Philip Hardwick | |
|---|---|
 c.1850 | |
| Born | 15 June 1792 |
| Died | 28 December 1870 (1870-12-29) (aged 78) |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Architect |
Philip HardwickRA (15 June 1792 inLondon – 28 December 1870) was an English architect, particularly associated with railway stations and warehouses in London and elsewhere. Hardwick is probably best known for London's demolishedEuston Arch and its twin station, the originalBirmingham Curzon Street, which stands today as the oldest railway terminus building in the world.
Hardwick was born at 9 Rathbone Place (since demolished) inWestminster, London. He was educated at Dr Barrow's school in Soho Square and trained as an architect under his father,Thomas Hardwick Jr. (1752–1829), who was in turn the son of architectThomas Hardwick Sr. (1725–1798). The Hardwick family name spans over 150 years in the history of British architecture.
Philip Hardwick entered theRoyal Academy Schools in 1808 and then studied in France and Italy from 1815 to 1819. After travelling Europe, he took over from his father as Surveyor toSt Bartholomew's Hospital, London. This post later passed on to Philip's son –Philip Charles Hardwick, meaning that three successive generations of the family held the post.
In 1825, he was appointed architect to theSt Katherine's Dock Company, for whom he designed the dock buildings,Thomas Telford designing the docks themselves. In 1829 he became architect to theGoldsmiths' Company, designing a new hall for them which was opened in 1835.[1] In 1836, Hardwick became architect to theLondon and Birmingham Railway.[2] He built a greatDoricpropylaeum, which became known as the "Euston Arch", as an entrance to the railway'sEuston Station. In 1838 he built theCurzon Street Station as the railway's Birmingham terminus. It is an austere cubic three-story building in the Ionic style, with a portico of four giantIonic columns.[3]
AtBabraham Hall in 1822–1823, on the site of a long-demolished sixteenth-century house, Hardwick adopted aJacobean style, using red brick with limestone dressings.[4] Brick was used again atLincoln's Inn, when, in 1843–1845, Hardwick, in collaboration with his son, built a new hall and library. They used aTudor style, the red brick varied with black brick decoration, and pale stone trim, foreshadowing the later fashion forpolychrome brickwork.[5] For churches, Hardwick used both theclassical style, as at Christ Church, Cosway Street,Marylebone (1824–1825),[6] and theGothic, as atHoly Trinity, Bolton (1823–1825),[7] St John's, Catford (1854),[8] and theRoyal Garrison Church, Aldershot (1863).[9]
Hardwick gained a reputation as a surveyor and was employed by the Westminster Bridge estates, thePortman London estate,Greenwich Hospital, and the estate of the2nd Marquess of Salisbury (1829–1835). He was also surveyor toArthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (from 1842), and assisted Sir Francis Smith in designingWellington Barracks next toBuckingham Palace in 1833.
In 1831 his father in law, the architectJohn Shaw Senior, helped elect Hardwick as a fellow of theRoyal Society. Hardwick was a founding member of the Institute of British Architects (1834) – later (1837) theRIBA – and was a member of theInstitution of Civil Engineers. In 1839 he was one of the judges for the newRoyal Exchange building in theCity of London, and was appointed to select the design for theOxford Museum in 1854. He was elected an associate of theRoyal Academy in 1839, and became aRoyal Academician in 1841.
In 1854, he received the seventhRoyal Gold Medal for architecture.
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Philip married Julia Shaw in 1819, atSt James's Church, Piccadilly. Julia's father,John Shaw Sr. (1776–1832), and brother,John Shaw Jr. (1803–1870), were both architects. The two families lived close by within the boroughs ofWestminster andHolborn. Philip Hardwick had two sons, the eldest died ofsmallpox whilst still at Eton,[10] the younger,Philip Charles Hardwick, was born in 1822 and trained as an architect under him. Philip Charles began working in the firm around 1843.
Philip Hardwick's pupils includedJohn Loughborough Pearson,Gothic Revival architect ofTruro Cathedral,Thomas Henry Wyatt (1807–1880),T. Roger Smith (1830–1903),[11] andCharles Locke Eastlake (1836–1906).
Hardwick was a close friend of the artistJ. M. W. Turner (1775–1851), who had been a pupil of his father. In 1851 Turner chose Hardwick as an executor to his will.
Hardwick and much of his extended family were buried atKensal Green Cemetery.
Hardwick's best-known work is likely the 1837 'Propylaeum' orDoric Euston Arch at the oldEuston station, designed for theLondon and Birmingham Railway at the cost of £35,000. LikeInigo Jones some 200 years earlier, Hardwick had been inspired byItalian architecture, following a trip to Italy in 1818–1819.
Despite the efforts ofJohn Betjeman and other conservationists, the Euston Arch was demolished in the early 1960s. The gates of the arch are stored at theNational Railway Museum inYork. In 1994, the historianDan Cruickshank discovered 4,000 tons, or about 60%, of the arch's stones buried in the bed of theRiver Lea in theEast End of London, including the architrave stones with the gilded EUSTON lettering. This discovery has opened the possibility of a reconstruction of the arch.
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