Architects

Name:

William Burges

Designation :

Architect

Date of Birth:

Exact Date

Exact DOB:

12/02/1827

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Date of Death:

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Exact DOD:

20/04/1881

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Bio Notes :

William Burges was born in London on 2 December 1827, the eldest son of Alfred Burges, civil engineer and partner in the harbour and bridge building practice of Walker & Burges. From his earliest youth Burges was very short-sighted. He was educated at King's College School, London from 1839, his contemporaries there included Dante Gabriel Rossetti and William Michael Rossetti. In 1893 he entered King's College proper to study construction but after a year he left to become an articled pupil of Edward Blore working on Buckingham Palace, Lambeth Palace and Glasgow Cathedral. When Blore retired in 1849 Burges moved to the office of Matthew Digby Wyatt, working on the Great Exhibtion of 1851 and assisting with two related boioks 'Metal work and its Artistic Design' and 'The Industrial Arts of the Nineteenth Century', published in 1852 and 1853-54 respectively. But before these had appeared Burges had left in 1851 to become assistant to Henry Clutton, an older colleague in Blore's office. At Clutton's he was employed mainly on ecclesiastical and country house work, and assisted with his 'Remarks with illustrations on the Domestic Architecture of France' (1853). This Burges was particularly well equipped to do, having travelled intensively in France since 1849. Burges visited Italy in 1854, primarily for its decorative arts and together Clutton and Burges competed successfully for the new cathedral at Lille in 1855.

In May 1856 the partnership with Clutton ended in disagreement and Burges commenced independent practice at 15 Buckingham Street, Strand. Again he was successful at once, winning the competition for the Crimea memorial Church in 1856-57. As a result of a disagreement with the Committee, this remained on paper but his visit to Constantinople to lay the foundation stone was the origin of the Saracenic element in his work, and was followed by still more extensive travel in search of inspiration to Sicily, Spain and the Holy Land. Although he never went there the Islamic architecture of Cairo was a source of inspiration, as was Japanese art which he first saw at the International Exhibition of 1862.

In 1859 Burges designed the Anglican cathedral at Brisbane which remained on paper like the Crimea church, but in that same year he received his first country house commission, alterations and additions to Gayhurst. He was admitted FRIBA on 21 May 1860 and in that same year he carried out restoration work at Waltham Abbey. In 1863 he successfully competed for St Finbar's Cathedral, Cork, the design of which was later to influence his competition submission for St Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh.

In 1864 (David Prout in the 'Dictionary of art') or 1865 (Crook in 'William Burges and the High Victorian Dream') Burges was introduced to John Patrick, 3rd Marquess of Bute, his father having been engineer for the Marquess's harbours at Cardiff. For Bute Burges reconstructed Cardiff Castle, rebuilt Castel Coch, designed the Cardiff house of his agent, James McConnachie, fitted up the original chapel at Mount Stuart and built the Roman Catholic Church at Cumnock, together with innumerable artefacts, to become a close family friend as well as architect, and travelled with him in Spain in 1874.

In 1880 Burges's health deteriorated, at least partly as a result of his bachelor lifestyle of smoking both tobacco and opium. A long ride in a dog-cart at Cardiff on 28 March 1881 brought about a chill which in turn led to him becoming semi-paralysed. He died at Tower House, Kensington, on 20 April 1881 and was buried at Norwood Cemetery in the tomb he had designed for his mother. His drawings were taken over by Richard Popplewell Pullan who had married his sister Mary and had his won practice, but the Butes found Pullan 'rather a brute' and he did not succeed in retaining the Butes as clients.

Bio Notes continued...

Additional Notes

The following private or business addresses are associated with this person:

Business Addresses2 classic

Address	Class	Date From	Date From Type	Date To	Date To Type	Notes
15 Buckingham Stree, Strand London England	Business	1856/05
Tower House Kensington London England	Business			1891

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The following individuals were employed or trained by this person (click on an item to view details):

Employees or Pupils2 classic

Name	Name Link	Date From	Date To	Position
Axel Herman Haig	204452	After 1857	Before 1880	Assistant
(Sir) William Emerson	203587	After 1861	Before 1864	Apprentice
William Frame	201218	In year 1868	In year 1881	Assistant
Walter John Nash Millard	202233	In year 1874	In year 1875	Assistant
John George Gibbins	206097	Late 1866s	In year 1867	Draughtsman
Edward John Dodgshun	205515	c. 1874	In year 1875	Assistant
(Sir) Thomas Manly Deane	200885			Apprentice

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This person proposed the following individuals for RIBA membership (click on an item to view details):

RIBA PROPOSALS2 classic

Person	Date Proposed	Notes
(Sir) Robert William Edis	1862/11/17	for Associateship
Charles John Phipps	1866/02/12	for Fellowship
(Sir) William Emerson	1866/02/12	for Associateship
(Sir) Robert Rowand Anderson	1874/06/01	for Fellowship; lapsed 1889
William Leiper	1881/11/07	for Fellowship

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The following books contain references to this person:

Bib ref classic

Author	Title	Date	Publisher
Burges, William	Architectural Drawings 1883-1887	1870
Taylor, Nicholas and Symondson, Anthony	Burges and Morris at Bingley		Architectural Review (no date given in NMRS)
Grove Dictionary of Art	Grove Dictionary of Art
DNB	Dictionary of National Biography
Pullan, Richard Popplewell (ed.)	The Architectural Designs of William Birges
Handley-Read, C	William Burges	1963	Vferriday, P (ed) Victorian Architecture
Pullan, Richard Popplewell	The Designs of william Burges	1885
Crook, J Mordaunt (ed)	The Strange Genius of William Burges, 'Art Architect' 1827-1881

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The following periodicals contain references to this person:

Period ref classic

Periodical Name	Date Circ	Edition	Notes
British Architect	1881/04/29	*
RIBA Transactions	1881-1882	*	p17-30
RIBA Transactions	1993\|1994	*	Article by George Aitchison

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The following archives hold material relating to this person:

Arc ref classic

Archive Name	Source	Source Cat No	Notes
RIBA Drawings Collection	RIBA Archive, Victoria & Albert Museum	200010	Drawings and notebooks
Bute Archives	Mount Stuart	200023	MSS
Prints & drawings collection	Victoria & Albert Museum	200706	Drawings and estimate book
Abstract of diaries	J M Crook	200707

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Basic Biographic Details

Addresses

Business Addresses

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Employees or Pupils

Employees or Pupils2 classic

RIBA Proposals

RIBA PROPOSALS2 classic

References

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