George Thomas Hine FRIBA (1842–25 April 1916) was an English

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

. His prolific output included new county asylums for Hertfordshire, Lincolnshire, Surrey, East Sussex and Worcestershire, as well as extensive additions to many others.

Biography

Son of

Thomas Chambers Hine Thomas Chambers Hine (31 May 1813 – 6 February 1899) was an architect based in Nottingham. Background He was born in Covent Garden into a prosperous middle-class family, the eldest son of Jonathan Hine (1780–1862), a hosiery manufacturer an ...

Nottingham Nottingham ( , locally ) is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east of Sheffield and north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robi ...

, with whom he studied from 1858, and was in partnership from 1867 to 1891. He married in 1870 and had two children, Dr. Thomas Guy Macaulay Hine, and Muriel Hine the novelist. Hine specialised in

asylum architecture Asylum architecture in the United States, including the architecture of psychiatric hospitals, affected the changing methods of treating the mentally ill in the nineteenth century: the architecture was considered part of the cure. Doctors believe ...

, and his paper to the

RIBA The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three supp ...

in 1901 still provides a valuable review of

asylum Asylum may refer to: Types of asylum * Asylum (antiquity), places of refuge in ancient Greece and Rome * Benevolent Asylum, a 19th-century Australian institution for housing the destitute * Cities of Refuge, places of refuge in ancient Judea ...

design and planning. In 1887, after winning the competition for the enormous new LCC (

London County Council London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today kno ...

) asylum at Claybury, Essex, he established his practise in London. This was strengthened by his experience as Consulting Architect to the Commissioners in Lunacy, a post which he held from 1897, succeeding Charles Henry Howell. He was a frequent entrant for asylum competitions, winning his first, for Nottingham Asylum, in 1875. During the 1880s and 1890s he entered ten asylum competitions – winning five – and was assessor for four others. He designed and saw completed four major LCC asylums housing over 2,000 patients each ( Claybury,

Bexley Bexley is an area of south-eastern Greater London, England and part of the London Borough of Bexley. It is sometimes known as Bexley Village or Old Bexley to differentiate the area from the wider borough. It is located east-southeast of Ch ...

Horton Horton may refer to: Places Antarctica * Horton Glacier, Adelaide Island, Antarctica * Horton Ledge, Queen Elizabeth Land, Antarctica Australia * Horton, Queensland, a town and locality in the Bundaberg Region * Horton River (Australia), ...

and Long Grove), and his prolific output included new county asylums for Hertfordshire,

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-we ...

, Surrey, East Sussex and

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see H ...

, as well as extensive additions to many others.

Architectural style

Hine's asylum designs had several distinguishing features that can be used to identify any of his many projects. All were built in red brick and had grey stonework. His later designs often feature a polychrome white/red brick pattern, especially for window

mullion A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid supp ...

s, although this was a relatively common architectural detail at the time and not exclusive to Hine. Hine was an early exponent of the 'echelon' design of asylums which he deployed at Claybury.

Works

Works included: * Nottingham Borough Asylum, Mapperley, 1875–80; extended 1889–90 * The Towers Hospital, Leicester, extensions 1883–90 * 4th Middlesex County Asylum, Claybury, 1887–93 * 2nd Dorset County Asylum, Herrison extensions, 1890 * Sunderland Borough Asylum, Cherry Knowle, 1891–95 * 3rd Middlesex County Asylum, Banstead, additions, 1893 * Isle of Wight County Asylum, Whitecroft completion, 1893 * Kesteven County Asylum, Rauceby, 1897-1902 * London County Asylum, Bexley, 1898 * Berkshire County Asylum, Fairmile extensions, 1898 * Hertfordshire County Asylum, Hill End, 1900 * Belfast Asylum for the Lunatic Poor, Purdysburn, 1900 * London County Asylum, Horton, 1901–02 * Cuckfield Isolation Hospital, Sussex 1902 * East Sussex County Asylum, Hellingly, 1901–03 * 2nd Worcestershire County Asylum, Barnsley Hall, 1901–07 * Surrey County Asylum, Netherne, 1901–09 * London County Asylum, Long Grove, 1903–07 * 2nd Hampshire County Asylum, Park Prewett, 1912 * Gateshead Borough Asylum, St. Mary's, 1910-14

References

External links

* Jeremy Taylor (1991). "Hospital and Asylum Architecture in England 1840–1914: Building for Health Care". London; New York: Mansell. .
A website documenting many UK asylums, including several Hine buildings such as Hellingly and Rauceby Hospitals
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hine, George Thomas 1842 births 1916 deaths Architects from Nottingham 19th-century English architects 20th-century English architects People involved with mental health