Edward Prior

Arts and Crafts Architect

Martin Godfrey Cook

• Publisher: Crowood
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781785000126
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: History of Architecture

Edward Schroder Prior designed the cathedral of the Arts and Crafts Movement (St Andrew's Church, Roker), perfected the popular butterfly plan in his houses, and published what is still the seminal work on medieval gothic art in England in 1900. Highly regarded by critics such as Ian Nairn, Prior is sometimes considered to have narrowly missed out on a place in the architectural pantheon of his age, alongside contemporaries such as Charles Voysey and William Lethaby. The result of extensive archival and field research, Edward Prior - Arts and Crafts Architect sheds new light on Prior's architecture, life and scholarship. Extensively illustrated, it showcases Prior's work in colour, including many of his architectural drawings and photographs of most of his extant buildings. Prior is the missing link of the Arts and Crafts Movement, in both a theoretical and a practical sense, as he was possibly the only practitioner who genuinely translated the artistic theories of Ruskin and Morris into architectural reality. He went on to found the School of Architecture at the University of Cambridge in 1912. Extensively illustrated with 200 colour illustrations including many of his architectural drawings and photographs of most of his extant buildings.

Chapter 1

PRELUDE

EDWARD SCHRODER PRIOR (1852–1932) IS worthy of more consideration than currently afforded to him in the annals of architectural history, which usually only includes passing mentions of his most strikingly original buildings. These invariably focus on his ecclesiastical masterpiece at St Andrew’s in Sunderland (1906), described as the cathedral of the Arts and Crafts Movement, and on his innovative butterfly-plan houses, The Barn at Exmouth in Devon (1896) and Voewood at Holt in Norfolk (1903).¹ Comparatively little is known of his wider body of work, despite the emergence of some studies and publications over the years. Prior’s overall architectural output was not as prolific as the more commercial architects of his era. He clearly sought quality rather than quantity, and pursued originality with a rugged individualism. This invariably resulted in idiosyncrasy, innovation and ingenuity in the design and construction process as well as the architectural product.

Edward Schroder Prior’s visiting card portrait, c. 1910.

(© National Portrait Gallery)

The architectural historian Andrew Saint speculated that Edward Prior’s relative marginalization was ‘either out of generosity or from difficulties of temperament’. In spite of ‘a series of daunting books and lectures on medieval art … and a handful of designs of striking concentration and originality’, Saint goes on to postulate that ‘He perhaps failed to be the Webb of his generation because Lethaby and Voysey managed to split and share the mantle, and he could or would not spoil the award’.² If true, this reflects a gentlemanly approach that concurs with Prior’s romantic idealism, and his legacy certainly warrants reconsideration. A redressing of this historic imbalance is now long overdue, and it is now time to place Edward Prior in his rightful place – in the pantheon of his architectural generation, and even that of architectural history in general.

St Andrew’s Church, Roker, Sunderland, 1904–07, view from the nave to the chancel.

The Barn, Exmouth, Devon, 1896, viewed from the south, showing the suntrap terrace.

Voewood, High Kelling, Norfolk, 1903–05, viewed from the south, over the croquet lawns.

The fact that the vast majority of Prior’s buildings have survived, in one form or another, is a solid testament to his architectural talent. Only about a tenth of his buildings have been demolished and two thirds of his remaining architecture benefits from legislative conservation protection – several of these are Grade I listed. However, he did not confine himself to architectural practice, but continued his scholarly study of Gothic art and architecture throughout his life, resulting in four books. He also wrote many articles, for publications such as the Architectural Review, The Studio and other journals – topics were wide-ranging, from garden design to architectural modelmaking. However, he was always uneasy with the inappropriateness of his classical education as a basis for architectural practice. Such misgivings may have sparked his interest in architectural education and his foundation of the School of Architecture at Cambridge University in 1912, including a proposed curriculum which presaged Walter Gropius’ 1919 Bauhaus manifesto in many respects.

Edward Prior was a seminal figure in the Arts and Craft Movement who produced some highly original works of architecture and carefully controlled his output to achieve the highest quality, both in design and materials. He largely succeeded in applying the artistic philosophies of Ruskin and Morris to architecture, and ultimately transcended them. Around half of Prior’s buildings were houses, in many cases late Victorian or Edwardian country houses, which have survived through changes of use to various forms of multi-residential type, such as hotels and student accommodation. Despite many Grade II and II* listings, this has often entailed considerable alterations to interiors to meet modern and fire safety requirements. Although much of the original interior spirit is often lost with these changes, the fact remains that the buildings are still in use a century or more after their construction – and satisfactorily serving very different purposes. This serves as evidence of the quality of their construction and flexibility of design, at the very least. This is borne out by most of Prior’s architecture, as he invariably sought the best local materials and building techniques, and usually innovated in one way or another.³

Portrait of Edward Prior by William Strang, 1907.

Possibly the main reason for the relative neglect of the wider body of Prior’s architecture is the perception that the thread he pursued led to a cul-de-sac. However, this bears reappraisal when viewed in the context of the architectural transitional phase of the two decades hinged around the fin de siècle. Prior’s domestic work must have inspired Dutch domestic Expressionism in the 1920s, and his large churches were forerunners of much German Expressionism of the same period.⁴ In this sense, Prior is viewed, by Nikolaus Pevsner, as a herald of the Modern Movement, spanning and inspiring a transition between medieval revivalism and early Modernism. However, Prior’s enigmatic quality of architectural expression is rarely conveniently categorized, and it is unlikely that Prior would have regarded such categorization in a flattering light. His early flirtation with literal historicism and vernacular revivalism, self-acknowledged homage to Norman Shaw and George Devey, was soon replaced by quirky attempts to forge a contemporary architecture. Prior is best likened to his almost exact contemporary, Antoni Gaudi, in his continuous exploration of eclecticism through to its inexorable outcome – originality.

As a young architect Prior became friendly with Reginald Blomfield, who referred to him as ‘a man of considerable ability, and of a thoughtful and original turn of mind’. Both men were independently minded, and from similar educational backgrounds. These two seemingly stereotypical establishment figures eventually went in opposing directions, with Blomfield becoming increasingly architecturally conservative, while Prior constantly sought originality. The picture of Edward Prior wearing homespun tweeds, on a bicycle with a saddle of his own design, conjures up the image of the Edwardian, intellectual eccentric – a Sherlock Holmes character, even. It is hardly surprising that Prior ended up a professor, like so many Edwardian ‘heroes’, such as the celebrated Professor J. Norman Collie, whom crowds flocked to see on a mountaineering trip to Norway; they were under the impression that he actually was Sherlock Holmes!

Prior’s originality extended to his leisure pursuits: his bicycle had an unconventional saddle – a leather sling between two uprights – which according to Prior was far healthier, and safer. Conventional bicyclists at this time were regarded as cranks – ‘cads on casters’ – so the figure that Prior struck must have sealed his eccentricity to most observers.

Edward Prior’s architectural education and influences

Prior’s negative sentiments regarding his establishment, classical education were to some extent exaggerated and possibly affected, particularly when his solid, five-year pupillage with Richard Norman Shaw is taken into account. However, he was always unhappy with his self-confessed modest drawing talent, which often led him to the medium of architectural modelmaking instead, a sculptural approach, in the round, that he recommended to others in a paper. In fact, his exhibition of an architectural model at the Royal Academy in 1895 caused quite a stir and revived the medium. His unease with drawings may also have led him to reject the conventional contracts of the day, in favour of looser arrangements, which allowed flexibility for the design to grow organically and prosaically.

The inspiration provided by English vernacular buildings enabled George Devey (1820–86) to build a successful practice, working almost exclusively for the aristocracy and wealthy landowners. Devey originally trained as a watercolourist under J.S. Cotman, which established his eye for the picturesque. He often contrived to give the impression of several centuries of change in a vernacular idiom, through such devices as changes in material, such as a brick upper storey built on a seemingly old stone base. Devey was undoubtedly Charles Voysey’s primary inspiration, and Voysey was Prior’s neighbour in St Johns Wood for a while in the late nineteenth century.

Antoni Gaudi’s (1852–1926) sources were Moroccan, Moorish and Gothic, while Prior’s were English vernacular, Gothic and Flemish. Prior undertook a seminal trip to Belgium in May 1877, with a fellow pupil from Shaw’s office, Ernest Newton. They visited Bruges and Antwerp where Prior was very impressed by the town-houses, public buildings and, of course, the Gothic ecclesiastical architecture. There is much evidence of Dutch and Flemish influence in Prior’s early works. Prior probably read Ruskin as a pupil at Harrow and a student at Cambridge, and Shaw gave him Viollet-le-Duc’s publications to read.

The fact that Prior was influenced by and studied vernacular and grander historic architecture is well illustrated by his many sketching tours in Britain and on the Continent. One amusing anecdote relates to a walking holiday that he took in the Lake District with a fellow pupil in Shaw’s office, probably Ernest N...