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Hubert Austin in 1868
Hubert Austin in 1890

Hubert James Austin (31 March 1841 – 22 March 1915) was an English architect who practised in Lancaster.

Early life and career

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Hubert Austin was born in Haughton-le-Skerne, near Darlington, now in County Durham, on 31 March 1841. He was the youngest of nine children of Revd Thomas Austin (1796–1856), who was a curate at the church in Haughton-le-Skerne, and was the sixth child of his second marriage, his mother being Jane Margaret née Brougham ((1802–66). By the time he attended a grammar school in Stockton-on-Tees, his father was rector of nearby Redmarshall. Revd Austin died in 1856, and Hubert went to board at Richmond School, where his older brothers had been educated. He left school in 1859 and became articled to his half-brother Thomas Austin (1822–67), an architect in Newcastle upon Tyne. In January 1864 Hubert Austin was one of seven students to pass the Voluntary Examination of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), and in March of that year began to work in the office of George Gilbert Scott. While working there he made a major contribution to the Spring Gardens Sketch Book, a collection of large-scale drawings of buildings in Britain and abroad. In 1866 he was awarded the first Pugin scholarship of the RIBA. Austin's first individual commission was for Christ Church, Ashford, Kent. He was the winner from 48 entrants in the 1865 competition for the design, and the church was built in 1866–67 in Gothic Revival style.[1] This is still an active Anglican parish church,[2] and is designated by English Heritage as a Grade II listed building.[3]

Lancaster architect

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Paley and Austin (1868–86)

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Austin moved to Lancaster to join the office of E. G. Paley in January 1867 and became Paley's partner on 1 July 1868. The two partners had been brought together by Thomas Austin, Hubert's half-brother. In the 1840s Thomas Austin had been a pupil of Edmund Sharpe, who had founded the Lancaster practice in 1835.[4] During the time that Austin was working with Paley, it is on difficult to know what part either partner contributed to any particular project. No business records of the practice have survived. Almost all the works were attributed to the partnership as a whole, and not to an individual partner.[5] From the foundation of the practice, most of the work undertaken was ecclesiastical.[6] Following the arrival of Austin, the nature of these commissions continued much as before, mainly for the design of new churches, or the restoration of and alterations to existing churches. During the life of the partnership, over 50 new churches were designed and built. A high proportion of these churches were built in Lancashire, or in the adjoining counties of Westmorland, Cumberland, and Yorkshire.[a] The churches were built in towns and in country areas, and ranged in size from large and impressive, to small and humble. Two early large churches in industrial areas were St Chad, Kirkby, and St John the Evangelist, Cheetham Hill (both 1869–71).[7] Substantial new churches in country areas include St Peter, Finsthwaite, (1873–74) and St Peter, Scorton, (1878–79).[8] Estate churches include St Luke, Winmarleigh, (1875–76) for Baron Winmarleigh,[8] and St John the Evangelist's Church at Walton, near Warrington, (1882–84) for Sir Gilbert Greenall.[9] Smaller new churches include

They also did some work on country houses. During the time that Paley had been the sole principal, he had carried out work for rapidly-growing town of Barrow-in-Furness, and for the developing Furness Railway.[10]

Paley, Austin and Paley (1886–95)

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Austin and Paley (1895–1915)

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In the 1870s and 1880s Austin produced the John O'Gaunt Sketch Book in three volumes, a work similar to that he produced while working in Scott's office. It consists of drawing of churches, houses, and details of their designs.[11]

Personal life

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Hubert Austin married Fanny Langshaw (1844–1915), a niece of Edmund Sharpe, on 6 September 1870 at St Mary's Church, Lancaster. They had two sons, Bernard and Geoffrey, both of whom trained as architects, but played little or no part in the practice. Shortly after their marriage, Austin designed a large house for their home, The Knoll, about half a mile from the office where they lived for many years. In 1899 he bought a country house, Heversham House, about 13 miles outside Lancaster. Two years later he bought another house, in Kings Worthy, Hampshire, but it is unlikely that he spent much time there.[12]

Austin's main interests were in historic buildings and archaeology, and in music, painting, and horticulture. He was a sportsman, being skilled rower, and a member of the Lancaster Rifle Club. A devout Anglican, he was a churchwarden at Lancaster Parish Church from 1894 to 1903. He played little part in public life, his only public appointment being as a Commissioner of Land Tax in 1886.[13]

Austin had a quiet and reserved personality. He had few personal friends, and overnight visitors to his house were rare.[14]

Never a member of RIBA ?where

Architectural styles and appraisal

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Neo-Norman: St Mary's Church, Betws-y-Coed: St Peter's Church, Finsthwaite

No standardisation of plan, p. 103

Brandwood et al. note that the greatest period of church building by the firm coincided with the time that Austin was working in it.[15] Following the arrival of Austin, the historical historian Nikolaus Pevsner, writing in 1969, noted that "immediately the character of the architecture of the firm changed — a nobility and at the same time resourcefulness appeared which had not until then been seen in its products".[16] Brandwood et al. note some of the more specific changes that appeared. The first of these was a "greater muscularity",[17] to be found for example in the restoration of the tower of St Peter, Heversham, and in the new Church of St Mary, Walton. Another, contracting feature, was the use of gentler and less ornate features, similar to those used in the Aesthetic Movement or in early Arts & Crafts work.[18] Examples of these are found in the window tracery in All Saints, St Helens, and on the gate-piers outside St  George, Heaviley.[19]

The third change noted by Brandwood et al. was the increasing use of Perpendicular features. Paley had used Perpendicular features in a few of his churches, for example for example in his rebuilding of St Patrick, Preston Patrick (1852–53).[20] But after the arrival of Austin these features became much more prominent, so much so that the practice came to be seen as "a true pioneer in the rehabilitation of Perpendicular architecture after its ecclesiological exile for a quarter of a century".[21]. Brandwood et al. go so far as to credit the firm with the "Perpendicular revival in the North"[22] Examples of this are the rebuilding of the bodies of St Mary, Leigh, (1871–73) and All Saints, Daresbury (1870–72).[23]

Discussing the history of the practice, Brandwood et al. consider that it is "most famous" for the work carried out during the period that Austin was a partner.[24] Commenting specifically on Austin, Pevsner called him a "genius",[25] and said that it was he "it seems, who was responsible for the firm's masterpieces".[26] In the Cheshire volume of the Buildings of England series, Pevsner and Hubbard describe him as "brilliant" and of raising the work of the practice "to the level of the best in the country".[27] In the Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East volume, Hartwell et al. describe Austin as a "local man of genius" with whom the firm "achieved greatness, distinguished for their thoughtfully creative designs with masterful handling of space, line and plane",[28] and in the Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West volume, Pollard and Pevsner state that he "transformed the firm into a practice which decorated Lancashire, and especially southwest Lancashire, with churches the equal of any in the country".[29] In the same volume, Pevsner is quoted as saying that during the period of the Paley and Austin partnership their work was "of the highest European standard of their years".[29]

Notes

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  1. ^ These were the historic counties of England in existence in the 19th century. Following administrative reorganisation, the corresponding ceremonial counties are Lancashire, Cumbria, North Yorkshire, Greater Manchester, and Merseyside.

References

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Citations

  1. ^ Brandwood et al. 2012, pp. 80–87
  2. ^ South Ashford, The Church of England Parish of South Ashford, retrieved 7 September 2013
  3. ^ Historic England. "Christ Church, Ashford (1071109)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 7 September 2013. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |separator= ignored (help)
  4. ^ Brandwood et al. 2012, pp. 81, 87
  5. ^ Brandwood et al. 2012, pp. 5, 89–90
  6. ^ Brandwood et al. (2012), p. 4
  7. ^ Brandwood et al. (2012), pp. 92–94
  8. ^ a b Brandwood et al. (2012), pp. 99–100
  9. ^ Brandwood et al. (2012), pp. 101–102
  10. ^ Brandwood et al. (2012), pp. 71–74
  11. ^ Brandwood et al. 2012, pp. 90–91
  12. ^ Brandwood et al. 2012, pp. 88–89
  13. ^ Brandwood et al. 2012, pp. 5, 87–88
  14. ^ Brandwood et al. 2012, p. 87
  15. ^ Brandwood et al. (2012), p. 5
  16. ^ Pevsner (2002), p. 33
  17. ^ Brandwood et al. 2012, p. 91
  18. ^ Brandwood et al. 2012, pp. 91–92
  19. ^ Brandwood et al. (2012), p. 150
  20. ^ Brandwood et al. (2012), pp. 57–58
  21. ^ Brandwood et al. (2012), p. 58
  22. ^ Brandwood et al. (2012), p. 94
  23. ^ Brandwood et al. (2012), pp. 94–97
  24. ^ Brandwood et al. (2012), p. 80
  25. ^ Pevsner (1969), p. 44
  26. ^ Pevsner (2002), p. 31
  27. ^ Pevsner & Hubbard (2003), p. 36
  28. ^ Hartwell, Hyde & Pevsner (2004), p. 66
  29. ^ a b Pollard & Pevsner (2006), p. 91

Sources

  • Brandwood, Geoff; Austin, Tim; Hughes, John; Price, James (2012), The Architecture of Sharpe, Paley and Austin, Swindon: English Heritage, ISBN 978-1-84802-049-8
  • Hartwell, Clare; Hyde, Matthew; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2004), Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East, The Buildings of England, Yale University Press, ISBN 0-300-10583-5
  • Hartwell, Clare; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2009) [1969], Lancashire: North, The Buildings of England, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, ISBN 978-0-300-12667-9
  • Pevsner, Nikolaus (2002) [1969], North Lancashire, The Buildings of England, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, ISBN 0-300-09617-8
  • Pevsner, Nikolaus; Hubbard, Edward (2003) [1971], Cheshire, The Buildings of England, Yale University Press, ISBN 0-300-09588-0
  • Pollard, Richard; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2006), Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West, The Buildings of England, Yale University Press, ISBN 0-300-10910-5
  • Price, James (1998), Sharpe, Paley and Austin: A Lancaster Architectural Practice 1836–1942, Lancaster: Centre for North-West Regional Studies, ISBN 1-86220-054-8
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