture: "I think it is due to these young men of the 80s that the arts were rescued from the paralysing conventions of the Victorian era". In 1890, with the idea of designing and making fine furniture, Blomfield, Ernest Gimson, Macartney and William Lethaby joined forces to establish Kenton & Co
. Although the venture had the makings of a success, it lasted only two years, as the partners decided to concentrate instead on their increasingly successful architectural practices.

In 1886 Blomfield married Anne Frances Burra, the daughter of

T.J. Cobden Sanderson (1840–1922) built themselves a pair of pretty houses in Frognal, Hampstead, Middlesex
; 51 Frognal remained Blomfield's London home until his death.

Regent Street, London

The heyday of Blomfield's practice, between 1885 and 1914, was dominated by the construction of new

war memorials in the 1920s, including the Menin Gate in Ypres
. His last major project was the reconstruction of 4 Carlton Gardens, London, in 1932.

Publications

Bayeux War Cemetery
in Normandy

Blomfield had a gift for sketching and writing. His first book, The Formal Garden in England, illustrated by

John Dando Sedding. In 1897 Blomfield's first major historical work, A history of Renaissance architecture in England, 1500–1800 was published by George Bell and Sons. The architecture of the Wren era in particular appealed to him, and he came to regard it as the era of England's finest architecture. This book was complemented by the appearance of a companion study, A history of French architecture, published in two volumes covering 1494–1661 (1911) and 1661–1774 (1921). Together with the work of Blomfield himself, Sir John Belcher and Mervyn Macartney, the arrival of a serious account of architectural development in the 17th and 18th centuries led not only to the preservation of many previously neglected buildings of those periods, but also increased interest in the neo-Georgian
style.

His other published works include Studies in Architecture (1905); The Mistress Art (1908), Architectural Drawing and Draughtsmen (1912); The Touchstone of Architecture (1925); Six Architects (1925); Memoirs of an Architect (1932); the controversial anti-

Modernist polemic, Modernismus (1934)[4] and the sketchy Richard Norman Shaw (1940). In 1920 he delivered the British Academy's Aspects of Art Lecture, which was published in the Proceedings of the British Academy.[5]
A further collection of autobiographical material, 1932–42, continuing his memoirs, remains unpublished and is in the possession of his descendants.

Archival materials

The

National Portrait Gallery
.

List of works

The following list of major works is selected from that given in R.A. Fellows, Sir Reginald Blomfield: an Edwardian architect, 1985, with additions from The Buildings of England and other sources cited in the bibliography:

Goldsmiths College, London, 1907
Lincoln Public Library, 1910
Westgate Water Tower, Lincoln, 1910
Regent Street, London, 1916–1926
R.A.F. Memorial, London, 1921
Menin Gate, Ypres, Belgium, 1922–1927
The Headrow, Leeds, 1924–1937
Lambeth Bridge, London,1925–1932
Usher Art Gallery, Lincoln, 1927

Among war memorials for which he was responsible are:

Awards and honours

Blomfield was made an Associate of the

Royal Academy in 1905 and elected to the Academy in 1914, where he had been Professor of Architecture 1907–11 and awarded the Royal Gold Medal in 1913. He was President of the RIBA in 1912–14 and was knighted in 1919. In 1933, he was elected into the National Academy of Design
as an Honorary Corresponding member.

Death

Grave of Reginald Blomfield in the churchyard of St Michael, Playden, East Sussex

He died aged 86 on 27 December 1942 and is buried in family plot in the churchyard of St Michael, Playden, East Sussex, half a mile north of his country home Point Hill, Rye. Fellow architect Horace Field, who was a near neighbour in both Rye and Hampstead, is buried in the same churchyard.

See also

  • St. Thomas' Church, Aslockton

References

Notes

Citations

  1. ^ Highgate School : A Roll [1833-1912] with Names of the Governors, 1565-1912. Headmasters. 1572-1912. Unwin. 1913.
  2. ^ Historic England. "Details from listed building database (1346210)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 30 August 2014.
  3. ^ "Wittington House Estate - Past, Present and Future: A Unique Location". www.readkong.com. Retrieved 6 May 2022.
  4. ^ "Reginald Blomfield (1856—1942) architect". Oxford Reference.
  5. ^ Blomfield, Reginald (1976). "The Tangled Skein: Art in England, 1800–1920". Proceedings of the British Academy, 1919–1920. 9: 375–388.
  6. ^ "Caythorpe Court, Grantham, England". Parks and Gardens UK. 27 July 2007. Archived from the original on 26 March 2012. Retrieved 14 February 2011.
  7. ^ Historic England. "247, Fratton Road, Fratton (Grade II) (1104278)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 26 December 2017.
  8. ^ Canadian Encyclopedia Monuments, World Wars I and II
  9. ^ Historic England. "Bury War Memorial (1444845)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 26 December 2018.

Sources

  • Blomfield, Sir Reginald (1932). Memoirs of an Architect. London: Macmillan and Co.
  • Fellows, R. A. (1985). Sir Reginald Blomfield: an Edwardian architect. London.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • Fellows, R. A. (1995). Edwardian Architecture: style and technology.
  • Gray, A. S. (1985). Edwardian Architecture: a biographical dictionary.
  • Riddington, Peter; et al. (2001). Regent Street, History and Conservation. London: Donald Insall Associates.
  • Service, A. (1977). Edwardian Architecture. London.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

External links

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