Architects

Name:

Edward Welby Pugin

Designation :

Architect

Date of Birth:

Exact Date

Exact DOB:

03/11/1834

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Date of Death:

Exact Date

Exact DOD:

06/05/1875

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Bio Notes :

The founder of the Pugin & Pugin practice was Edward Welby Pugin, born in London on 11 March 1834, eldest son of Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin and his second wife Louisa Burton. He was brought up in his father's office and was 'his right hand man' by the age of sixteen, keeping the practice going through his father's periodic fits of madness from February 1852 onwards. When his father died on 14 September of that year he was eighteen. The sole beneficiary of his father's will was his third wife, Jane Knill, and on the advice of the stained-glass manufacturer John Hardman Powell who had married Pugin's eldest daughter Anne, Jane Pugin moved both household and practice to Birmingham partly to be near their main patron the 17th Earl of Shrewsbury. For the Earl, Edward revised his father's designs very much in his father's style, but in 1856 the Earl died. The Pugin family resettled in Gordon Square, London, in the same year becoming sufficiently prosperous to resume full occupation of the Grange at Ramsgate by 1861.

In 1856 Edward succeeded in having himself appointed an additional assessor in the Lille Cathedral competition. Thereafter he began working in an individualistic French and Flemish gothic, often with strong polychromatic effects. His practice expanded rapidly and to cope with it he set up an additional office in Liverpool and formed a partnership with the Irishman James Murray in 1857, who had already been in practice there. In 1860 he formed a second partnership with his brother-in-law George Coppinger Ashlin and opened a Dublin office for Irish work. The Murray partnership was, however, dissolved in 1860, Murray thereafter practising on his own account until his early death; and in 1862 Edward merged his practice with that of the older and well-established Joseph Aloysius Hansom. That partnership closed acrimoniously in the following year.

Edward Pugin was admitted FRIBA on 16 June 1862. Two years earlier in 1860 he had founded the South East Furniture Company to manufacture his designs, the management of it being largely in the hands of his brother Cuthbert. The break-up of his partnership with Ashlin in 1869 may have been related to a much more high-risk business venture, the Granville Hotel at Ramsgate, a vast hotel and hydropathic complex. This failed in 1873 leaving Pugin bankrupt with liabilities of £187,000. Some sources state that he left for the United States where he quickly obtained commissions for some thirty churches and a monastery in Cuba. However his stay there must have been quite brief as he was involved in various libel cases (both against and by him) in 1874-5. The English and Scottish work in hand was continued by his brothers Cuthbert Welby Pugin, born to Louisa in 1840, and Peter Paul Pugin, born in 1851 to his father's third wife Jane Knill, both of whom had been assisting him since the 1860s and had recently been taken into partnership, the practice becoming Pugin & Pugin.

Edward Pugin died suddenly on 5 June 1875 as a result of overwork and 'injudicious use of chloral hydrate'. He was unmarried and the main responsibility for the practice passed to his brother Peter Paul.

Bio Notes continued...

Additional Notes

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

Private Addresses2 classic

Address	Class	Date From Char	Date From Type	Date To Char	Date To Type	Notes
London England	Private					Place of birth.
Gordon Square London England	Private

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Business Addresses2 classic

Address	Class	Notes
Birmingham England	Business
Liverpool England	Business	Branch office
Dublin Eire	Business	Branch office
25 Savile Row London England	Business
Victoria Street London England	Business
United States of America	Business

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

Employers2 classic

Name	Name Link	Date From	Date To	Position
Pugin & Pugin	200345	Early 1870s	Before 1875	Partner
Pugin & Murray	202120	In year 1857	In year 1860	Partner
Pugin & Ashlin	202912	In year 1860	In year 1869	Partner
Joseph Aloysius Hansom & Edward Welby Pugin	201412	In year 1862	In year 1863	Partner

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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
Cuthbert Welby Pugin	202906	Early 1860s	Early 1870s	Assistant
George Coppinger Ashlin	202911	In year 1856	In year 1859	Apprentice
Peter Paul Pugin	100209	c. 1860	Early 1870s	Assistant

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This person was involved with the following buildings or structures from the date specified (click on an item to view details):

Buildings and Designs2 classic

Building Name	Date Started	Town, District or Village	City or County	Country	Notes
St Mary Star of the Sea RC Church	In year 1852	Leith	Edinburgh	Scotland	With A W N Pugin and Hansom?
St Stephen's RC Church	In year 1856	Blairgowrie	Perthshire	Scotland
St Margaret's Convent of the Ursulines of Jesus	In year 1861		Edinburgh	Scotland	School wing: apparently designed in association with James Murray
St Mary's RC Chapel	In year 1862	Haddington	East Lothian	Scotland
St Mary and St Finnan RC Church	In year 1873	Glenfinnan	Inverness-shire	Scotland

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The following books contain references to this person:

Bib ref classic

Author	Title	Date	Publisher	Part	Notes
British Architectural Library, RIBA	Directory of British Architects 1834-1914	2001
Anson, Peter	Fashions in church furnishings	1965	London	2nd
O'Donnell, Roderick	The later Pugins		Pugin: a Gothic passion ed. Paul Attenbury and Clive Wainwright	Chapter 20
Wedgwood, Alexandra	A W N Pugin and the Pugin family	1985
Atterbury, Paul, et al.	A W N Pugin Master of the Gothic Revival	1996			See especially Chapter 10, p208

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The following periodicals contain references to this person:

Period ref classic

Periodical Name	Date Circ	Edition
Builder	1875/06/12	*
Builder	1875/06/19	*
Builder	1875/06/26	*
Building News	1875/06/11	*
Building News	1875/06/18	*
Architect	1875/06/12	*
London Standard	1874/06/03
Nottinghamshire Guardian	1874/12/04
East London Observer	1874/12/05

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Basic Biographic Details

Addresses

Private Addresses

Private Addresses2 classic

Business Addresses

Business Addresses2 classic

Employment and Training

Employers2 classic

Employees or Pupils

Employees or Pupils2 classic

Buildings and Designs

Buildings and Designs2 classic

References

Bibliographic References

Bib ref classic

Periodical References

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