Joe Richards: holding pattern
Inspired by the work of William Morris, designer Joe Richards is bringing the handmade ideals of the Arts and Crafts movement to our wardrobes. Tamsin Blanchard reveals how in this Article
Inspired by the work of William Morris, designer Joe Richards is bringing the handmade ideals of the Arts and Crafts movement to our wardrobes. Tamsin Blanchard reveals how in this Article
The nation’s database of art in public collections, Art Uk http://artuk.org/ is now online. It’s an amazing project that extends the BBC’s Your Paintings online galleries.and shows online all the paintings in the nations art galleries.
As well as Arts & Crafts workers, the Midddleton area produced four outstanding painters in the years around 1900. Click the links to see their work…
Frederick William Jackson 1859–1918
William Edward Stott 1859–1918
This exhibition about the last 150 years of the Manchester Architects Society has been running since December 2015 but closes on 18th March 2016 – so don’t miss it!
OPENING TIMES – FREE ADMISSION
Monday – Friday 10am – 4pm
Thursday 10am – 7pm (term-time only)
Saturday 12noon – 4pm (term-time only)
Location – Special Collections Exhibition Space, 3rd Floor, Sir Kenneth Green Library, MMU, All Saints, Manchester – M15 6BH (contact details below)
‘We built this city’ profiles architectural drawings of key members of the Manchester Society of Architects alongside the historic Library collection, promoting the rich architectural history of Manchester.
The exhibition charts the influence of the Society on the cityscape and architectural design in Greater Manchester through original drawings. It reveals the personalities behind the Society, connecting the city with a distinguished lineage of architects, such as founders Alfred Waterhouse and Thomas Worthington. Drawings by Edgar Wood and James Henry Sellers will profile their key works in the city. The exhibition explores the establishment of the Society’s education programme, innovations in building technology, and influence on Town Planning and Conservation.
Rare folios from the Manchester Society of Architects Library at MMU Special Collections show the wealth of material on offer to members who frequented the Society’s rooms. The Library was created as a teaching tool for students and practitioners to further their understanding of architecture. Highlights include: W and G Audsley’s Polychromatic decoration, 1881; Owen Jones’ Plans, sections and details of the Alhambra, 1842; William Kent’s The design of Inigo Jones, 1770; Palladio’s The four books of Architecture, 1738; Piranesi’s Opera, 1762; and Stuart and Revett’s Antiquities of Athens, 1762-1816.
The exhibition is part of a programme celebrating 150 years of Manchester Architects:
www.the-msa.co.uk
MMU SPECIAL COLLECTIONS GALLERY
3rd Floor, Sir Kenneth Green Library, Manchester
Metropolitan University, All Saints, Manchester, M15 6BH
0161 247 6107 • lib-spec-coll@mmu.ac.uk
@MMUSpecial • www.specialcollections.mmu.ac.uk
When entering the library please report to the main library desk for access through the security gates. Turn left and take the lift to the 3rd floor. The Special Collections is on the right when exiting the lift.
South Hale Conservation Area in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford includes a series of eight Edgar Wood designed detached houses, all closely located to one another. Each house is a highly individual Arts & Crafts design which, taken together, makes for one of the finest groups of Arts & Crafts houses by a single architect in the country. Each house design evolves from its predecessor and the group is remarkable in illustrating how Edgar Wood developed modern art deco architecture from the Arts and Crafts.The earliest house is Halecroft, built as an Arts & Crafts ‘tour de force’ in 1890 early in Edgar Wood’s career. Then come six houses built between 1901 and 1907, at roughly one a year, which incrementally move toward the art deco style. Finally, the amazing Royd House (pictured above) was designed in 1914, which Edgar Wood built for himself when he left Middleton at the end of the First World War.
All the houses are listed Grade II, except for Halecroft which is Grade II* and Royd House which is Grade I.
The Edgar Wood Society is writing an appreciation of the houses for Trafford Council town planners which, hopefully, will inform the management plan for the conservation area. If you have any information, photos or contacts regarding these buildings, please let us know, we would be very grateful – just Leave a Reply below and we’ll get back to you. Thanks, David.
Gustav Stickley is considered by many to be the father of the Arts and Crafts movement in the United States. Here is a recent article from the American press about his furniture company.
Here is an upcoming Spring/Summer exhibition in Leicester that looks interesting… CLICK HERE for details.
The Nature of William S. Rice: Arts and Crafts Painter and Printmaker – A Californian Arts and Crafts master is celebrated in a new exhibition at the Pasadena Museum. REPORT HERE
Mission and Heritage – Methodist Christmas Message – Revd Steven Wild, President of the Methodist Church, gives his Christmas message – Click Here for Rochdale Online article
Wilhelmina Geddes rediscovered in new book – Wilhelmina Geddes: Life and Work, by Nicola Gordon Bowe… Jasmine Allen admires the monumental scale and meticulous detail of a stained glass artist’s work.
Here is a nice collection of deco cinemas in Scotland which shows the variety of design that is called art deco.
Dr. Christopher Dresser (1834-1904) changed the course of “modernist” design more than any other individual in Britain at the end of the 19th century… CLICK HERE FOR MORE
Image: Japanesque Style Cup and Saucer, circa 1879-1882. Wikimedia Commons – Los Angeles County Museum of Art http://collections.lacma.org/node/184492
‘The Arts and Crafts House: Then and Now’ exhibition at the Laing Art Gallery explores, within an intimate space, the legacy of artists of the 19th century Arts and Crafts movement.
CLICK HERE for article.
Housing developer Lovell has signed contracts and begun construction on the second phase of its garden village development in Newport.
The Round House, Frinton, Essex, designed by Oliver Hill the creator of Morecambe’s famous Midland Hotel (pictured) is up for sale for a modest £700,000!
Main article with photographs is here.
Another about the art deco Frinton Park Estate is here.
The granddaughter of Letchworth master planner Barry Parker has welcomed the renewed attention around his work. This comes after the Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation commissioned historian Dr Mervyn Miller to write the biography of the architect and planner who took his garden city designs around the world.
Barry Parker was an architect member of the Northern Art Workers Guild. He and his professional colleague Raymond Unwin were a good friends of Edgar Wood, whose assistant Cecil Hignet, joined them in designing Letchworth. Parker considered his finest house to be, “Whirriestone”, 15 Broadhalgh Avenue Bamford. (Bamford, like Birtle and Ashworth is a Middleton township which was transferred to Heywood in late Victorian times before being ‘rejoined’ with Middleton in 1974 via Rochdale Metropolitan Borough).
Letchworth Garden City broke the mould in town planning but possibly Barry Parker’s greatest achievement was the much larger third English Garden City, Wythenshaw near Manchester which was significantly bigger than the first two, Letchworth and Welwyn Garden City, combined.
Arts and Crafts Church photographer, Andy Marshall, is on a mission to collect 100 dates over 100 years, and display them in a very special print. CLICK HERE
You are invited to to the opening event…
Date: Tuesday 8th December 2015, 7pm – 9pm
Venue: Rosylee, 11 Stevenson Sq. Northern Quarter, Manchester M1 1DB
On Tuesday 10th November, I went to Warrington New Town for an afternoon seminar about Garden Cities and Suburbs – looking back at the successes and forward to the future. Driving there through the stunningly autumnal parkways of the new town reminded me about the enormous social progress that came out of the Arts and Crafts movement. Josh Tidy, curator of Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation, spoke about the historic legacy of the first garden city.
The new towns, bigger successors to the original three Garden Cities of Letchworth, Welwyn Garden City and Wythenshaw, now lead the country in their growth and success with Warrington and Milton Keynes being the top of the pack. The place is such a civilised world away from the squalor of Victorian Britain. Edgar Wood would have been inspired! The event was organised by the Town and Country Planning Association, the successor of the original Garden Cities Association.
David Morris