George Edmund Street

English architect

• Born: June 20, 1824
• Birthplace: Woodford, Essex, England
• Died: December 18, 1881
• Place of death: London, England

An exceptionally productive and influential architect, Street designed and built the Law Courts in London and was a leading builder of churches in England and Europe during the Gothic Revival.

Early Life

George Edmund Street was the third son of Thomas Street, a solicitor in London with an office in Philpot Lane. His forebears came from the Worcestershire area of England. George’s mother was Mary Anne Millington, Mr. Street’s second wife. In 1830, Thomas Street moved his family from London to Camberwell. There, George attended a local school at Mitcham and went on to the Camberwell Collegiate School, from which he was graduated in 1839. Shortly thereafter, in 1840, George went to work for his father at the Philpot Lane office. George did not seem suited for a solicitor’s work, however, and he was unhappy there. A few months later, Thomas Street died suddenly, and his office was closed.

George, then unemployed, in the next few months came under the influence of his older brother Thomas, who was an avid sketcher. George began to take up drawing himself and found that he had some talent for it. For a short time he took drawing lessons from Thomas Haseler, a painter, and through this teacher’s influence and his mother’s encouragement, in 1841 George became a pupil under the architect Owen B. Carter of Winchester. Because formal schools of architecture were in short supply in Victorian England, most future architects learned their profession by apprenticing themselves to an established architect, as George Street did.

In 1844, young Street, having shown enthusiasm for ecclesiastical building, moved to the office of George Gilbert Scott as an assistant. Scott kept Street in his employ for five years but, seeing the young man’s potential, also let him begin to work for his own clients, although still from Scott’s office.

Life’s Work

By 1849, Street had completed architectural work on several churches, including the restoration of St. Peter’s in Plymouth. He was now fully prepared to open his own architect’s office. Early in his new career, Street, through his church restorations, came to know Samuel Wilberforce, the bishop of Oxford. The bishop was so impressed with Street’s hard work and careful planning that he appointed him the diocesan architect. As a result, Street moved to a new home at Wantage, from which he could conduct his work on churches in Oxfordshire.

Street was also a frequent traveler at this time. He first roamed the English countryside with his brother Thomas, sketching church buildings. In 1850 and 1851, he made the first of his foreign tours and especially studied the famous churches of France and Germany.

In May of 1852, Street moved his practice to a larger office in Oxford and acquired two pupils, Edmund Sedding and Philip Webb, both of whom would later become noted architects. In 1853, Street was awarded two large contracts: one for a theological college at Cuddesdon for the Anglican Church, and the other for the East Grinstead Sisters’ institution. The latter work he did without financial compensation, because his sympathy with the sisters’ work was strong.

In 1853, Street completed a very important tour on the Continent. He visited northern Italy, especially to study ancient church architecture. While on all of his tours, Street was a hard worker; he was determined to examine as many buildings as possible each day. In order to achieve this goal, he would tour and sketch all day and then board a train where he would sleep at night while en route to his next destination. All the hours of research that Street expended in Italy paid off well. Besides finding some inspiration for his own architecture, he collected notes for his influential book Brick and Marble in the Middle Ages: Notes of a Tour in the North of Italy (1855). Similarly, in 1854, Street toured the churches of northern Germany and wrote several papers on his research there.

When French churchmen planned to build a new cathedral at Lille in 1855, they held an open competition to find the best architect for the work. Such competitions were frequent in Victorian England and Europe. They encouraged many architects to submit designs for new buildings; then the best design was awarded the commission for the project. Runners-up were sometimes given awards as well. Street placed second in the contest at Lille, France.

In 1856, when the British government held an architects’ competition for the planning of a new government office building, more than two hundred architects took part. Street’s design was one of only seventeen that won premiums. His design was in the Gothic style, of which he was an enthusiastic advocate. England, in the middle of the nineteenth century, was experiencing a Gothic revival, in which the most favored architectural style was to copy and adapt thirteenth century designs for current buildings. Most of Street’s work was done in the Gothic style, and he is considered, along with his mentor Sir George Gilbert Scott, to be one of the greatest Gothicists of Victorian England.

According to one estimate, about 80 percent of Street’s completed buildings are churches or church-related structures. Some of Street’s most powerful and memorable churches include St. Mary Magdalene’s in Paddington, St. John’s in Torquay, All Saints’ in Clifton, and St. James the Less in Westminster. A review of these buildings helps to explain Street’s style and his success. St. Mary Magdalene’s shows some details of design that point to an influence from northern Italian Gothic. An innovation by Street at All Saints’ was the wide nave with its aisles being narrower than usual in the English tradition of church building; these elements were incorporated by the architect to benefit large congregations. Of this group of churches by Street, the most famous, however, is St. James the Less.

St. James the Less was basically a Gothic-style church, but it also had picturesque aspects. The picturesque style of architecture emphasized the harmony of buildings with their surroundings (which was especially popular in England during the early nineteenth century). This particular church also shows Street’s Continental influences at work. In 1862, when St. James the Less was completed, architectural critics especially noted its foreign aspects. The touches on this church reflect designs from northern Italy and were appreciated by the critics, who believed that they enhanced the beauty of the building. A tower 134 feet in height is the most breathtaking aspect of St. James the Less. It is of Italian design and a departure from the slender steeples of previous Victorian English churches. Street also personally designed the interior of St. James; he planned the tile work that appeared in the aisles, as well as the pillar carvings that depict Christ’s miracles. In this area of fine design in architecture, Street was considered a master with an artist’s touch. He also was effective in blending various architectural styles.

Despite a considerable amount of church work throughout the 1860’s, Street found time to continue his tours in Europe. Between 1861 and 1863, he completed three study trips to Spain. The result was his fine book Some Account of Gothic Architecture in Spain (1865); in addition to writing this text, Street also provided his own drawings for its illustrations.

In 1866, Street entered a famous and controversial competition for a new public building in London. This was the contest to design the new Law Courts to be located on the Strand. This particular architectural competition provoked controversy because Street was awarded the contract even though he did not officially win the competition. A committee of lawyers, for whose use the Law Courts was intended, liked best the designs of Alfred Waterhouse. The assigned architectural judges thought that Street should design the building itself and that Edward M. Barry should do the interior decoration (a split contract). Finally, in June of 1868, Street alone was commissioned to build the Law Courts, only after much discussion.

Street had some obstacles to surmount in finishing the Law Courts: He was dealing with government officials who kept a strict and parsimonious budget, he was not the favorite architect of the lawyers, and the building itself was an enormously large project. Street would draft in ink and by hand some three thousand designs for the exterior and the interior of the Law Courts. He was also still heavily involved in ecclesiastical building all through the 1860’s and 1870’s, while work on the Law Courts progressed.

The Law Courts, completed the year after Street died, received some harsh criticism from the lawyers who used them, as well as from Street’s fellow architects. Although the building’s complex yet enriching exterior designs form an exquisite picturesque grouping along the Strand, some critics believed that the exterior was too diverse, appearing as several buildings rather than as one unit. Also, lawyers complained that the acoustics inside were of poor quality, making their work more difficult. One feature almost everyone admired was the majestic great vaulted hall of 230 feet by 82 feet that Street made the focal point of the building’s interior. This dignified hall was an example of the Victorian Gothic style at its best.

Street worked for the dioceses of York, Winchester, and Ripon during the 1860’s and 1870’s, in addition to the Oxford diocese. He undertook many church restorations, most notably the cathedral at Bristol, where he rebuilt the nave. In 1871, he also restored York Minster and Carlisle churches; at the latter he was required to rehabilitate a fratry that dated to the fifteenth century. After Street built his own home in 1873 at Holmbury in Surrey, he became active in the local parish. As a result, he designed and built, at his own expense, the church of St. Mary in Holmbury.

Along with all this strenuous work, Street also suffered from personal tragedies during the 1870’s. His wife, Mariquita Proctor Street, to whom he had been married on June 17, 1852, died in 1874. Their marriage had produced a son in 1855, Augustus Edmund Street, who worked with and later succeeded his father in their architectural office. On January 11, 1876, Street married Jessie Holland, but sadly, she died that same year. He remained a widower for the rest of his life. After suffering two paralyzing strokes, Street died in London on December 18, 1881, at the age of fifty-seven.

Significance

George Edmund Street enjoyed a highly productive and influential career as an architect. He was an innovator in church design and made a strong impression in English Victorian architectural circles. He was a forceful member of the Ecclesiological Society, a frequent contributor to its journal, The Ecclesiologist, and a celebrated lecturer on matters of decoration, style, and taste in architecture. He was elected to the prestigious Royal Society in 1871 and served as its president during the year before his death.

Street also enjoyed a career as a church builder throughout Europe. He designed and constructed churches for American communities in Paris and in Rome and for English communities in Genoa, Lausanne, Mürren, and Rome. In 1878, in recognition of his outstanding designs on display at the Paris Exhibition, Street was awarded the Knighthood of the Legion of Honor in France. He was also given membership in the Royal Academy at Vienna, Austria.

Only one year before his death, Street had the honor of being appointed as professor of architecture at the Royal Academy in England. He also made a lasting impact on the several students he had trained in his office; the group included Philip Webb, J. D. and Edmund Sedding (brothers), Norman Shaw, and William Morris (the founder of the Arts and Crafts movement in England).

For all of his many accomplishments in building and his lasting contributions to English architecture and decoration, George Edmund Street is immortalized in a statue by H. H. Armstead in the Law Courts. He is depicted as a long-legged craftsperson, seated, engaged in supervising a task. Street here has a long face with a high forehead, further highlighted by his baldness. He also sports a long, full beard. He gazes down, engrossed in his work as he was in life.

Bibliography

Dixon, Roger, and Stefan Muthesius. Victorian Architecture. New York: Oxford University Press, 1978. A good survey of Victorian architecture. Street is covered in detail in a section on church building. The 250 illustrations include many building plans and photographs from the Victorian era. An appendix lists the individual works of more than three hundred architects.

Eastlake, Charles. A History of the Gothic Revival in England. London: Longmans, Green, 1872. Eastlake discusses in detail the phenomenon of the Gothic architectural style in Victorian England. He reviews Street’s place in the revival and his churches at length. An appendix contains a chart of famous buildings (and their outstanding features) by several architects, including Street. A very useful book.

Fergusson, James. History of the Modern Styles of Architecture. London: John Murray, 1891. Fergusson was a contemporary of Street and a harsh critic of the design of the Law Courts. The information on Street is found in the second volume of this two-volume set. Street’s fine work on churches is also highlighted.

Richards, J. M. The National Trust Book of English Architecture. New York: W. W. Norton, 1981. In this handsome volume intended for the general reader, Richards discusses Street’s church designs to some extent but focuses more attention on the Law Courts competition. Includes many black-and-white photographs, as well as color plates, all of excellent quality. A glossary is included.

Stalley, Roger, ed. George Edmund Street and the Restoration of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2000. Street was especially proud of his restoration of the medieval Christ Church Cathedral, believing he saved the building from further deterioration. Stalley examines what Street meant by “restoration,” and how contemporary Dubliners responded to the project.

Street, Arthur Edmund. Memoir of George Edmund Street, R.A., 1824-1881. London: John Murray, 1888. The author was the architect’s son; this account provides both a discussion of his father’s career and a list of his works. Six lectures that George Street gave as a professor form an appendix.

Summerson, John. Victorian Architecture: Four Studies in Evaluation. New York: Columbia University Press, 1970. This volume is based on a series of four lectures delivered in 1968. By way of introduction, Summerson describes the nature of Victorian architecture in general. He analyzes in detail the style and design of St. James the Less, Street’s famous church in London. Includes many black-and-white photographs, featuring interiors as well as exteriors.

Watkin, David. English Architecture: A Concise History. London: Thames and Hudson, 1979. A well-illustrated text, in which Watkin gives a precise account of Street’s career and buildings. He also explains the various architectural influences found in Street’s works. Watkin places Street in perspective as a major British church builder. A good bibliography is included.