Studio: international art (65.1915)

Recent Designs m Domestic Architecture

ECENT DESIGNS IN DOMESTIC
ARCHITECTURE.

SC ...

Since the last article on this subject appeared
in The Studio the death has occurred of Mr.
Philip Webb, a pioneer who did much to restore
English architecture to the eminence from which
it had fallen in the early nineteenth century. Mr.
Philip Webb was fortunate in his first client, if
William Morris may be so called; for the two
young men worked on the design, erection and
furnishing of the Red House, Upton, in quite an
unprofessional spirit. Morris and Webb had founded
a lifelong friendship when both were in the office
of G. E. Street, and it was natural that when Morris
wanted to build he should seek the counsel of Webb.
The result was the house near Bexley Heath which
soon became famous and has not outlived its dis-
tinction. Philip Webb was associated with Morris
in various ways afterwards and was responsible
personally for many important houses, chiefly in

the country. Among the lesser-known ones in
London is West House, Glebe Place, Chelsea, built
for the late G. P. Boyce, R.W.S.

In the year that Morris and Webb planned the
Red House, Sir Ernest George won the Gold Medal
for Architecture given by the Royal Academy, the
subject being “ A Grand Hotel in the Heart of a
Metropolitan City.” Between that first success and
the recent design for rebuilding Southwark Bridge,
Sir Ernest George has contributed much to the
architectural interest of London. His influence in
connection with building in the country has been
no less important. An artist in architecture as
well as in other ways, he has enjoyed doing his
work and has imparted enthusiasm to others,
not only to those who, like Mr. Lutyens and Mr.
Maresco Pearce, have been in his office, but to
those outside. Though Sir Ernest George himself
confessed nearly twenty years ago that he had long
ceased to be young, he has never failed to show
year by year that his work has the qualities of yore.

ROWLAND H. HALLS, ARCHITECT