Herbert James Rowse (10 May 1887 – 22 March 1963) was an English architect. Born in
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
and a student of
Charles Reilly at the
Liverpool University School of Architecture
The School of Architecture is an architecture school in Liverpool, England, and part of the University of Liverpool. It was the first architecture school in the United Kingdom to be affiliated with a university, and the first to have degree pro ...
, Rowse opened an architectural practice in the city. Although he designed major buildings for other cities, Rowse is best known for his work in Liverpool, including
India Buildings
India Buildings is a commercial building with its principal entrance in Water Street, Liverpool, Merseyside, England. Mainly an office building, it also contained an internal shopping arcade and the entrance to an underground station. It was b ...
, the entrances to and ventilation towers of the
Mersey Tunnel
The Mersey Tunnels connect the city of Liverpool with Wirral, under the River Mersey. There are three tunnels: the Mersey Railway Tunnel (opened 1886), and two road tunnels, the Queensway Tunnel (opened 1934) and the Kingsway Tunnel (opened 1 ...
("Queensway"), and the
Philharmonic Hall. He designed in a range of styles, from
neoclassical to
Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
, generally with a strong American influence.
Life and career
Rowse was born at 15 Melling Road,
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
, the son of James William Rowse, a builder, and his wife, Sarah Ann, ''née'' Cammack.
[ He was schooled privately, and from 1905 to 1908 he studied at the ]Liverpool University School of Architecture
The School of Architecture is an architecture school in Liverpool, England, and part of the University of Liverpool. It was the first architecture school in the United Kingdom to be affiliated with a university, and the first to have degree pro ...
. The school, under Charles Reilly, was at that time beginning its rise to be the most influential architectural college in the country.[ Rowse was awarded first-class honours in 1907 and was joint winner of the Holt Travelling Scholarship in Architecture, which took him to Italy and the US.][ While working in the office of the architect Frank Simon he was admitted to associate membership of the ]Royal Institute of British Architects
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 suppl ...
(RIBA) in 1910. Simon won an important Canadian commission in 1912, and Rowse worked in the firm's Winnipeg
Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...
office in 1913. In June 1914 he returned to Liverpool, establishing his own practice.[
During the First World War Rowse worked as an architect for the British navy. In July 1918 he married Dorothy (1893–1968), daughter of Thomas and Edith Parry of ]Crosby Crosby may refer to:
Places
;Canada
*Crosby, Ontario, part of the township of Rideau Lakes, Ontario
*Crosby, Ontario, a neighbourhood in the city of Markham, Ontario
;England
*Crosby, Cumbria
*Crosby, Lincolnshire
*Crosby, Merseyside
**Crosby (UK ...
. They had two sons and a daughter, born between 1925 and 1933. After the war Rowse resumed his civilian practice with a commission for the Fairrie sugar refinery in Liverpool.[ In 1923 he entered an open competition for the design of ]India Buildings
India Buildings is a commercial building with its principal entrance in Water Street, Liverpool, Merseyside, England. Mainly an office building, it also contained an internal shopping arcade and the entrance to an underground station. It was b ...
, a large development in the financial and administrative centre of Liverpool. The assessor was Giles Gilbert Scott
Sir Giles Gilbert Scott (9 November 1880 – 8 February 1960) was a British architect known for his work on the New Bodleian Library, Cambridge University Library, Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, Battersea Power Station, Liverpool Cathedral, and d ...
; Rowse's design won, beating those by the architects of the Port of London Authority
The Port of London Authority (PLA) is a self-funding public trust established on 31 March 1909 in accordance with the Port of London Act 1908 to govern the Port of London. Its responsibility extends over the Tideway of the River Thames and its ...
building, Tower Hill
Tower Hill is the area surrounding the Tower of London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is infamous for the public execution of high status prisoners from the late 14th to the mid 18th century. The execution site on the higher grou ...
(Sir Edwin Cooper); the Royal Automobile Club
The Royal Automobile Club is a British private social and athletic club. It has two clubhouses: one in London at 89 Pall Mall, and the other in the countryside at Woodcote Park, near Epsom in Surrey. Both provide accommodation and a range o ...
, Pall Mall (Mewis and Davis); the Wolseley building, Piccadilly
Piccadilly () is a road in the City of Westminster, London, to the south of Mayfair, between Hyde Park Corner in the west and Piccadilly Circus in the east. It is part of the A4 road that connects central London to Hammersmith, Earl's Court, ...
(Curtis Green); and the Cunard Building
The Cunard Building is a Grade II* listed building in Liverpool, England. It is located at the Pier Head and along with the neighbouring Royal Liver Building and Port of Liverpool Building is one of Liverpool's ''Three Graces'', which line the ...
(Willing and Dodd) and Mersey Docks and Harbour Board building (Arnold Thornley), both at the Pier Head
The Pier Head (properly, George's Pier Head) is a riverside location in the city centre of Liverpool, England. It was part of the former Liverpool Maritime Mercantile City UNESCO World Heritage Site, which was inscribed in 2004, but revoked in ...
, Liverpool.
In Nikolaus Pevsner
Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (1 ...
's series of books ''The Buildings of England'' he and Richard Pollard comment on "Rowse's two great commercial buildings":
Rowse's contemporary, the architect H S Goodhart-Rendel, commented, "That an Englishman should have produced single-handed a specimen equal to America's best is undoubtedly gratifying, although the flawless magnificence of Martins Bank
Martins Bank was a London private bank, trading for much of its time under the symbol of “The Grasshopper”, that could trace its origins back to the London goldsmiths. Martins agreed to its acquisition by the Bank of Liverpool in 1918. The Ba ...
at Liverpool (1926) may evoke in us admiration untinged with affection."
In 1931 Rowse was appointed architect to the Mersey Tunnel
The Mersey Tunnels connect the city of Liverpool with Wirral, under the River Mersey. There are three tunnels: the Mersey Railway Tunnel (opened 1886), and two road tunnels, the Queensway Tunnel (opened 1934) and the Kingsway Tunnel (opened 1 ...
Joint Committee. In a 1996 study of Reilly and his pupils, Joseph Sharples writes:
Rowse modified his style for his work on the tunnel, moving away from the American neo-classicism of India Buildings and the bank premises to "a smooth streamlined style with Art Deco ornaments, also American in inspiration."[ In 1934 the ]Bauhaus
The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 200 ...
architect Walter Gropius
Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was a German-American architect
An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in conne ...
came to see Rowse's work on the tunnel, and praised it.[ For the ventilation tower at Woodside, on the Cheshire side of the Mersey, Rowse received the Bronze Medal of the RIBA in 1937.]["Obituary – Mr H. J. Rowse", ''The Times'', 23 March 1963, p. 10]
In 1932 a young architect, Alwyn Edward Rice, still a pupil of Reilly, designed a speculative modern concert hall as his thesis for his final year at the School of Architecture. The exhibition of his drawings coincided with the destruction by fire of the old Philharmonic Hall in Hope Street. Rowse was commissioned to design a replacement, and he recruited Rice to help him. The building was in Streamline Moderne
Streamline Moderne is an international style of Art Deco architecture and design that emerged in the 1930s. Inspired by aerodynamic design, it emphasized curving forms, long horizontal lines, and sometimes nautical elements. In industrial design ...
style. Sharples comments, "the executed design is markedly similar to ice'sthesis, both in the massing of the exterior and the arrangement of the auditorium."[Sharples, pp. 143–144] When the new hall was opened in 1939, ''The Manchester Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' commented, "The magnificent compliment Liverpool has paid to the cause of music in England almost takes one's breath away ... a hall of great size, noble proportions, and up-to-date appointments ... ready to take its place among the most eminent homes of musical culture in this or any other country".
Rowse collaborated closely with the sculptor Edmund Thompson, whose work includes the gilded relief panels in the foyers of the Philharmonic Hall,[ and the incised murals depicting the ]Muse
In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Muses ( grc, Μοῦσαι, Moûsai, el, Μούσες, Múses) are the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the ...
s on the interior walls of the auditorium. For Rowse's Mersey Tunnel, Thompson, with George T Capstick, designed a relief in Art Deco style showing two winged bulls, "symbolic of swift and heavy traffic". Rowse's Portland stone ventilation towers for the tunnel are also decorated with sculptures by Thompson and Capstick.[
The Second World War brought Rowse's career to a temporary stop. He moved to Anglesey, where he served as High Sheriff in 1942–43. He was a member of the Council of the RIBA from 1944 to 1950.][ After the war his main work included the supervision of the restoration of India Buildings, which had been severely damaged by German bombing. He advised the Belgian government on post-war reconstruction, and was awarded the ]Order of Leopold II
The Order of Leopold II is an order of Belgium and is named in honor of King Leopold II. The decoration was established on 24 August 1900 by Leopold II as Sovereign of the Congo Free State and was in 1908, upon Congo being handed over to Belgi ...
in 1950. For the British government he designed diplomatic buildings in 1951, built in Delhi and Karachi
Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former cap ...
.[ Shortly before his death his practice won the competition for the renovation of the Rows in ]Chester
Chester is a cathedral city and the county town of Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Dee, close to the English–Welsh border. With a population of 79,645 in 2011,"2011 Census results: People and Population Profile: Chester Loca ...
.[Pepper, Simon, Peter Richmond]
"Rowse, Herbert James (1887–1963)"
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 19 June 2013
Rowse died at the age of 74 at his home, Chapel House, Puddington, Cheshire.[
]
Works
*Heswall
Heswall is a town on the Wirral, Merseyside, England. At the 2001 Census, the population was 16,012, including the nearby villages of Barnston and Gayton.
Before local government reorganisation on 1 April 1974 it was part of the administr ...
Golf Club House, Wirral, 1924
*Housing schemes at Whiston, Lancashire, 1924
*India Buildings
India Buildings is a commercial building with its principal entrance in Water Street, Liverpool, Merseyside, England. Mainly an office building, it also contained an internal shopping arcade and the entrance to an underground station. It was b ...
, Liverpool, 1924–32
*Housing at Rainhill
Rainhill is a village and civil parish within the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens, in Merseyside, England. The population of the civil parish taken at the 2011 census was 10,853.
Historically part of Lancashire, Rainhill was formerly a townsh ...
, Lancashire, 1925
*Martins Bank
Martins Bank was a London private bank, trading for much of its time under the symbol of “The Grasshopper”, that could trace its origins back to the London goldsmiths. Martins agreed to its acquisition by the Bank of Liverpool in 1918. The Ba ...
head office, Water Street, Liverpool, 1927–32
*Lloyd's Bank, Church Street, Liverpool, 1928–32
*Additions to St Paul's Eye Hospital and Royal Southern Hospital, Liverpool, 1929
*Flats, Camden Street, Birkenhead
Birkenhead (; cy, Penbedw) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England; historically, it was part of Cheshire until 1974. The town is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the south bank of the River Mersey, opposite Liver ...
, 1931
* Queensway Tunnel (Mersey Tunnel), Liverpool, tunnel entrances, toll booths and ventilation building exteriors, 1931–34
*Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool
Liverpool Philharmonic Hall is a concert hall in Hope Street, in Liverpool, England. It is the home of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society and is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed ...
, 1936–39
*Offices for Pilkington
Pilkington is a Japanese-owned glass-manufacturing company which is based in Lathom, Lancashire, United Kingdom. In the UK it includes several legal entities and is a subsidiary of Japanese company NSG Group.
Prior to its acquisition by NSG i ...
's Glass Works, St Helens, 1937
* College of the Pharmaceutical Society, London, 1937–60
*UK Pavilion, Empire Exhibition, Glasgow, 1938
*Woodchurch Estate, Birkenhead, 1946.
::Source: Sharples.[Sharples, p. 177]
File:Philharmonic Hall Liverpool.jpg, The Philharmonic Hall
File:India Buildings.jpg, India Buildings
India Buildings is a commercial building with its principal entrance in Water Street, Liverpool, Merseyside, England. Mainly an office building, it also contained an internal shopping arcade and the entrance to an underground station. It was b ...
File:Queensway Mersey Tunnel entrance Liverpool 1.jpg, Mersey Tunnel entrance
File:UCL School of Pharmacy.JPG, College of the Pharmaceutical Society
Notes
References
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External links
'Art and Architecture' - The Courtauld Institute of Art
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rowse, Herbert James
1887 births
1963 deaths
Alumni of the University of Liverpool
Architects from Liverpool
High Sheriffs of Anglesey