Robert Lewis Roumieu
Encyclopedia
Robert Lewis Roumieu, otherwise R.L. Roumieu, was a Victorian architect best known for 33-35 Eastcheap
, London EC3.
Born in 1814, Roumieu was of Huguenot
descent and his middle name is occasionally spelled "Louis". His forebears were "an illustrious Huguenot family - the Roumieus of Languedoc
." The name "Roumieu
" has been listed among those Huguenot refugees who settled in Great Britain and Ireland during the reign of Louis XIV (1643-1714).
With his partner Alexander Dick Gough (1804-71), Roumieu completed some notable projects in the Camden
and Islington
enclaves. They enlarged and restored St Pancras Old Church
in 1847-8. They also designed Milner Square in Islington
, which still survives today. The Almeida Theatre
, too, was their work, completed entirely in stucco
in 1837.
(1845-77). Prior to that he was at 8 Regent's Square, St Pancras, London
(1845) and after that period at 7 St George's Terrace, Regent's Park, London (1877, the year he died).
Until 1831, when he was 17 years of age, R.L. Roumieu was articled to Benjamin Dean Wyatt
(1755-1852).
), having been proposed by H L Keys, E M Foxhall, and H E Kendall.
All three of Roumieu's proposers had become Fellows of the Institute a year after its foundation, in 1835.
was a market street. By the mid-19th century, it largely reflected the rise of offices and warehousing. In 1868 R L Roumieu designed 33-35 Eastcheap at a cost of £8,170 as a vinegar warehouse for Hill & Evans. It has been seen as "crazy and dazzling" and one of the City of London's
most original commercial façades.
Ian Nairn
characterises it as "truly demoniac" - "the scream you wake on at the end of a nightmare". Nairn concludes that the building, however terrifyingly Gothic, should be preserved as an element of the human temperament not often found in architecture. Stamp and Amery praise the originality with which
Hailing it as "the City's
masterpiece of polychromatic Gothic
self-advertisement", Pevsner notes its
The roofline is accentuated with iron foliage finials. At street level, the arcading and iron gates date from 1987. Above the two lights of the central Gothic window Roumieu placed an animal carving in a medallion recalling the celebrated Boar's Head tavern.
Roumieu also built several warehouses for the vinegar-makers Messrs Crosse & Blackwell
, and also stables for the same firm in Crown Street, Soho, London. These were on the site of Charing Cross Road (subsequently converted to offices).
Additionally, Roumieu was surveyor to the Gas, Light and Coke Company's Estate at Beckton, the French Hospital Estate, St Luke's, and several other estates in and near London.
Additionally, R. St A. Roumieu reflected the family's origins in becoming President of the Huguenot Society in London. In this capacity, he unveiled a memorial in 1911 to Wandsworth Huguenots.
He maintained his father's association with the French Hospital, as seen by the inscribed bowl presented to him by the Directors of the French Hospital on 13 January 1921. It was recently sold by the auction firm Bonhams
in Edinburgh for £2,500.
which was bought back from them for council housing. It is recorded that 76 acres (307,561.4 m²) of land on Osmaston Park Road "were bought in 1914 from R St Aubyn Roumieu, R L Roumieu (and others) for £8000 averaging £104 per acre".
Eastcheap
Eastcheap is a street in the City of London. Its name derives from cheap, market, with the prefix "East" distinguishing it from the other former City of London market of Westcheap . In medieval times Eastcheap was the City's main meat market, with butchers' stalls lining both sides of the street...
, London EC3.
Born in 1814, Roumieu was of Huguenot
Huguenot
The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the 17th century, people who formerly would have been called Huguenots have instead simply been called French Protestants, a title suggested by their German co-religionists, the...
descent and his middle name is occasionally spelled "Louis". His forebears were "an illustrious Huguenot family - the Roumieus of Languedoc
Languedoc
Languedoc is a former province of France, now continued in the modern-day régions of Languedoc-Roussillon and Midi-Pyrénées in the south of France, and whose capital city was Toulouse, now in Midi-Pyrénées. It had an area of approximately 42,700 km² .-Geographical Extent:The traditional...
." The name "Roumieu
Roumieu
The surname Roumieu may refer to:*Graham Roumieu, Canadian illustrator*Robert Lewis Roumieu, also known as R.L. Roumieu, Victorian architect in London*Reginald St Aubyn Roumieu, also known as R St A Roumieu, architect and son of R.L. Roumieu....
" has been listed among those Huguenot refugees who settled in Great Britain and Ireland during the reign of Louis XIV (1643-1714).
With his partner Alexander Dick Gough (1804-71), Roumieu completed some notable projects in the Camden
London Borough of Camden
In 1801, the civil parishes that form the modern borough were already developed and had a total population of 96,795. This continued to rise swiftly throughout the 19th century, as the district became built up; reaching 270,197 in the middle of the century...
and Islington
Islington
Islington is a neighbourhood in Greater London, England and forms the central district of the London Borough of Islington. It is a district of Inner London, spanning from Islington High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the area around the busy Upper Street...
enclaves. They enlarged and restored St Pancras Old Church
St Pancras Old Church
St Pancras Old Church is a Church of England parish church in central London. It is believed to be one of the oldest sites of Christian worship in England, and is dedicated to the Roman martyr Saint Pancras, although the building itself is largely Victorian...
in 1847-8. They also designed Milner Square in Islington
Islington
Islington is a neighbourhood in Greater London, England and forms the central district of the London Borough of Islington. It is a district of Inner London, spanning from Islington High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the area around the busy Upper Street...
, which still survives today. The Almeida Theatre
Almeida Theatre
The Almeida Theatre, opened in 1980, is a 325 seat studio theatre with an international reputation which takes its name from the street in which it is located, off Upper Street, in the London Borough of Islington. The theatre produces a diverse range of drama and holds an annual summer festival of...
, too, was their work, completed entirely in stucco
Stucco
Stucco or render is a material made of an aggregate, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as decorative coating for walls and ceilings and as a sculptural and artistic material in architecture...
in 1837.
Early life, training and FRIBA
R.L. Roumieu's grandfather was Abraham Roumieu (1734-1780). For 22 years his address was 10 Lancaster Place, Strand, LondonStrand, London
Strand is a street in the City of Westminster, London, England. The street is just over three-quarters of a mile long. It currently starts at Trafalgar Square and runs east to join Fleet Street at Temple Bar, which marks the boundary of the City of London at this point, though its historical length...
(1845-77). Prior to that he was at 8 Regent's Square, St Pancras, London
St Pancras, London
St Pancras is an area of London. For many centuries the name has been used for various officially-designated areas, but now is used informally and rarely having been largely superseded by several other names for overlapping districts.-Ancient parish:...
(1845) and after that period at 7 St George's Terrace, Regent's Park, London (1877, the year he died).
Until 1831, when he was 17 years of age, R.L. Roumieu was articled to Benjamin Dean Wyatt
Benjamin Dean Wyatt
Benjamin Dean Wyatt was an English architect. He was the son and pupil of the architect James Wyatt, and the brother of Matthew Cotes Wyatt....
(1755-1852).
Roumieu's Fellowship of RIBA and his three proposers
On 15 December 1845 R.L. Roumieu qualified as FRIBA (Fellow of the Royal Institute of British ArchitectsRoyal 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:...
), having been proposed by H L Keys, E M Foxhall, and H E Kendall.
All three of Roumieu's proposers had become Fellows of the Institute a year after its foundation, in 1835.
- Henry Lant Keys was born in 1800 or 1801.
- Edward Martin Foxhall (1733-1862), a District Surveyor of St George's Hanover Square and was articled to Sir John Soane (1753-1831).
- Establishing the identity of Henry Edward Kendall is problematic, for there are two identically named, father and son. H E Kendall (1776-1875) was from 1823, District Surveyor for St Martin in the Fields. His son, Henry Edward Kendall Jr (1805-55) received his FRIBA in 1842. It seems likely that the Kendall who proposed Roumieu was Kendall Sr. As a possible former pupil of John NashJohn NashJohn Nash may refer to:*John Nash , Anglo-Welsh architect*John Forbes Nash, Jr. , American mathematician, 1994 Nobel Economics laureate, subject of the book and film titled A Beautiful Mind...
he may have carried some weight, and he had also proposed Foxhall as a Fellow.
Career
From 1836-1848 R.L. Roumieu was partner of Alexander Dick Gough. It appears to have been a close relationship, inasmuch as Gough named his architect son "Hugh Roumieu Gough".Milner Square, Islington
Roumieu and Gough's Milner Square, Islington, has been taken as "an early example of his [Roumieu's] talent for strangeness and distortion."33-35 Eastcheap
During the Middle Ages, EastcheapEastcheap
Eastcheap is a street in the City of London. Its name derives from cheap, market, with the prefix "East" distinguishing it from the other former City of London market of Westcheap . In medieval times Eastcheap was the City's main meat market, with butchers' stalls lining both sides of the street...
was a market street. By the mid-19th century, it largely reflected the rise of offices and warehousing. In 1868 R L Roumieu designed 33-35 Eastcheap at a cost of £8,170 as a vinegar warehouse for Hill & Evans. It has been seen as "crazy and dazzling" and one of the City of London's
City of London
The City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...
most original commercial façades.
Ian Nairn
Ian Nairn
Ian Nairn was a British architectural critic and topographer.He had no formal architecture qualifications; he was a mathematics graduate and a Royal Air Force pilot...
characterises it as "truly demoniac" - "the scream you wake on at the end of a nightmare". Nairn concludes that the building, however terrifyingly Gothic, should be preserved as an element of the human temperament not often found in architecture. Stamp and Amery praise the originality with which
the high gablesGablesGables may refer to:* Gables, portion of walls between the lines of sloping roofs* Ken Gables , Major League Baseball pitcher* Gables, Nebraska, an unincorporated community in the United States...
broke through the standard corniceCorniceCornice molding is generally any horizontal decorative molding that crowns any building or furniture element: the cornice over a door or window, for instance, or the cornice around the edge of a pedestal. A simple cornice may be formed just with a crown molding.The function of the projecting...
line and the confident canopies gave tremendous vigour to the façadeFacadeA facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....
.
Hailing it as "the City's
City of London
The City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...
masterpiece of polychromatic Gothic
Gothic Revival architecture
The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...
self-advertisement", Pevsner notes its
Red brick with blue brick bands...dressed in Tisbury stone with Devonshire marble columns, all organized into a frenzy of sharp gables, a shaft resting on top of a gable, others starting on corbels. Strictly symmetrical...twin three-bay outer sections narrow as they rise, exposing a recessed centre with a dormerDormerA dormer is a structural element of a building that protrudes from the plane of a sloping roof surface. Dormers are used, either in original construction or as later additions, to create usable space in the roof of a building by adding headroom and usually also by enabling addition of windows.Often...
in the steep roof."
The roofline is accentuated with iron foliage finials. At street level, the arcading and iron gates date from 1987. Above the two lights of the central Gothic window Roumieu placed an animal carving in a medallion recalling the celebrated Boar's Head tavern.
Other work
Aside from the works mentioned above, Roumieu's corpus, as listed in his obituary, comprised:- restoration and additions to "Franks", Kent and of Kensworth Church, HertfordshireHertfordshireHertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...
- St Mark's Church and Parsonage, Tunbridge Wells
- Manor Park Estate, Streatham, London
- Victoria Ironworks, Isle of Dogs (this is the Docklands area of London)
- the French Hospital, Victoria Park, HackneyLondon Borough of HackneyThe London Borough of Hackney is a London borough of North/North East London, and forms part of inner London. The local authority is Hackney London Borough Council....
- St Michael's Church, Islington
- the Prudential Assurance office, Ludgate Hill, City of LondonCity of LondonThe City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...
- chambers in 10 Old Broad Street, City of London
- Victoria Wharf, Upper Thames Street, City of London
- Messrs Woodall's Carriage Factory, Orchard Street, London
- East St Pancras Schools
- 34 Eastcheap (the building now known as 33-35 Eastcheap)
- additions to Brookshill, Harrow Weald; to Itchel Manor House, Itchel, Hampshire; and to Whitbourne HallWhitbourne HallWhitbourne Hall is a grade II* listed neo-Palladian country house located in the village of Whitbourne in Herefordshire , England....
, near Worcester - "The Lymes", Stanmore, MiddlesexMiddlesexMiddlesex 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...
- "The Cedars," Harrow Weald, Middlesex
- additions to "The Priory" (Sir James Knight Bruce), Roehampton, and "The Priory," Wimbledon
Roumieu also built several warehouses for the vinegar-makers Messrs Crosse & Blackwell
Crosse & Blackwell
Crosse & Blackwell is a food production brand which has been in existence since 1706.Originally trading under the Jackson brand and then West and Wyatt, the company was purchased in 1830 by Edmund Crosse and Thomas Blackwell...
, and also stables for the same firm in Crown Street, Soho, London. These were on the site of Charing Cross Road (subsequently converted to offices).
Additionally, Roumieu was surveyor to the Gas, Light and Coke Company's Estate at Beckton, the French Hospital Estate, St Luke's, and several other estates in and near London.
Reginald St Aubyn Roumieu
R.L. Roumieu's son, Reginald St Aubyn Roumieu (1854-1921) had an architectural practice with Alfred Aitchison at his father's premises of 10 Lancaster Place, near the Strand. Roumieu and Aitchison completed R.L. Roumieu's designs for Charing Cross Road, (a warehouse for Crosse and Blackwell), following his demise in 1877.Additionally, R. St A. Roumieu reflected the family's origins in becoming President of the Huguenot Society in London. In this capacity, he unveiled a memorial in 1911 to Wandsworth Huguenots.
He maintained his father's association with the French Hospital, as seen by the inscribed bowl presented to him by the Directors of the French Hospital on 13 January 1921. It was recently sold by the auction firm Bonhams
Bonhams
Bonhams is a privately owned British auction house founded in 1793. It is the third largest auctioneer after Sotheby's and Christie's, and conducts around 700 auctions per year. It has 700 employees....
in Edinburgh for £2,500.
A Derby connection
The Roumieu family appear to have owned land in DerbyDerby
Derby , is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands region of England. It lies upon the banks of the River Derwent and is located in the south of the ceremonial county of Derbyshire. In the 2001 census, the population of the city was 233,700, whilst that of the Derby Urban Area was 229,407...
which was bought back from them for council housing. It is recorded that 76 acres (307,561.4 m²) of land on Osmaston Park Road "were bought in 1914 from R St Aubyn Roumieu, R L Roumieu (and others) for £8000 averaging £104 per acre".