Marcus Evelyn Collins (1861-1944) was one of the nine sons and two daughters of

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

architect and

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...

District Surveyor Hyman Henry Collins (1833-1905). Noted buildings by H. H. Collins included a number of

synagogue A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of worshi ...

s, such as the

St John's Wood St John's Wood is a district in the City of Westminster, London, lying 2.5 miles (4 km) northwest of Charing Cross. Traditionally the northern part of the ancient parish and Metropolitan Borough of Marylebone, it extends east to west from ...

United Synagogue, the

Chatham Chatham may refer to: Places and jurisdictions Canada * Chatham Islands (British Columbia) * Chatham Sound, British Columbia * Chatham, New Brunswick, a former town, now a neighbourhood of Miramichi * Chatham (electoral district), New Brunswic ...

Memorial Synagogue, and the Park Row Synagogue,

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

. H. H. Collins was also a staunch advocate of domestic sanitation for all classes of housing - "He was instrumental in the framing of the first London Building Act and was one of the pioneers of improvements in sanitation of towns." Marcus Collins followed his father into architectural practice, later working on a number of noted London buildings including "London's Wonder Works", the Arcadia Cigarette Factory in

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from Watling Street, the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the Lon ...

where, from the late 1920s to the late 1950s,

Black Cat A black cat is a domestic cat with black fur that may be a mixed or specific breed, or a common domestic cat of no particular breed. The Cat Fanciers' Association (CFA) recognizes 22 cat breeds that can come with solid black coats. The Bombay b ...

and Craven "A" cigarettes were made. One of his younger brothers, Horace Samuel Collins (1875-1964), trained and worked as a

surveyor Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. A land surveying professional is ca ...

but subsequently became

Press agent In marketing, publicity is the public visibility or awareness for any product, service, person or organization (company, charity, etc.). It may also refer to the movement of information from its source to the general public, often (but not always) ...

for the

Drury Lane Theatre The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, commonly known as Drury Lane, is a West End theatre and Grade I listed building in Covent Garden, London, England. The building faces Catherine Street (earlier named Bridges or Brydges Street) and backs onto Drur ...

, and was later appointed Secretary of the Theatrical Managers' Association. Their youngest brother Frank Louis Collins (1878-1957) was

Charles B. Cochran Sir Charles Blake Cochran (25 September 1872 31 January 1951), generally known as C. B. Cochran, was an English theatrical manager and impresario. He produced some of the most successful musical revues, musicals and plays of the 1920s and 193 ...

's general stage director, and another of the Collins brothers was Arthur P. Collins (1864-1932), managing director of

Private life

In 1889, Marcus Collins married Florette Davis, daughter of London portrait photographer Hyman Davis: Marcus Collins was thus brother-in-law of theatre critic and librettist "

Owen Hall Owen Hall (10 April 1853 – 9 April 1907) was the principal pen name of the Irish-born theatre writer, racing correspondent, theatre critic and solicitor, James "Jimmy" Davis, when writing for the stage. After his successive careers in law ...

", novelist "Frank Danby", and journalist "Mrs Aria".Mrs Aria, ''My Sentimental Self'', Chapman & Hall 1922 pp7-8

Notes and references

{{DEFAULTSORT:Collins, Marcus Architects from London 1861 births 1944 deaths