John Harvey | |
|---|---|
 John Hooper Harvey in 1978 | |
| Born | (1911-05-25)25 May 1911 |
| Died | 18 November 1997(1997-11-18) (aged 86) |
| Education | St John's School, Leatherhead |
| Alma mater | Regent Street Polytechnic |
| Occupation | Architectural historian |
| Political party | Imperial Fascist League |
| Movement | Fascism,Nordicism |
John Hooper HarveyFSA (25 May 1911 – 18 November 1997) was an English architectural historian, who specialised in writing onEnglish Gothic architecture and architects. Art historianPaul Crossley described him as "the most prolific and arguably the most influential writer on Gothic architecture in the post-war years".[1]
Harvey made extensive use ofarchival sources, and is particularly remembered for having – through his study ofHenry Yevele (1944), and his biographical dictionary ofEnglish Mediaeval Architects (1954) – helped dispel the myth that the architects of medieval buildings were anonymous figures of whom little could be discovered. He also published more generally on England in theLate Middle Ages, and was a pioneer in the field ofgarden history.
In the 1930s, Harvey was a member of theImperial Fascist League and a regular contributor to their newspaper,The Fascist.
Harvey was born in London, the only child of William Harvey (1883–1962), architect, and his wife, Alicenée Wilcox (1874–1958).[2] He was educated atSt John's School, Leatherhead, after which, in 1928, he joined the architectural practice of SirHerbert Baker. While in Baker's office he studied architecture at theRegent Street Polytechnic. From 1933 to 1935 he travelled with his father inPalestine, helping survey ancient buildings. In 1936 he took a job with theOffice of Works.
In 1930 Harvey joined the far-right and antisemiticImperial Fascist League (IFL), and for a while was active in the associatedNordic League. He had to curtail his activities when he joined the Office of Works, but he continued to be peripherally involved and to pay his subscriptions to the IFL until 1940.[3] He was a frequent contributor to the IFL's newspaper,The Fascist, and wrote a monthly column aboutNordicism and Nordic history.[4] Harvey's worldview and writings were suffused with antisemitism; he praisedEdward I for the expulsion of the Jews from England in 1290 and criticisedOliver Cromwell for theresettlement of the Jews in England which in his view led to "three centuries of hidden decay, at first slow and camouflaged by great commercial success; now felt as a choking grip on the England we love".[5]
On the outbreak ofWorld War II he was placed on a "Suspect List" byMI5. In 1942 his application, as aconscientious objector, for exemption frommilitary service having been denied, he refused to submit to a medical examination, as a necessary preliminary to call-up, and was sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment. The sentence qualified him to make a fresh application to the Appellate Tribunal for Conscientious Objectors, who now placed him on the Register of Conscientious Objectors, and recommended to theHome Secretary his immediate release from prison, which recommendation was put into effect.[6]
He was not re-employed by the Ministry of Works.[a] By 1943 he was employed as an assistant to his father, who worked as a Panel Architect for the Ministry of Works' Salvage Scheme. His father was responsible for historic buildings in an area of north-central Surrey. Harvey's employment involved identifying and visiting buildings of historic interest in the area, in order that the buildings could be added to the Ministry lists of historic buildings deserving attention and first aid repairs in case of bomb damage.[7]
In 1947 Harvey was appointed consultant architect (for conservation matters) toWinchester College, a post he retained until 1964. In 1950 he became lecturer in conservation at theBartlett School of Architecture atUniversity College London, where he remained until 1959.[2] These were part-time posts, allowing him to devote much of his time to writing.[8]
He had begun to publish articles on medieval architecture in 1936, and his prodigious stream of publications, including numerous books, continued in the post-war years. His magisterial biographical dictionary ofEnglish Mediaeval Architects, the first edition of which appeared in 1954, contained 1,300 entries, and has been described as "a feat of titanic proportions".[8] A central theme of many of his publications was the artistic importance of England and of the English national style in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. More particularly, he regardedperpendicular architecture as "the quintessential national style", and a manifestation of the English national character.[9] Harvey resented the modern world, and his study of the Middle Ages was through the lens of seeing the 14th and 15th centuries as a golden age of England's history.[10] Though he acknowledged the contribution of Jewish architects in his writings on Spanish architectural history, he omitted their contribution to the architecture of England in his 1974 bookCathedrals of England and Wales.[11]
Paul Crossley considers that "hisNeo-Romantic sensibilities propelled him beyond romanticism into real historical understanding, inspired by a tenacious curiosity for fact, and based on a phenomenal learning".[12] Elsewhere, Crossley compares Harvey'sGothic World (1950) withNikolaus Pevsner'sOutline of European Architecture (1942) and finds that the contrast "could not have been more telling: Harvey patiently accumulating masses of detailed research to fill his survey with lists of empirical data, Pevsner subsuming detail into the broad sweep of a pan-European synthesis".[13] Photographs attributed to John Harvey are held in theConway Library atThe Courtauld Institute of Art whose archive, of primarily architectural images, is being digitised under the wider Courtauld Connects project.[14]
In 1963 Harvey moved toYork, where he was employed until 1970 as an investigator and editor (again on a part-time basis) by theRoyal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England. In 1975 he moved toFrome, Somerset. It was from this time that he became increasingly interested ingarden history, and a prominent figure in theGarden History Society.[2]
Harvey's conviction of the importance and uniqueness of the English Gothic style meant that in much of his writing, in Crossley's view, "his nationalism continued to distort his judgement". Thus, in his well-received study ofThe Perpendicular Style (1978), he refused to acknowledge the influence of the FrenchRayonnant style on English perpendicular architecture, and he excludedTudor perpendicular buildings from consideration on the grounds that the "distinctive nationalism" of the English style had been compromised in this period by the inclusion of minor motifs of exotic and foreign origin.[12]
He successfully distanced himself in the post-war period from his earlier political affiliations, but a short passage in his successful and frequently reprinted bookThe Plantagenets (originally published 1948), in which he gave credence to stories ofJewish ritual murder, and praised the "statesmanship" ofEdward I inexpelling the Jews from England in 1290, continued to cause offence. He refused to amend the passage, and the publishers (Fontana) eventually allowed the book to go out of print in the mid-1980s.[15]
Harvey was elected a fellow of theSociety of Genealogists in 1939, theRoyal Society of Literature in 1945, and theSociety of Antiquaries of London in 1949. He served on the Council of theAncient Monuments Society for some 30 years from 1960; and as President of theGarden History Society from 1982 to 1985. TheUniversity of York awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1976.[2]
For his 70th birthday in 1981, rather than presenting him with the customary scholarlyFestschrift, Harvey's friends and admirers helped fund the second edition of hisEnglish Mediaeval Architects (published 1984; further revised 1987).
Harvey married (Sarah) Cordelia Story (1903–1996) in 1934. They had two sons, Richard (b. 1938) and Charles (1940–2000); and one daughter, Eleanour (b. 1945).[2]
Fuller lists of Harvey's many publications appear in:
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