Edwin Thomas Hall (1851–1923) was a British

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 ...

known primarily for the design of the Liberty & Co. department store, the Old Library at

Dulwich College Dulwich College is a 2–19 Independent school (United Kingdom), independent, Day school, day and boarding school for Single-sex education, boys in Dulwich, London, England. As a Public school (United Kingdom), public school, it began as the Col ...

(1902–03) and various hospitals. He was the brother of the architect George Alfred Hall and father of Edwin Stanley Hall, also a noted architect.

Biography

Born in 1851, the son of architect George Hall, he started independent practice in London in 1876, and is best known for his work designing hospitals. He won the 1894 competition for the design of Hither Green Infectious Diseases Hospital and then a 1908 competition to design the new

Manchester Royal Infirmary Manchester Royal Infirmary (MRI) is a large NHS teaching hospital in Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester, England. Founded by Charles White in 1752 as part of the voluntary hospital movement of the 18th century, it is now a major regional and nati ...

. The architect John Brooke was cited as "joint architect" with E T Hall in the design of the Manchester Royal Infirmary opened on 6 July 1909. He also designed two hospitals in

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popula ...

, the Homoeopathic Hospital in Queen Square, London and several hospitals in Sussex as well as the St Giles Hospital in Peckham and the Camberwell Infirmary (both in London). His large architectural practice also designed a number of factories, offices, churches, houses and flats. Amongst these are Sloane Mansions in

Sloane Square Sloane Square is a small hard-landscaped square on the boundaries of the central London districts of Belgravia and Chelsea, located southwest of Charing Cross, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. The area forms a boundary betw ...

and St Ermin's Mansions in 1889 (which later became St Ermin's Hotel in 1899) in

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, B ...

Liberty's

Hall's most noted work, which he undertook with his son, was the design of the Regent Street department store Liberty & Co., which is now a Grade II*

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. Although the landowner, the

Crown Estate The Crown Estate is a collection of lands and holdings in the United Kingdom belonging to the British monarch as a corporation sole, making it "the sovereign's public estate", which is neither government property nor part of the monarch's priv ...

, required all buildings on Regent Street to be in a classical style, Hall constructed the famous black and white timber Elizabethan-style frontage of Liberty's that faces on to

Great Marlborough Street Great Marlborough Street is a thoroughfare in Soho, Central London. It runs east of Regent Street past Carnaby Street towards Noel Street. Originally part of the Millfield estate south of Tyburn Road (now Oxford Street), the street was named ...

. Completed after his death in 1924, its

mock Tudor Tudor Revival architecture (also known as mock Tudor in the UK) first manifested itself in domestic architecture in the United Kingdom in the latter half of the 19th century. Based on revival of aspects that were perceived as Tudor architecture ...

style was designed around the ideas of the store's owner, Arthur Liberty. The timber for the outside façade was taken from old wooden sailing ships: HMS ''Impregnable'' and HMS ''Hindustan''. The frontage on Great Marlborough Street is the same length as the ''Hindustan''. Three light wells form the main internal focus of the building. Each of these wells was surrounded by smaller rooms to create a homely feel. Many of the rooms had fireplaces and some of these still exist. The architectural historian

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 ...

was very critical of the building's architecture, saying: "The scale is wrong, the symmetry is wrong. The proximity to a classical façade put up by the same firm at the same time is wrong, and the goings-on of a store behind such a façade (and below those twisted Tudor chimneys) are wrongest of all".

RIBA

He was a vice-president 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 supp ...

and was an active participant in drawing up the Institute’s charter in 1887. He was known as "Bye law Hall" not only because of his incisive legal mind but for the major part he played in drafting the updating of the London Building Acts in the 1890s.

The Dulwich Estate

Hall was a governor of The Dulwich Estate for 22 years and its chairman from 1908 to 1910. In addition to the Old Library, other local projects included Camberwell Public Library and Council Offices, and the completion of the British Home for Incurables in Streatham. Hall also provided the initial concept for the Sunray Gardens Estate. The advanced concept advocated a garden city layout with innovative integral community facilities.

Books

Hall published the well known ''Dulwich History and Romance AD 967–1916'' in 1917.

References

External links

Dulwich Society biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hall, Edwin 1851 births 1923 deaths Architects from London Art Nouveau architects English designers People from Dulwich Royal Institute of British Architects