Edward Schroeder Prior
Encyclopedia
Edward Schroeder Prior was an architect
who was instrumental in establishing the arts and crafts movement
. He was one of the foremost theorists of the second generation of the movement, writing extensively on architecture, art
, craftsmanship and the building process and subsequently influencing the training of many architects.
He was a major contributor to the development of the Art Workers Guild
and other organisations that lay at the heart of the movement’s attempts to bring art, craftsmanship and architecture closer together. His scholarly work, particularly A History of Gothic Art in England (1900), achieved international acclaim. He became one of the leading architectural educationalists of his generation. As Slade Professor of Art at Cambridge he established the Cambridge School of Architectural Studies.
Initially his buildings show the influence of his mentor Norman Shaw and Philip Webb
, but Prior experimented with materials, massing and volume from the start of his independent practice. He developed a style that was intensely individual and a practical philosophy of construction
that was perhaps nearer to Ruskin
's ideal of the "builder designer" than that of any other arts and crafts architect.
The buildings of his maturity, such as The Barn
, Exmouth
, and Home Place
, Kelling
are amongst the most original of the period. In St Andrew's Church
, Roker
he produced his masterpiece, a church that is now recognised as one of the best of the early 20th century.
Prior experimented with unusual plans, massing and volumes and became more and more interested in the nature and use of material and texture. In particular he experimented with reinforced concrete
, which was used extensively in Home Place and St Andrew's.
Prior's approach to building was to ensure the use of the best quality materials, developing constructional techniques in partnership with the craftsmen builders. Despite the pioneering use of concrete
and experimentation with structural systems, Prior's buildings seem to have relatively few construction and material defects, a tribute to his philosophy and skills.
on July 4, 1852, his parents' fourth son, one of eleven children. His father John Venn Prior, who was a barrister in the Chancery
division, died at the age of 43 as a result of a fall from a horse. Edward was aged 10 at the time. His mother moved the family to Harrow
, where Edward's eldest brother John Templer was at school and where widows did not have to pay school fees if they were day boys. Here, next door to the house of Matthew Arnold
, she started a school for children whose parents were in India
, and Edward was one of its first pupils.
His grandfather Dr John Prior was a prominent figure in the Evangelical
movement and a member of the Clapham Sect
that revolved around the Revd. John Venn
, the first chairman of the Church Missionary Society, and included notable figures in the abolition of the slave trade, such as William Wilberforce
and Zachary Maclaulay. Prior was later to work for Evangelical patrons such as the Cambridge Missionary Society as well as High Church
Romanists.
. Here his interest in natural history
, art
, architecture and science
was fostered, particularly by F.W. Farrar, H.M. Butler and B.F. Wescott, his housemaster
and private tutor. (Prior remained a committed naturalist throughout his life. His collections of Lepidoptera
remain largely intact, held by the Museum of St Albans
.) Prior remained connected to Harrow School and was later to design several buildings for the school.
to read the Classical Tripos. He augmented the Sayer Scholarship by also gaining a College Scholarship. In the same year B.F. Westcott
was appointed Regius Professor of Divinity
. Prior continued to gain from his instruction in architectural drawing at Cambridge. Other influences were Matthew Digby Wyatt
and Sidney Colvin
, the first and second Slade Professors of Fine Art
. Wyatt's lecture programme for 1871 included engraving
, woodcutting, stained glass
and mosaic
. Prior's interest in the applied arts was probably strongly encouraged by Wyatt. Colvin, a friend of Edward Burne-Jones
and Dante Gabriel Rossetti
, was elected Slade Professor in January 1873.
At Cambridge. Prior was also exposed to the work of William Morris
. For example G.F. Bodley employed Morris & Co. to decorate All Saints Church
in 1864-1866 and to design the glass for others of his Cambridge buildings.
Prior was a noted athlete
at Cambridge. He was a blue
in long jump
and high jump
and won the British Amateur High Jump in 1872.
's chief clerk and had set up in partnership with William Eden Nesfield
in 1866. The partnership only lasted until 1869, though Nesfield continued to share the premises until 1876. Shaw had made his name through country houses such as Cragside
, Northumberland
. At the time Shaw’s architecture was regarded as original and entirely on its own by the younger generation of architects. His practice was already attracting brilliant young architects. Shaw's pupils were articled for three years, learning to measure buildings and to draw plans and elevations for contracts.
At the time Prior joined Shaw the practice was still small, with only three rooms shared with Nesfield. Shaw had a limited number of assistants and pupils, including Ernest Newton
(1856–1922), who had joined Shaw in 1873 but who left to set up on his own in 1879, Richard Creed (1846–1914) and William West Neve
(1852–1942), who was also soon to set up in practice on his own behalf. Nesfield's assistant at the time was E. J. May, a former pupil of Decimus Burton
, who had been responsible for the Palm House
at Kew Gardens amongst other buildings.
It was only later that the group that produced some of the most exiting Arts and Crafts Movement
Architecture and scholarship and provided the impetus to the Movement came together under Shaw. William Lethaby
(1857–1931) joined the practice as Chief Assistant in 1878, Mervyn Macartney (1853–1932) joined as a pupil in the same year and Gerald Horsley (1862–1917) in 1879. May and Newton both set up in practice nearby. Horsley later illustrated Prior's A History of Gothic Art in England (1900). The St George's Art Society grew out of the discussions held amongst Shaw's past and present staff at Newton's Hart Street offices.
In the late 1870s and early 1880s Shaw's prestige was greatly enhanced by major success with "spectacular perspectives" exhibited at Royal Academy
exhibitions. As Chief Draftsman Newton was probably the main influence on the drawing style though Prior may have made a considerable contribution.
By 1877 Shaw's health was deteriorating. His assistants were encouraged to supervise jobs and live on site. Prior was appointed Clerk of Works for St Margaret's Church, Ilkley
, administering the works from November 1877 to August 1879. Prior was responsible for the contract drawings and possibly for the design of the roof reinforcement and some of the detailing and furniture, such as the font. Prior had been eager to gain practical experience of construction, an area of the profession in which Shaw was loath to give instruction. The expertise of the craftsmen at Ilkley made a deep impression on Prior;
leased an office on the second floor. Prior occupied the building until 1885 and again in 1889-94 and 1901.
His early commissions were are 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 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 Symmondsbury Church on 11 August 1885. Mervyn Macatney was best man.
The Priors lived in 6 Bloomsbury Square
from 1885-1889. 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, St John's Wood
, next door to Voysey
, resulting in the development of a long term friendship and exchange of ideas between the two men, to the extent that Voysey is recorded as having painted the roofs of Prior’s seminal Model for a Dorsetshire Cottage
Prior moved to Sussex in 1907 initially living in an early 18th century house at 7 East Pallant, Chichester
. In 1908 he bought an 18th century house in Mount Lane with an adjacent warehouse which he converted to provide a studio. He continued the London practice as 1 Hare Court, Temple until the middle of the First World War. On his appointment as Slade Professor at Cambridge Prior also bought a house, Fariview in Shaftesbury Road, Cambridge
.
After the First World War Prior unsuccessfully tried to restart his practice with H.C. Hughes. He started a commission for a house outside Cambridge but fell into a dispute with the client over the materials for the boundary hedge. Hughes took over the job as his own. Prior's scheme for the ciborium at Norwich Cathedral
was dropped deeply disappointing him.
In the post war years he only undertook the design of war memorials at Maiden Newton
in Dorset
and for Cambridge Union Rugby Club
.
. The St George's Art Society 1883-1886 was founded by a group of architects who had seen service in the Shaw's offices, Ernest Newton
, Mervyn Macartney, Reginald Barratt, Edwin Hardy, William Lethaby
and Prior, to discuss Art and Architecture. It initially met in Newton's chambers by St George's Church, Bloomsbury
. Prior was on the committee. Monthly meetings were held and papers read, Prior speaking on "Terracotta" and "Tombs". Trips were arranged to see buildings.
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 Institute of British Architects and the Royal Academy
.
After various consultations invitations were sent out to twenty four artists including members of The fifteen, founded by the designer and writer Lewis Day and the illustrator and designer Walter Crane
and other such as J. D. Sedding
, Ernest George
and Basil Champneys
. Various names for the group were proposed and Prior's suggestion of the "Art Workers Guild
" was accepted at the meeting of 11 March 1884. Prior also wrote the Guild's first prospectus.
The Guild was highly influential on the architecture of the Arts and Crafts Movement
, but Prior remained only a minor player for some time, until he was elected to the governing committee in 1889. However the contact with other luminaries of the Society certainly encouraged Prior to rationalise and develop his theories. He was also able to call on the skills of a wide range of craft practitioners from the Guild for the design and construction of furniture for many of his buildings. Prior became Master in 1906.
Prior was also active in various other organisations of the time, including the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society
of 1886, set up to combat the exclusiveness of the Royal Academy
, and the National Association for the Advancement of Art and its Application to Industry of 1888, at which he gave his inspired lecture on "Texture as a Quality of Art and a Condition for Architecture" that set out the rationale behind his most significant buildings. His involvement with The Clergy and Artists’ Association of 1896, set up to improve the links between patron and producer, led directly to commissions for example for the lych gate at Methley
Church.
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 Art at Cambridge University in 1905.
, whose members believed, quite correctly, that RIBA
wished to establish itself as the sole arbiter of the profession culminating in the publication of a collection of essays Architecture: A Profession or an Art in 1892, to which Prior contributed a chapter criticising the common use of "hirelings" to do the architect's work. In the same year Prior, amongst others resigned from the RIBA.
As a result of the controversy members of the Guild became very interested in architectural education. The Architectural Association established a School of Handicraft and Design to extend its training scheme. It had been criticised for being to geared to the RIBA’s examination system. Prior was one of the architect-visitors who drew up projects and gave the "crits".
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
, Dr Charles Waldstein, Slade Professor of Fine Art and William Ridgway 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.
However underlying the argumentative and bulling façade lurked an artist and scholar. He was and remained a Tory throughout his life, perhaps explaining his lack of interest in social housing and the garden city movement
. Yet he was close friends with the socialist Lethaby and a strong opponent of the professionalisation of architecture and believed that the architect should merely facilitate the work of craftsmen. In his long academic career he aimed to produce a "world of builders, who would build with the direct knowledge of working conditions".
His obituary in the Architect and Building News perhaps best summed him up:
He remained as Slade Professor until his death from cancer in August the 19th 1932. 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.
Architectural Review
British Architect
The Builder
Building
Builders Journal
Building News
Northern Architect
The Studio
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
who was instrumental in establishing the arts and crafts movement
Arts and Crafts movement
Arts and Crafts was an international design philosophy that originated in England and flourished between 1860 and 1910 , continuing its influence until the 1930s...
. He was one of the foremost theorists of the second generation of the movement, writing extensively on architecture, art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
, craftsmanship and the building process and subsequently influencing the training of many architects.
He was a major contributor to the development of the Art Workers Guild
Art Workers Guild
The Art Workers Guild or Art-Workers' Guild is an organisation established in 1884 by a group of British architects associated with the ideas of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement. The guild promoted the 'unity of all the arts', denying the distinction between fine and applied art...
and other organisations that lay at the heart of the movement’s attempts to bring art, craftsmanship and architecture closer together. His scholarly work, particularly A History of Gothic Art in England (1900), achieved international acclaim. He became one of the leading architectural educationalists of his generation. As Slade Professor of Art at Cambridge he established the Cambridge School of Architectural Studies.
Initially his buildings show the influence of his mentor Norman Shaw and Philip Webb
Philip Webb
Another Philip Webb — Philip Edward Webb was the architect son of leading architect Sir Aston Webb. Along with his brother, Maurice, he assisted his father towards the end of his career....
, but Prior experimented with materials, massing and volume from the start of his independent practice. He developed a style that was intensely individual and a practical philosophy of construction
Construction
In the fields of architecture and civil engineering, construction is a process that consists of the building or assembling of infrastructure. Far from being a single activity, large scale construction is a feat of human multitasking...
that was perhaps nearer to Ruskin
John Ruskin
John Ruskin was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, also an art patron, draughtsman, watercolourist, a prominent social thinker and philanthropist. He wrote on subjects ranging from geology to architecture, myth to ornithology, literature to education, and botany to political...
's ideal of the "builder designer" than that of any other arts and crafts architect.
The buildings of his maturity, such as The Barn
The Barn, Exmouth
The Barn, in Exmouth, Devon, England, is a seaside house, now a hotel, dating from 1896 and designed in Arts and Crafts style by the architect Edward Schroeder Prior....
, Exmouth
Exmouth, Devon
Exmouth is a port town, civil parish and seaside resort in East Devon, England, sited on the east bank of the mouth of the River Exe. In 2001, it had a population of 32,972.-History:...
, and Home Place
Home Place, Kelling
Home Place, Kelling, also called Voewood, is a house designed by Edward Schroeder Prior, near Holt, Norfolk, UK .Home Place is perhaps one of the greatest achievements of house design of the Arts and Crafts Movement. More than almost any other building of the period the house fulfils the ideals...
, Kelling
Kelling
Kelling is a village and a civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The village is west of Cromer, north of Norwich and north-east of London. The village straddles the A149 Coast road between Kings Lynn and Great Yarmouth...
are amongst the most original of the period. In St Andrew's Church
St Andrew's Church, Roker
St Andrew's, Roker in Sunderland, England is recognised as one of the finest churches of the first half of the twentieth century and the masterpiece of Edward Schroeder Prior. The design of St Andrew's drew together many of the strings of Prior's philosophy and approach to design and building...
, Roker
Roker
Roker is a tourist resort and affluent area of Sunderland, North East England, bounded on the south by the River Wear and Monkwearmouth, on the east by the North Sea, to the west by Fulwell and on the north by Seaburn. It is administered as part of the City of Sunderland.The majority of the...
he produced his masterpiece, a church that is now recognised as one of the best of the early 20th century.
Prior experimented with unusual plans, massing and volumes and became more and more interested in the nature and use of material and texture. In particular he experimented with reinforced concrete
Reinforced concrete
Reinforced concrete is concrete in which reinforcement bars , reinforcement grids, plates or fibers have been incorporated to strengthen the concrete in tension. It was invented by French gardener Joseph Monier in 1849 and patented in 1867. The term Ferro Concrete refers only to concrete that is...
, which was used extensively in Home Place and St Andrew's.
Prior's approach to building was to ensure the use of the best quality materials, developing constructional techniques in partnership with the craftsmen builders. Despite the pioneering use of concrete
Concrete
Concrete is a composite construction material, composed of cement and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water and chemical admixtures.The word concrete comes from the Latin word...
and experimentation with structural systems, Prior's buildings seem to have relatively few construction and material defects, a tribute to his philosophy and skills.
Early buildings 1880-1894
| Date | Building | Location |
| 1880 | Carr Manor Carr Manor Carr Manor is a Victorian grade II listed house in Meanwood, Leeds, England, designed by Edward Schroeder Prior and built for Thomas Clifford Allbutt M.D. . In 1881 it replaced Carr Manor House, though retaining the 1796 stable block... |
Meanwood Meanwood Meanwood is a suburb and former village of north-west Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.-Origins and History:The name Meanwood goes back to the 12th century, and is of Anglo-Saxon derivation: the Meene wude was the boundary wood of the Manor of Alreton, the woods to the east of Meanwood Beck... , Leeds Leeds Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial... |
| 1880–1881 | Highgrove House Highgrove House, Eastcote Highgrove House, also known as High Grove, is a Grade II listed mansion in Eastcote, within the London Borough of Hillingdon. Originally built in 1750 by the Reverend John Lidgould, the house was rebuilt in 1881 by Sir Hugh Hume-Campbell following a catastrophic fire... |
Eastcote Eastcote Eastcote is a suburban area established around an old village in Greater London, and is part of the London Borough of Hillingdon.In the Middle Ages, Eastcote was one of the three areas that made up the parish of Ruislip, under the name of Ascot... |
| 1881-1882 & 1889-1891 | St. Mary and St. Peter, Kelsale | Kelsale Kelsale Kelsale is a village in Suffolk, England. It is located approximately 1 mile north of Saxmundham town centre at the junction of the B1121 and the A12.... |
| 1883–1884 | The Red House, Harrow | Middlesex Harrow, London Harrow is an area in the London Borough of Harrow, northwest London, United Kingdom. It is a suburban area and is situated 12.2 miles northwest of Charing Cross... |
| 1883–1884 | St. Mary’s Mission Hall, West Street | Harrow |
| 1883–1884 | Manor Lodge | Harrow |
| 1884–1885 | Quay Terrace, West Bay Quay Terrace, West Bay The Pier Terrace in West Bay, Dorset, was designed by the English Arts and Crafts architect Edward Schroeder Prior in 1884-5Pier Terrace is one of Prior’s most important early buildings. The influence of Norman Shaw, particularly his Sisters of Bethany Convent, is still apparent in the double... |
West Bay, Dorset |
| 1884–1889 | Holy Trinity Church, Bothenhampton Holy Trinity Church, Bothenhampton Holy Trinity Church is a Church of England parish church at Bothenhampton, near Bridport in Dorset, England. It was designed and built by the English arts and crafts architect, Edward Schroeder Prior, in 1884-9.... |
Bridport Bridport Bridport is a market town in Dorset, England. Located near the coast at the western end of Chesil Beach at the confluence of the River Brit and its Asker and Simene tributaries, it originally thrived as a fishing port and rope-making centre... |
| 1885–1887 | Henry Martyn Hall | Cambridge Cambridge The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the... |
| 1885–1889 | St. Michael, Framlingham | Suffolk Framlingham Framlingham is a market town and civil parish in the Suffolk Coastal District of Suffolk, England. Commonly referred to as "Fram" by the locals, it is of Anglo-Saxon origin and is mentioned in the Domesday Book. It has a population of 3,114 at the 2001 census... |
| 1885 | Elmside Cambridge | 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 Middlesex Middlesex is one of the historic counties of England and the second smallest by area. The low-lying county contained the wealthy and politically independent City of London on its southern boundary and was dominated by it from a very early time... |
| 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 Walworth, London Walworth is an inner-city district in the London Borough of Southwark. Walworth probably derives its name from the Old English "Wealhworth" which meant Welsh farm. It is located south east of Charing Cross and near to Camberwell and Elephant and Castle.The major streets in Walworth are the Old... |
| 1891 | Kelsale Kelsale Kelsale is a village in Suffolk, England. It is located approximately 1 mile north of Saxmundham town centre at the junction of the B1121 and the A12.... Village Club |
Suffolk |
| 1893 | Downe Hall | Bridport |
| 1899–1901 | Prior Hall | Walworth |
Later works
| Date | Building | Location |
| c. Circa Circa , usually abbreviated c. or ca. , means "approximately" in the English language, usually referring to a date... 1894 |
Club, Promenade and Baths at West Bay | Dorset Dorset Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974... |
| 1895 | Model of a Butterfly Cottage | |
| 1896–1897 | The Barn The Barn, Exmouth The Barn, in Exmouth, Devon, England, is a seaside house, now a hotel, dating from 1896 and designed in Arts and Crafts style by the architect Edward Schroeder Prior.... |
Exmouth, Devon Exmouth, Devon Exmouth is a port town, civil parish and seaside resort in East Devon, England, sited on the east bank of the mouth of the River Exe. In 2001, it had a population of 32,972.-History:... |
| 1895–1897 | St. Mary’s Church, Burton Bradstock Burton Bradstock Burton Bradstock is a village in south west Dorset, England. The village has a population of 979 . Situated on the Chesil Beach, east of Bridport the village nestles around the church of St... |
Dorset |
| 1897–1900 | Westbrook Vicarage at All Saints' church | Westbrook, Kent |
| 1899 | Cambridge Medical School | University of Cambridge University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally... |
| 1901–1904 | Winchester College Music School | Hampshire Hampshire Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force... |
| 1903–1905 | Home Place, Kelling Home Place, Kelling Home Place, Kelling, also called Voewood, is a house designed by Edward Schroeder Prior, near Holt, Norfolk, UK .Home Place is perhaps one of the greatest achievements of house design of the Arts and Crafts Movement. More than almost any other building of the period the house fulfils the ideals... |
near Holt, Norfolk Holt, Norfolk Holt is a market town and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The town is north of the city of Norwich, west of Cromer and east of King's Lynn. The town is on the route of the A148 King's Lynn to Cromer road. The nearest railway station is in the town of Sheringham where access to the... |
| 1905–1907 | St. Andrew's, Roker St. Andrew's, Roker St Andrew's, Roker in Sunderland, England is recognised as one of the finest churches of the first half of the twentieth century and the masterpiece of Edward Schroeder Prior. The design of St Andrew's drew together many of the strings of Prior's philosophy and approach to design and building... |
Sunderland |
| 1907–1909 | St. Mary & All Saints, Whalley | Lancashire Whalley Whalley is a large village in the Ribble Valley on the banks of the River Calder in Lancashire, England. It is overlooked by Whalley Nab, a large picturesque wooded hill over the river from the village.... |
| Combelands, Pulborough | Sussex Pulborough Pulborough is a large village and civil parish in the Horsham district of West Sussex, England, with some 5,000 inhabitants. It is located almost centrally within West Sussex and is south west of London. It is at the junction of the north-south A29 and the east-west roads.The village is near the... |
|
| The Small House, Lavant | Sussex | |
| 1909 | Dysart House | Cambridge |
| 1910 | The Oaks , Goudhurst | Kent Goudhurst Goudhurst is a village in Kent on the Weald, about south of Maidstone.It stands on a crossroads , where there is a large village pond. It is also in the Cranbrook School catchment area.... |
| 1911 | Windacres, Warren Road, Guildford | Surrey Guildford Guildford is the county town of Surrey. England, as well as the seat for the borough of Guildford and the administrative headquarters of the South East England region... |
| 1911–1914 | Greystones & Greystone Lodge, Highcliffe | Dorset Highcliffe Highcliffe-on-Sea is a small town in the borough of Christchurch, Dorset in southern England. It forms part of the South East Dorset conurbation along the English Channel coast... |
| 1913–1916 | St. Osmund's church | Parkstone Parkstone Parkstone is an area of Poole, Dorset. It is divided into 'Lower' and 'Upper' Parkstone. Upper Parkstone - "Up-on-'ill" as it used to be known in local parlance - is so-called because it is largely on higher ground slightly to the north of the lower-lying area of Lower Parkstone - "The Village" -... |
Family
Edward Schroeder Prior was born in GreenwichGreenwich
Greenwich is a district of south London, England, located in the London Borough of Greenwich.Greenwich is best known for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich Meridian and Greenwich Mean Time...
on July 4, 1852, his parents' fourth son, one of eleven children. His father John Venn Prior, who was a barrister in the Chancery
Court of Chancery
The Court of Chancery was a court of equity in England and Wales that followed a set of loose rules to avoid the slow pace of change and possible harshness of the common law. The Chancery had jurisdiction over all matters of equity, including trusts, land law, the administration of the estates of...
division, died at the age of 43 as a result of a fall from a horse. Edward was aged 10 at the time. His mother moved the family to Harrow
Harrow, London
Harrow is an area in the London Borough of Harrow, northwest London, United Kingdom. It is a suburban area and is situated 12.2 miles northwest of Charing Cross...
, where Edward's eldest brother John Templer was at school and where widows did not have to pay school fees if they were day boys. Here, next door to the house of Matthew Arnold
Matthew Arnold
Matthew Arnold was a British poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, the famed headmaster of Rugby School, and brother to both Tom Arnold, literary professor, and William Delafield Arnold, novelist and colonial administrator...
, she started a school for children whose parents were in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, and Edward was one of its first pupils.
His grandfather Dr John Prior was a prominent figure in the Evangelical
Evangelicalism
Evangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s and gained popularity in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.Its key commitments are:...
movement and a member of the Clapham Sect
Clapham Sect
The Clapham Sect or Clapham Saints were a group of influential like-minded Church of England social reformers based in Clapham, London at the beginning of the 19th century...
that revolved around the Revd. John Venn
John Venn
Donald A. Venn FRS , was a British logician and philosopher. He is famous for introducing the Venn diagram, which is used in many fields, including set theory, probability, logic, statistics, and computer science....
, the first chairman of the Church Missionary Society, and included notable figures in the abolition of the slave trade, such as William Wilberforce
William Wilberforce
William Wilberforce was a British politician, a philanthropist and a leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade. A native of Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, he began his political career in 1780, eventually becoming the independent Member of Parliament for Yorkshire...
and Zachary Maclaulay. Prior was later to work for Evangelical patrons such as the Cambridge Missionary Society as well as High Church
High church
The term "High Church" refers to beliefs and practices of ecclesiology, liturgy and theology, generally with an emphasis on formality, and resistance to "modernization." Although used in connection with various Christian traditions, the term has traditionally been principally associated with the...
Romanists.
Harrow School
In 1863 at the unusually young age of 11, Edward entered Harrow SchoolHarrow School
Harrow School, commonly known simply as "Harrow", is an English independent school for boys situated in the town of Harrow, in north-west London.. The school is of worldwide renown. There is some evidence that there has been a school on the site since 1243 but the Harrow School we know today was...
. Here his interest in natural history
Natural history
Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...
, art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
, architecture and science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
was fostered, particularly by F.W. Farrar, H.M. Butler and B.F. Wescott, his housemaster
Housemaster
In British education, a housemaster is a member of staff in charge of a boarding house, normally at a boarding school . The housemaster is responsible for the supervision and care of boarders in the house and typically lives on the premises...
and private tutor. (Prior remained a committed naturalist throughout his life. His collections of Lepidoptera
Lepidoptera
Lepidoptera is a large order of insects that includes moths and butterflies . It is one of the most widespread and widely recognizable insect orders in the world, encompassing moths and the three superfamilies of butterflies, skipper butterflies, and moth-butterflies...
remain largely intact, held by the Museum of St Albans
St Albans
St Albans is a city in southern Hertfordshire, England, around north of central London, which forms the main urban area of the City and District of St Albans. It is a historic market town, and is now a sought-after dormitory town within the London commuter belt...
.) Prior remained connected to Harrow School and was later to design several buildings for the school.
Cambridge University
In 1869 Prior won the Sayer Scholarship "for the promotion of classical learning and taste" to Gonville and Caius College, CambridgeGonville and Caius College, Cambridge
Gonville and Caius College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. The college is often referred to simply as "Caius" , after its second founder, John Keys, who fashionably latinised the spelling of his name after studying in Italy.- Outline :Gonville and...
to read the Classical Tripos. He augmented the Sayer Scholarship by also gaining a College Scholarship. In the same year B.F. Westcott
Brooke Foss Westcott
Brooke Foss Westcott was a British bishop, Biblical scholar and theologian, serving as Bishop of Durham from 1890 until his death.-Early life and education:...
was appointed Regius Professor of Divinity
Regius Professor of Divinity
The Regius Professorship of Divinity is one of the oldest and most prestigious of the professorships at the University of Oxford and at the University of Cambridge.Both chairs were founded by Henry VIII...
. Prior continued to gain from his instruction in architectural drawing at Cambridge. Other influences were Matthew Digby Wyatt
Matthew Digby Wyatt
Sir Matthew Digby Wyatt was a British architect and art historian who became Secretary of the Great Exhibition, Surveyor of the East India Company and the first Slade Professor of Fine Art at the University of Cambridge.-Life:...
and Sidney Colvin
Sidney Colvin
Sidney Colvin was an English curator and literary and art critic, part of the illustrious Anglo-Indian Colvin family. He is primarily remembered for his friendship with Robert Louis Stevenson.-Biography:...
, the first and second Slade Professors of Fine Art
Fine art
Fine art or the fine arts encompass art forms developed primarily for aesthetics and/or concept rather than practical application. Art is often a synonym for fine art, as employed in the term "art gallery"....
. Wyatt's lecture programme for 1871 included engraving
Engraving
Engraving is the practice of incising a design on to a hard, usually flat surface, by cutting grooves into it. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an intaglio printing plate, of copper or another metal, for printing...
, woodcutting, stained glass
Stained glass
The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works produced from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant buildings...
and mosaic
Mosaic
Mosaic is the art of creating images with an assemblage of small pieces of colored glass, stone, or other materials. It may be a technique of decorative art, an aspect of interior decoration, or of cultural and spiritual significance as in a cathedral...
. Prior's interest in the applied arts was probably strongly encouraged by Wyatt. Colvin, a friend of Edward Burne-Jones
Edward Burne-Jones
Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1st Baronet was a British artist and designer closely associated with the later phase of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, who worked closely with William Morris on a wide range of decorative arts as a founding partner in Morris, Marshall, Faulkner, and Company...
and Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Dante Gabriel Rossetti was an English poet, illustrator, painter and translator. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848 with William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais, and was later to be the main inspiration for a second generation of artists and writers influenced by the movement,...
, was elected Slade Professor in January 1873.
At Cambridge. Prior was also exposed to the work of William Morris
William Morris
William Morris 24 March 18343 October 1896 was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement...
. For example G.F. Bodley employed Morris & Co. to decorate All Saints Church
All Saints, Jesus Lane
All Saints is a church on Jesus Lane in central Cambridge, England, which was built by the architect G F Bodley. The church was constructed between 1863 and 1870 and, as a notable example of the Gothic Revival style and the Arts and Crafts Movement, is a Grade II* listed building...
in 1864-1866 and to design the glass for others of his Cambridge buildings.
Prior was a noted athlete
Athletics (track and field)
Athletics is an exclusive collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking. The most common types of athletics competitions are track and field, road running, cross country running, and race walking...
at Cambridge. He was a blue
University Sporting Blue
A Blue is an award earned by sportsmen and women at a university and some schools for competition at the highest level. The awarding of Blues began at Oxford and Cambridge Universities...
in long jump
Long jump
The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength, and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a take off point...
and high jump
High jump
The high jump is a track and field athletics event in which competitors must jump over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without the aid of certain devices in its modern most practiced format; auxiliary weights and mounds have been used for assistance; rules have changed over the years....
and won the British Amateur High Jump in 1872.
Norman Shaw's pupil
In the autumn of 1874 Prior was articled to Norman Shaw at 30 Argyll Street. Shaw seems to have been his first choice as mentor. Shaw had been George Edmund StreetGeorge Edmund Street
George Edmund Street was an English architect, born at Woodford in Essex.- Life :Street was the third son of Thomas Street, solicitor, by his second wife, Mary Anne Millington. George went to school at Mitcham in about 1830, and later to the Camberwell collegiate school, which he left in 1839...
's chief clerk and had set up in partnership with William Eden Nesfield
William Eden Nesfield
William Eden Nesfield was an English architect, designer and painter.W. E. Nesfield was the eldest son of the landscape architect and painter William Andrews Nesfield. He was educated at Eton and then articled to the architect William Burn in 1850, transferring after two years to his uncle by...
in 1866. The partnership only lasted until 1869, though Nesfield continued to share the premises until 1876. Shaw had made his name through country houses such as Cragside
Cragside
Cragside is a country house in the civil parish of Cartington in Northumberland, England. It was the first house in the world to be lit using hydroelectric power...
, Northumberland
Northumberland
Northumberland is the northernmost ceremonial county and a unitary district in North East England. For Eurostat purposes Northumberland is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "Northumberland and Tyne and Wear" NUTS 2 region...
. At the time Shaw’s architecture was regarded as original and entirely on its own by the younger generation of architects. His practice was already attracting brilliant young architects. Shaw's pupils were articled for three years, learning to measure buildings and to draw plans and elevations for contracts.
At the time Prior joined Shaw the practice was still small, with only three rooms shared with Nesfield. Shaw had a limited number of assistants and pupils, including Ernest Newton
Ernest Newton
Ernest Newton, FRIBA, ARA was an English architect and President of Royal Institute of British Architects.-Life:Newton was the son of an estate manager of Bickley, Kent. He was educated at Uppingham School. He married, in 1881, Antoinette Johanna Hoyack, of Rotterdam, and had three sons...
(1856–1922), who had joined Shaw in 1873 but who left to set up on his own in 1879, Richard Creed (1846–1914) and William West Neve
William West Neve
William West Neve was an English architect in the Arts and Crafts style.-Background:Born in Cranbrook, Kent, Neve was the youngest of seven siblings and the only son of solicitor William Tanner Neve and his spouse Maria West.Neve was educated at Cheltenham College, Gloucestershire and began his...
(1852–1942), who was also soon to set up in practice on his own behalf. Nesfield's assistant at the time was E. J. May, a former pupil of Decimus Burton
Decimus Burton
Decimus Burton was a prolific English architect and garden designer, He is particularly associated with projects in the classical style in London parks, including buildings at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and London Zoo, and with the layout and architecture of the seaside towns of Fleetwood and...
, who had been responsible for the Palm House
Palm House
A palm house is a greenhouse that is specialised for the growing of palms and other tropical and subtropical plants. Palm houses require constant heat and were built as status symbols in Victorian Britain...
at Kew Gardens amongst other buildings.
It was only later that the group that produced some of the most exiting Arts and Crafts Movement
Arts and Crafts movement
Arts and Crafts was an international design philosophy that originated in England and flourished between 1860 and 1910 , continuing its influence until the 1930s...
Architecture and scholarship and provided the impetus to the Movement came together under Shaw. William Lethaby
William Lethaby
William Richard Lethaby was an English architect and architectural historian whose ideas were highly influential on the late Arts and Crafts and early Modern movements in architecture, and in the fields of conservation and art education.-Early life:Lethaby was born in Barnstaple, Devon, the son of...
(1857–1931) joined the practice as Chief Assistant in 1878, Mervyn Macartney (1853–1932) joined as a pupil in the same year and Gerald Horsley (1862–1917) in 1879. May and Newton both set up in practice nearby. Horsley later illustrated Prior's A History of Gothic Art in England (1900). The St George's Art Society grew out of the discussions held amongst Shaw's past and present staff at Newton's Hart Street offices.
In the late 1870s and early 1880s Shaw's prestige was greatly enhanced by major success with "spectacular perspectives" exhibited at Royal Academy
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...
exhibitions. As Chief Draftsman Newton was probably the main influence on the drawing style though Prior may have made a considerable contribution.
By 1877 Shaw's health was deteriorating. His assistants were encouraged to supervise jobs and live on site. Prior was appointed Clerk of Works for St Margaret's Church, Ilkley
Ilkley
Ilkley is a spa town and civil parish in West Yorkshire, in the north of England. Ilkley civil parish includes the adjacent village of Ben Rhydding and is a ward within the metropolitan borough of Bradford. Approximately north of Bradford, the town lies mainly on the south bank of the River Wharfe...
, administering the works from November 1877 to August 1879. Prior was responsible for the contract drawings and possibly for the design of the roof reinforcement and some of the detailing and furniture, such as the font. Prior had been eager to gain practical experience of construction, an area of the profession in which Shaw was loath to give instruction. The expertise of the craftsmen at Ilkley made a deep impression on Prior;
Practice and private life
Prior only stayed a few months further with Shaw on his return from Ilkley. In 1880 he began his own practice at 17 Southampton Road, in close proximity to Shaw and others of his former employees. Reginald BlomfieldReginald Blomfield
Sir Reginald Theodore Blomfield was a prolific British architect, garden designer and author of the Victorian and Edwardian period.- Early life and career :...
leased an office on the second floor. Prior occupied the building until 1885 and again in 1889-94 and 1901.
His early commissions were are primarily located in areas where he had connections, in Harrow
Harrow, London
Harrow is an area in the London Borough of Harrow, northwest London, United Kingdom. It is a suburban area and is situated 12.2 miles northwest of Charing Cross...
and around Bridport
Bridport
Bridport is a market town in Dorset, England. Located near the coast at the western end of Chesil Beach at the confluence of the River Brit and its Asker and Simene tributaries, it originally thrived as a fishing port and rope-making centre...
in Dorset
Dorset
Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...
, where his father had lived and his mother's relatives, the Templers, were prominent and in Cambridge where he had been at University. The opening of the Metropolitan Railway
Metropolitan railway
Metropolitan Railway can refer to:* Metropolitan line, part of the London Underground* Metropolitan Railway, the first underground railway to be built in London...
to Harrow
Harrow, London
Harrow is an area in the London Borough of Harrow, northwest London, United Kingdom. It is a suburban area and is situated 12.2 miles northwest of Charing Cross...
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
Symondsbury
Symondsbury is a village in south west Dorset, England, west of Bridport and west of Dorchester. The village is located just to the north of the A35 trunk road, which runs between Southampton and Honiton. The village has a pub , a pottery and a primary school...
. They were married in Symmondsbury Church on 11 August 1885. Mervyn Macatney was best man.
The Priors lived in 6 Bloomsbury Square
Bloomsbury Square
Bloomsbury Square is a garden square in Bloomsbury, Camden, London.- Geography :To the north of the square is Great Russell Street and Bedford Place, leading to Russell Square. To the south is Bloomsbury Way. To the west is the British Museum and Holborn tube station is the nearest underground...
from 1885-1889. Here his daughters Laura and Christobel were born. Prior leased Bridgefoot, Iver
Iver
Iver is in the south-east corner of the English county of Buckinghamshire and it forms one of the largest civil parishes in the South Bucks district.Iver railway station is in Richings Park.-Etymology:...
, Bucks as a country residence in 1889, but on the birth of his second daughter it was leased to the architect G.F. Bodley
George Frederick Bodley
George Frederick Bodley was an English architect working in the Gothic revival style.-Personal life:Bodley was the youngest son of William Hulme Bodley, M.D. of Edinburgh, physician at Hull Royal Infirmary, Kingston upon Hull, who in 1838 retired to his wife's home town, Brighton, Sussex, England....
.
In 1894 Prior moved to 10 Melina Place, St John's Wood
St John's Wood
St John's Wood is a district of north-west London, England, in the City of Westminster, and at the north-west end of Regent's Park. It is approximately 2.5 miles north-west of Charing Cross. Once part of the Great Middlesex Forest, it was later owned by the Knights of St John of Jerusalem...
, next door to Voysey
Charles Voysey (architect)
Charles Francis Annesley Voysey was an English architect and furniture and textile designer. Voysey's early work was as a designer of wallpapers, fabrics and furnishings in a simple Arts and Crafts style, but he is renowned as the architect of a number of notable country houses...
, resulting in the development of a long term friendship and exchange of ideas between the two men, to the extent that Voysey is recorded as having painted the roofs of Prior’s seminal Model for a Dorsetshire Cottage
Prior moved to Sussex in 1907 initially living in an early 18th century house at 7 East Pallant, Chichester
Chichester
Chichester is a cathedral city in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, South-East England. It has a long history as a settlement; its Roman past and its subsequent importance in Anglo-Saxon times are only its beginnings...
. In 1908 he bought an 18th century house in Mount Lane with an adjacent warehouse which he converted to provide a studio. He continued the London practice as 1 Hare Court, Temple until the middle of the First World War. On his appointment as Slade Professor at Cambridge Prior also bought a house, Fariview in Shaftesbury Road, Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
.
After the First World War Prior unsuccessfully tried to restart his practice with H.C. Hughes. He started a commission for a house outside Cambridge but fell into a dispute with the client over the materials for the boundary hedge. Hughes took over the job as his own. Prior's scheme for the ciborium at Norwich Cathedral
Norwich Cathedral
Norwich Cathedral is a cathedral located in Norwich, Norfolk, dedicated to the Holy and Undivided Trinity. Formerly a Catholic church, it has belonged to the Church of England since the English Reformation....
was dropped deeply disappointing him.
In the post war years he only undertook the design of war memorials at Maiden Newton
Maiden Newton
Maiden Newton is a village and civil parish in west Dorset, England, north of Dorchester. Located on the River Frome, the village has a population of 952 , of whom 29.7% are retired. Maiden Newton railway station, which serves the village, is situated on the Heart of Wessex Line...
in Dorset
Dorset
Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...
and for Cambridge Union Rugby Club
Cambridge University R.U.F.C.
The Cambridge University Rugby Union Football Club, or CURUFC, is the rugby union club of Cambridge University, and plays Oxford University in the annual Varsity Match at Twickenham stadium every December. CURUFC players wear light blue and white hooped jerseys with a red lion crest...
.
The Arts and Craft Guilds
Prior played a crucial role in the establishment of the Guilds that were the intellectual focus of the Arts and Crafts MovementArts and Crafts movement
Arts and Crafts was an international design philosophy that originated in England and flourished between 1860 and 1910 , continuing its influence until the 1930s...
. The St George's Art Society 1883-1886 was founded by a group of architects who had seen service in the Shaw's offices, Ernest Newton
Ernest Newton
Ernest Newton, FRIBA, ARA was an English architect and President of Royal Institute of British Architects.-Life:Newton was the son of an estate manager of Bickley, Kent. He was educated at Uppingham School. He married, in 1881, Antoinette Johanna Hoyack, of Rotterdam, and had three sons...
, Mervyn Macartney, Reginald Barratt, Edwin Hardy, William Lethaby
William Lethaby
William Richard Lethaby was an English architect and architectural historian whose ideas were highly influential on the late Arts and Crafts and early Modern movements in architecture, and in the fields of conservation and art education.-Early life:Lethaby was born in Barnstaple, Devon, the son of...
and Prior, to discuss Art and Architecture. It initially met in Newton's chambers by St George's Church, Bloomsbury
Bloomsbury
-Places:* Bloomsbury is an area in central London.* Bloomsbury , related local government unit* Bloomsbury, New Jersey, New Jersey, USA* Bloomsbury , listed on the NRHP in Maryland...
. Prior was on the committee. Monthly meetings were held and papers read, Prior speaking on "Terracotta" and "Tombs". Trips were arranged to see buildings.
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 Institute of British Architects and the Royal Academy
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...
.
After various consultations invitations were sent out to twenty four artists including members of The fifteen, founded by the designer and writer Lewis Day and the illustrator and designer Walter Crane
Walter Crane
Walter Crane was an English artist and book illustrator. He is considered to be the most prolific and influential children’s book creator of his generation and, along with Randolph Caldecott and Kate Greenaway, one of the strongest contributors to the child's nursery motif that the genre of...
and other such as J. D. Sedding
J. D. Sedding
John Dando Sedding was a noted Victorian church architect, working on new buildings and repair work, with an interest in a ‘crafted Gothic’ style. He was an influential figure in the Arts and Crafts movement, many of whose leading designers studied in his offices...
, Ernest George
Ernest George
Sir Ernest George RA was an English architect, landscape and architectural watercolour painter, and etcher.-Life and work:...
and Basil Champneys
Basil Champneys
Basil Champneys was an architect and author whose more notable buildings include Newnham College, Cambridge, Manchester's John Rylands Library, Mansfield College, Oxford and Oriel College, Oxford's Rhodes Building.- Life :...
. Various names for the group were proposed and Prior's suggestion of the "Art Workers Guild
Art Workers Guild
The Art Workers Guild or Art-Workers' Guild is an organisation established in 1884 by a group of British architects associated with the ideas of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement. The guild promoted the 'unity of all the arts', denying the distinction between fine and applied art...
" was accepted at the meeting of 11 March 1884. Prior also wrote the Guild's first prospectus.
The Guild was highly influential on the architecture of the Arts and Crafts Movement
Arts and Crafts movement
Arts and Crafts was an international design philosophy that originated in England and flourished between 1860 and 1910 , continuing its influence until the 1930s...
, but Prior remained only a minor player for some time, until he was elected to the governing committee in 1889. However the contact with other luminaries of the Society certainly encouraged Prior to rationalise and develop his theories. He was also able to call on the skills of a wide range of craft practitioners from the Guild for the design and construction of furniture for many of his buildings. Prior became Master in 1906.
Prior was also active in various other organisations of the time, including the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society
Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society
The Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society was formed in London in 1887 to promote the exhibition of decorative arts alongside fine arts. Its exhibitions, held annually at the New Gallery from 1888–90, and roughly every three years thereafter, were important in the flowering of the British Arts and...
of 1886, set up to combat the exclusiveness of the Royal Academy
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...
, and the National Association for the Advancement of Art and its Application to Industry of 1888, at which he gave his inspired lecture on "Texture as a Quality of Art and a Condition for Architecture" that set out the rationale behind his most significant buildings. His involvement with The Clergy and Artists’ Association of 1896, set up to improve the links between patron and producer, led directly to commissions for example for the lych gate at Methley
Methley
Methley is a dispersed village in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough, south east of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is located near Rothwell, Oulton, Woodlesford, Mickletown and Allerton Bywater. It nestles in the triangle formed by Leeds, Castleford and Wakefield, and is between the...
Church.
Scholarship
During the late 1890s Prior's practice received few commissions. The study of Gothic artGothic art
Gothic art was a Medieval art movement that developed in France out of Romanesque art in the mid-12th century, led by the concurrent development of Gothic architecture. It spread to all of Western Europe, but took over art more completely north of the Alps, never quite effacing more classical...
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 Art at Cambridge University in 1905.
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 Art Workers GuildArt Workers Guild
The Art Workers Guild or Art-Workers' Guild is an organisation established in 1884 by a group of British architects associated with the ideas of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement. The guild promoted the 'unity of all the arts', denying the distinction between fine and applied art...
, whose members believed, quite correctly, that RIBA
Royal Institute of British Architects
The Royal Institute of British Architects is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally.-History:...
wished to establish itself as the sole arbiter of the profession culminating in the publication of a collection of essays Architecture: A Profession or an Art in 1892, to which Prior contributed a chapter criticising the common use of "hirelings" to do the architect's work. In the same year Prior, amongst others resigned from the RIBA.
As a result of the controversy members of the Guild became very interested in architectural education. The Architectural Association established a School of Handicraft and Design to extend its training scheme. It had been criticised for being to geared to the RIBA’s examination system. Prior was one of the architect-visitors who drew up projects and gave the "crits".
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
Henry Montagu Butler
Henry Montagu Butler was an English academic.He was the son of a previous Headmaster of Harrow School, George Butler and his wife Sarah Maria née Gray. Educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge, he married Georgina Elliot in 1861...
, who was by then Dean of Trinity College
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...
, Dr Charles Waldstein, Slade Professor of Fine Art and William Ridgway 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.
Prior the man
In many ways Prior fits the stereotype of a privileged late 19th Century ex public school boy, barrister's son and Cambridge Blue. His bullying, playful manner are well recorded:However underlying the argumentative and bulling façade lurked an artist and scholar. He was and remained a Tory throughout his life, perhaps explaining his lack of interest in social housing and the garden city movement
Garden city movement
The garden city movement is a method of urban planning that was initiated in 1898 by Sir Ebenezer Howard in the United Kingdom. Garden cities were intended to be planned, self-contained communities surrounded by "greenbelts" , containing proportionate areas of residences, industry and...
. Yet he was close friends with the socialist Lethaby and a strong opponent of the professionalisation of architecture and believed that the architect should merely facilitate the work of craftsmen. In his long academic career he aimed to produce a "world of builders, who would build with the direct knowledge of working conditions".
His obituary in the Architect and Building News perhaps best summed him up:
He remained as Slade Professor until his death from cancer in August the 19th 1932. He was buried in an unmarked grave at St. Mary’s Church, Apuldram
Apuldram
Apuldram or Appledram is a small parish on the north eastern upper reach of Chichester Harbour about two miles south-west of the centre of Chichester in West Sussex, England....
. Few of his friends remained, Lethaby, Newton, and Horsley were all dead, and none of his former architectural colleagues attended his funeral.
Prior's writings
- Architecture, a profession or an art, Jackson, T.G. and Shaw, N
- Cathedral Builders in England, Prior, E.S., 1905
- Medieval Figure Sculpture, Prior, E.S. and Gardiner, 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 ReviewArchitectural ReviewThe Architectural Review is a monthly international architectural magazine published in London since 1896. Articles cover the built environment which includes landscape, building design, interior design and urbanism as well as theory of these subjects....
, 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.
Periodicals
The Architect.- May 24, 1889, vol. 42, p. 299
- July 19, 1889, vol. 42, p. 35, Manor Lodge Harrow
- May 2, 1890, vol. 43, p. 277, Carr Manor, Meanwood Leeds
- September 5, 1890, vol. 44, p. 141
- October 3, 1890, vol. 44, p. 205
- January 30, 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
- September 4, 1885, vol. 24, p. 106
- May 17, 1895, vol. 43, pp. 348–9
- December 21, 1900, vol. 54, p. 452
- May 5, 1899, vol. 51, p. 307
The Builder
- Vol XCIII, 23 Nov. 1907, Randall Wells, p563
Building
- June 14, 1884, vol. 46, pp. 866–7
- October 25, 1890, vol. 59, p. 328
- December 5, 1896, vol. 71, p. 470
- October 12, 1907, vol. 93, p. 386
Builders Journal
- June 4, 1895, vol. 1, p. 259
Building News
- July 21, 1882, vol. 43, p. 81
- December 8, 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