Architectural Movements: Journeys of an Inter-colonial Profession

Abstract

Migrations and movements of architects are central to understanding the architectural development of the colonial world. These journeys are usually framed as a question of where the architect originated, to determine the knowledge they brought to a place, but without understanding that their professional journey might also encompass significant intermediate points and further destinations that, likewise, fuelled knowledge and experience. Through a lens of continental Australia as a point of connection, this paper examines the professional journeys of a number of individual architects between English-speaking settlements in the British Imperial century (c.1815–1915). Their careers are traced across various colonies of the British Empire and British concessions in Asia. This research demonstrates that numerous architects made these professional lateral movements. The paper establishes this as a phenomenon of significance in Antipodean architectural history, exploring factors that prompted such movement, and, to a limited extent, the relative impact of their presence in local architectural cultures. It shows, for the first time, a set of architectural connections that transcend colonial borders, where architects moved with relative professional ease across substantial distances. It suggests there is a significant, complex and interwoven collective architectural history – an “entwined history” – across British colonies and concessions, which deserves greater consideration and attention.

Notes

1. In this paper, the term “Australia” is used to refer to the land mass and its immediate islands (including Tasmania), rather than the nation Australia formed in 1901.

2. See for instance, the descriptions of Blacket, Wardell and Reed in J. M. Freeland, Architecture in Australia: A History (Ringwood, Vic: Penguin, (1968) 1972), 123–128.

3. In contrast to Freeland, Shaw includes birth and death dates, and a brief description of where the architect worked.

4. Peter Shaw, A History of New Zealand Architecture, 3rd ed. (Auckland: Hodder Moa Beckett, 2003), 62.

5. Harley Preston, “Kay, William Porden 1809–1870,” Australian Dictionary of Biography, Vol. 2 (Melbourne : Melbourne University Press, 1967). The ADB entry was updated in 2013 as a result of the new information, see Harley Preston, “Kay, William Porden (1809–1897),” Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. Available at http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/kay-william-porden-2289/text2949.

6. This research that established Kay’s real death date was undertaken by this author in her capacity as Editor of the Encyclopedia of Australian Architecture in the checking and establishment of birth and death dates of a series of entries. The information was subsequently passed on the editors of the Australian Dictionary of Biography.

7. Bruce Trethowan, “Salway, William,” in The Encyclopedia of Australian Architecture, eds. Philip Goad and Julie Willis (Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 613–614.

8. Pierre-Yves Saunier, Transnational History (Houndsmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), 2.

9. Ann Curthoys and Marilyn Lake, “Introduction,” in Connected Worlds: History in Transnational Perspective, eds. Ann Curthoys and Marilyn Lake (Canberra: ANU E Press, 2005), 5.

10. Akira Iriye, “Transnational History,” Contemporary European History 13, no. 2 (May 2004): 213.

11. Curthoys and Lake, “Introduction,” 6.

12. Ian Tyrrell, “Reflections on the Transnational Turn in United States History: Theory and Practice,” Journal of Global History 4, no. 3 (November 2009): 454 & 464.

13. Akira Iriye, Global and Transnational History: The Past, the Present, the Future (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), 15.

14. Tyrrell, “Reflections on the Transnational Turn,” 453–474.

15. Tyrrell, “Reflections on the Transnational Turn,” 461.

16. Tyrrell, “Reflections on the Transnational Turn,” 461.

17. Patricia Clavin, “Defining Transnationalism,” Contemporary European History 15, no. 4 (November 2005): 438.

18. Tyrrell, “Reflections on the Transnational Turn,” 459–460.

19. Nancy Stieber, “Architecture Between Disciplines,” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 62, no. 2 (June 2003): 176.

20. See “Cold War Transfer: Architecture and Planning From Social Countries in the ‘Third World,’” Special Issue of Journal of Architecture 17, no. 3 (2012).

21. Duanfang Lu, Remaking Chinese Urban Form: Modernity, Scarcity and Space, 1949–2005 (New York: Routledge, 2006); and Duanfang Lu, ed., Third World Modernism: Architecture, Development and Identity (New York: Routledge, 2011).

22. Arif Dirlik, “Architectures of Global Modernity, Colonialism, and Places,” Modern Chinese Literature and Culture 17, no. 1 (Spring, 2005), 33–61.

23. Ken Tadashi Oshima, International Architecture in Interwar Japan: Constructing Kokusai Kenchiku (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2009).

24. Xuefei Ren, Building Globalization: Transnational Architecture Production in Urban China (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011), 39.

25. Miles Lewis, “The Forgotten Half of the Globe,” in The Pacific Connection: Trade, Travel & Technology Transfer, ed. Miles Lewis (seminar proceedings, held the University of Melbourne 19–22 February 2009), 24–25.

26. Miles Lewis, “The Tasman Connection: Regionalism, Colonialism and Nationalism,” in Regional Responses: Paper and Proceedings, SAHANZ Annual Conference, ed. Ian Lochhead (Christchurch, NZ: SAHANZ, 1991), 1–36.

27. These ideas have had some interest. See, for instance: Philip Goad, “Modernism and Australian Architecture: Part of the Critical Filter,” DOCOMOMO Journal 29 (September 2003): 61–68; and Julie Willis, “Modern exchange: architectural networks,” Cultural Crossroads, Papers from the Twenty-sixth Annual Conference of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia & New Zealand (Auckland, NZ: SAHANZ, 2009), CDROM.

28. David Beynon, Brandon Gardiner, Ursula de Jong, Mirjana Lozanovska and Flavia Marcello, “An Issues Paper: The Roots/Routes of Australian Architecture: Elements of an Alternative Architectural History,“ in Proceedings of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand: 31, Translation, ed. Christoph Schnoor (Auckland, New Zealand: SAHANZ and Unitec ePress; and Gold Coast, Queensland: SAHANZ, 2014), 644.

29. The intention here is not to simply replace place-based architectural history with biography, as biography has its own distinct limitations. Instead the intention is to understand architectural history as one that is dependent on the ideas and experiences of those architects who produce works of architecture in particular places and at particular times and the influences upon them through social, economic, and political conditions and the impact of knowledge transference through travel, publication, exhibition, and professional networks.

30. Eve Gibson, “Burnett, Beni Carr Glyn,” in Northern Territory Biographical Dictionary, eds. D. Carment, C. Edward, B. James, R. Maynard, A. Powell and H. J. Wilson (Darwin: Charles Darwin University Press, 2008), 78–79, accessed December 3, 2015, https://dcarment.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/ntdictionaryofbiography.pdf.

31. David Bridgman, “Burnett, Beni,” in Goad and Willis, Encyclopedia of Australian Architecture, 125–126.

32. Bridgman, “Burnett, Beni,” 125.

33. Bridgman, “Burnett, Beni,” 125.

34. Bridgman, “Burnett, Beni,” 125.

35. See The Directory and Chronicle of China, Japan, Corea, Indo-China, Straits Settlements, Malay States, Siam, Netherlands India, Borneo, The Philippines, &c (Hong Kong & London: Hong Kong Daily Press, 1902), 247.

36. Julie Willis and Anne Higham, “Smedley, John,” in Goad and Willis, Encyclopedia of Australian Architecture, 634.

37. Manly Biographical Dictionary, s.v. “Smedley, John (1841–1903).” accessed December 3, 2015, www.manly.nsw.gov.au/DownloadDocument.ashx?DocumentID=2109.

38. Manly Biographical Dictionary, s.v. “Smedley, John (1841–1903).”

39. Manly Biographical Dictionary, s.v. “Smedley, John (1841–1903).”

40. These changes in name are evident in the entries in various editions of the Directory & Chronicle for China, Japan, Corea, Malay States, Siam, Netherlands India, Borneo, The Philippines, &c.

41. Carroll Lunt, The China Who's Who 1922: A Biographical Dictionary, Shanghai, (1922), 232, accessed December 4, 2015, https://archive.org/details/chinawhoswho1922.

42. Directory & Chronicle for China, Japan, Corea, Malay States, Siam, Netherlands India, Borneo, The Philippines, &c (1905). This is also supported by comments in Ren, Building Globalization, 41.

43. Lam, Chung Wai Tony, “From British Colonization to Japanese Invasion: the 100 Years Architects in Hong Kong 1841–1941,” Hong Kong Institute of Architects Journal, 45 (May 2006): 44–45. Sotheby joined the Office of the Surveyor General presumably as a student or junior, given his age.

44. Trethowan, “Salway, William,” 613–614.

45. Lam, “From British Colonization to Japanese Invasion,” 45. It is worth noting that this important founding of a key architecture firm in Hong Kong is not mentioned in the Encyclopedia of Australian Architecture entry on Salway. Salway’s Australian roots are not noted by Lam. In the history of Palmer & Turner on their website, Salway is mentioned as going through Hong Kong on his way to Australia. See “The Early Years”, P&T Group Architects and Engineers Pty Ltd, accessed February 8, 2016, http://www.p-t-group.com/allhistory.html.

46. The Argus, April 20, 1875, 5.

47. The Argus, October 5, 1876, 7.

48. The Argus, October 26, 1880, 7.

49. John J. Taylor, “William Salway,” Australian Institute of Architects, accessed December 2, 2015, http://www.architecture.com.au/docs/default-source/wa-notable-buildings/w-salway-for-aia-%28wa%29.pdf?sfvrsn=2. See also “The Public Works Department: Re-organisation of the Architectural Branch,” The West Australian, December 5, 1896, 2.

50. “Bank of New South Wales: New Premises in Perth,” The Western Mail, May 27, 1898, 51. See also Taylor, “William Salway.”

51. Trethowan suggests Salway had a long period of illness, which led up to his death in 1902, but myriad newspaper reports of the time indicate Salway’s death was sudden: in other words, unexpected. Taylor suggests Salway returned to Melbourne for family reasons. See Trethowan, “Salway, William,” 614; and Taylor, “William Salway.”

52. “New Premises for Messrs Hogan, Mooney and Co,” Advocate, February 2, 1901, 10.

53. Lam, “From British Colonization to Japanese Invasion: the 100 Years Architects in Hong Kong 1841–1941,” 45–46.

54. See IANSW lists of members in the Kalendar of the Royal Institute of British Architects between 1901 and 1905.

55. “Loved Chan Kam: Story from Hong Kong. Sydney Wife’s Strange Affidavit,” The Bathurst Times, August 25, 1917, 3.

56. “News from the East,” The Advertiser, September 27, 1909, 8.

57. See Sands directories for Sydney in 1901, 1902 and 1903.

58. See The Directory and Chronicle of China, Japan, Corea, Indo-China, Straits Settlements, Malay States, Siam, Netherlands India, Borneo, The Philippines, &c, (1905): 399–475.

59. Howden is listed as an Associate of the Royal Victorian Institute of Architects in various editions of the RIBA Kalendar of Members. See for instance the Kalendar of 1914–1915, where he is listed as a RVIA member (p400) and a member of the Transvaal Institute of Architects (p396).

60. No evidence has yet been uncovered as to whom Howden was articled, or indeed if he was born in Australia. But he could not have been nominated for Associate membership of the RVIA without being sponsored by existing members, most likely his employers in Melbourne.

61. “Building and Architecture: South African Visitor,” The Age, July 18, 1939, 6.

62. Artefacts: Southern African Built Environment, s.v. “Howden, Robert,” accessed December 7, 2015, http://www.artefacts.co.za/main/Buildings/archframes.php?archid=2246.

63. Dictionary of Scottish Architects 1840–1980, s.v. “Robert Howden,” accessed December 7, 2015, http://www.scottisharchitects.org.uk/architect_full.php?id=203665.

64. Artefacts, s.v. “Howden, Robert.”

65. Simon Reeves, “Treeby, Philip E.” in Goad and Willis, Encyclopedia of Australian Architecture, 715–716; see also Emily Flint, “Philip E. Treeby 1860–1937,” M.Arch Research Report, University of Melbourne, 2013.

66. Flint, “Philip E. Treeby 1860–1937,” 16–17.

67. Artefacts, s.v. “Treeby, Philip Edward,” accessed December 7, 2015, http://www.artefacts.co.za/main/Buildings/archframes.php?archid=1738.

68. Artefacts, s.v. “Treeby, Philip Edward.”

69. Artefacts, s.v. “Treeby, Philip Edward.”

70. Artefacts, s.v. “Edwards, Charles Henry,” accessed December 7, 2015, http://www.artefacts.co.za/main/Buildings/archframes.php?archid=456&countadd=1.

71. Artefacts, s.v. “Black, William Patrick Henry,” accessed December 7, 2015, http://www.artefacts.co.za/main/Buildings/archframes.php?archid=133.

72. Artefacts, s.v. “Black, Herbert,” accessed December 7, 2015, http://www.artefacts.co.za/main/Buildings/archframes.php?archid=131&countadd=1. This is substantiated by membership entries in the RIBA Kalendar that show Herbert Black resident in Melbourne in the 1908–1909 and 1909–1910 sessions.

73. See New Zealand Herald XLV, no. 13724 (April 14, 1908): 6; and Punch [Melbourne], March 28, 1907, 24.

74. Timaru Herald XIIIC, no. 14134 (February 18, 1910): 7. Black’s ship was wrecked en route, off Cape Leeuwin, although he survived. See Timaru Herald XIIIC, no. 14136 (April 25, 1910): 6.

75. There are mentions of “Herbert Black, Architect, Collins St” in Melbourne in 1917. See the Argus, January 31, 1917, 2. Further mentions appear in 1921 and 1925, in Melbourne-based newspapers.

76. Artefacts, s.v. “Black, Herbert.”

77. Anne Neale, “Fagg, George,” in Goad and Willis, Encyclopedia of Australian Architecture, 242–243.

78. Anne Neale, “East, H. S.” in Goad and Willis, Encyclopedia of Australian Architecture, 221–222. This is also substantiated by his listing in the RIBA Kalendar.

79. Artefacts, s.v. “East, Hubert Springford,” accessed December 7, 2015, http://www.artefacts.co.za/main/Buildings/archframes.php?archid=2049.

80. RIBA Kalendar, 1909–1910 Session, 116.

81. Neale, “East, H S,” 222.

82. Artefacts, s.v. “Moffat, John Abraham,” accessed December 7, 2015, http://www.artefacts.co.za/main/Buildings/archframes.php?archid=1103. The firm of Clark & Pye were a short-lived partnership between George Clark and Thomas Pye, c.1885–1887. Watson & McKay, Queensland Architects of the 19th Century (Brisbane: Queensland Museum, 1994), 36. It is unknown when the Moffats arrived in Brisbane.

83. Artefacts, s.v. “Moffat, Walter Goldshaw,” accessed December 7, 2015, http://www.artefacts.co.za/main/Buildings/archframes.php?archid=1106.

84. It is likely that Ibler’s name was Anglicized and was probably originally Johannes Eibler. No Australian immigration records of him have been found.

85. Bairnsdale Advertiser and Tambo & Omeo Chronicle, September 9, 1882, 2.

86. “New Catholic Church,” Bairnsdale Advertiser and Tambo & Omeo Chronicle , May 1, 1883, 2; and “St John’s Church,” Bairnsdale Advertiser and Tambo & Omeo Chronicle, 1 July 1, 1884, 2.

87. Shipping records note Ibler leaving Sydney for Brisbane in September 1884 on the “Cahors”.

88. Watson and McKay have Ibler commencing practice in 1886, although he was advertising tenders from 1885. See The Telegraph [Brisbane], October 29, 1885, 1; and Watson and McKay, Queensland Architects, 105.

89. Artefacts, s.v. “Ibler, John,” accessed December 7, 2015, http://www.artefacts.co.za/main/Buildings/archframes.php?archid=799.

90. Artefacts, s.v. “Norman, Leon,” accessed December 7, 2015, http://www.artefacts.co.za/main/Buildings/archframes.php?archid=1172. Norman is likely to have been born in Liverpool, England, in c.1889, into a Jewish family. Myers was also Jewish.

91. Ian Kelly & George Tibbits, “Ross, David,” in Goad and Willis, Encyclopedia of Australian Architecture, 605; and Design & Art Australia Online, s.v. “David Ross,” accessed December 7, 2015, https://www.daao.org.au/bio/david-ross/biography/.

92. Shaw, History of New Zealand Architecture, 62.

93. Ian Kelly & George Tibbits, “Ross, David,” 605.

94. George Tibbits & Philip Goad, “Purchas, Albert,” in Goad and Willis, Encyclopedia of Australian Architecture, 570.

95. See information contained in the 1871 English census for District 5, Barton Upon Irwell, Lancashire.

96. Anne Neale, “Clayton, W. H.,” in Goad and Willis, Encyclopedia of Australian Architecture, 153–154.

97. Shaw, History of New Zealand Architecture, 34.

98. The New Zealander 5, no. 349, (September 1, 1849): 4.

99. “Mr Armson,” The Press [New Zealand] XXXIX, no. 5443, (February 28, 1883): 3.

100. George Tibbits, “Vahland, William Charles,” in Goad and Willis, Encyclopedia of Australian Architecture, 728–729.

101. Anne Neale, “Luttrell, A. & S.” in Goad and Willis, Encyclopedia of Australian Architecture, 417–418. See also Ann McEwan, “From cottages to ‘skyscrapers’: the architecture of A. E. & E. S. Luttrell in Tasmania and New Zealand,” MA thesis, University of Canterbury, 1988 and Ann McEwan, “Alfred and Sydney Luttrell: early commercial architecture in Canterbury,” Art New Zealand 51 (Winter 1989): 94–97.

102. Ian Kelly, “Burwell, F. W.,” in Goad and Willis, Encyclopedia of Australian Architecture, 127.