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Arnold Mitchell (1863–1944): ‘Fecundity’ and ‘Versatility’ in an Early Twentieth-Century Architect
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 April 2016
Extract
The architectural historian Roderick Gradidge, referring to the 1900s, wrote that ‘in architecture there have never been such opportunities for younger men as there were at the turn of the century’. Arnold Mitchell is an architect typical of those who took advantage of such opportunities, a man (women were yet to have the chance) who saw the economic and aesthetic potential for new architecture, both nationally and internationally. Understanding the nature of architectural practice should not be reliant solely upon knowledge of the stellar architects of any given period. It depends upon integrating others, one or two rungs down the ladder but who achieved success in their own sphere, into the corpus examined, in order to achieve a fuller understanding of the profession.
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References
Notes
1 Gradidge, Roderick, Dream Houses (London, 1980), p. 9.Google Scholar
2 The first woman architect to become a member of the RIBA, in 1898, was Ethel Charles (1871–1962). Women first studied at the Architectural Association in 1917, but it was not until 1931 that the first woman Fellow was elected to the RIBA.
3 Muthesius, Hermann, Die englische Baunkunst der Gegenwart (Berlin, 1900), p. 32.Google Scholar
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5 It is believed that Mitchell’s son destroyed his drawings after his death: letter from Sir Peter Shepheard to Mr Sweet-Escott, Mitchell’s grandson, 17 March 1997 (Arnold Mitchell Archive: henceforth AMA), held by Dr J. Wood, Lyme Regis. Sir Peter Shepheard had worked in practice with Edward Mitchell, Arnold’s son; Sir Peter wrote, ‘I am afraid I can’t offer much hope of finding any of A.M.’s drawings […] we were not careful to preserve things in those days, and later on our successors were even worse’.
6 Stuart Gray, A., Edwardian Architecture: A Biographical Dictionary (London, 1985), p. 262 Google Scholar; London RIBA Library ‘Arnold Mitchell, Biographical File’; Davey, Peter, Arts and Crafts Architecture (London, 1980) pp. 106–07.Google Scholar
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8 The most extensive archive on Arnold Mitchell’s buildings is held by Harrow Public Library; this includes sales catalogues and photographs of many of his buildings in Harrow (‘Architects - Arnold Mitchell’). Other material is scant. Plans exist, for example, in Hampshire County Record Office for Mitchell’s £100 cottage design (39M89/E/B428/1). Essex County Record Office holds some material on Mitchell’s house in Essex, The Vineyards (D/DB T225). East Sussex Record Office holds plans (3 June 1896) of Barons Down, which Mitchell designed for Edward Stanley Norris (DL/A/1-2323). Westminster Archives hold a drawing of the Mayfair Hotel (C.138), and Hackney Archives have notes on St Matthew’s parish hall (1891)(SE/4623).
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23 Ibid.
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28 Mitchell designed the Harrow Hospital (1906), Orley Farm School (1901) and St Andrews Church Hall (1904–05), all in the Harrow area.
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36 Ibid., p. 260.
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40 Ibid., p. 259.
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42 Ibid., p. 108. Ramsden and Carr (1898–1919) studied at Sheffield School of Art and at the Royal College of Art, before setting up their design studio in London. Their silverwork with inlaid enamel is much sought after.
43 Ibid., p. 108.
44 Ibid., p. 108.
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48 Letter from Dr J. Wood to author, 24 November 2007.
49 AMA; Dr Woods’ archive holds a Sales document (1916) relating to The Vineyards, Great Baddow, Essex. Further extant documents relating to The Vineyards can be found at the Essex Record Office, D/DB T225.
50 Letter from Dr J. Wood to author, 24 November 2007.
51 Anon., ‘Obituary Arnold Mitchell’, p. 375.Google Scholar
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54 Ibid.
55 Ibid.
56 Muthesius, Das englische Haus, p. 193.Google Scholar
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58 Anon., ‘A Modern English Country House. Designed by Arnold Mitchell F.R.I.B.A.’, The Studio, 12 (1901), pp. 239–47 (p. 239).Google Scholar
59 Ibid., p. 244.
60 Anon., ‘Obituary Arnold Mitchell’, p. 375.Google Scholar
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62 Anon. ‘A Modern English Country House’, p. 241.Google ScholarPubMed
63 Ibid., p. 241.
64 Ibid., p. 246.
65 Ibid., pp. 246–47.
66 Ibid., p. 243.
67 Ibid., p. 243.
68 Ibid., p. 246.
69 Ibid., p. 243.
70 Jackson-Stops, Gervase, ‘Tissington Hall, Derbyshire, III’, Country Life, 160 (29 July 1976), pp. 288–89 (p. 288).Google Scholar
71 Ibid., pp. 288–89.
72 Listed building 80416 (staff quarters and outbuilding at Tissington Hall) at http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/Details/Default.aspx?id=80416&mode=adv (accessed on 27 January 2009). The library and billiard wing was built of the same materials as the staff quarters and outbuildings at Tissington Hall.
73 Bankart, George, The Art of the Plasterer (London, 1908; Donington, Dorset, 2002), pp. 48–52.Google Scholar
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78 Listed building 440082 at http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/Details/Default.aspx?id=440082&mode=quick (accessed on 24 April 2009). The building is Grade II*.
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80 Ibid.
81 Mitchell and Hawker designed the Winton Public Library, Bournemouth (c. 1907).
82 At http://www.orleyfarm.harrow.sch.uk/history (accessed on 10 December 2009). Edward Hastings, who founded Orley Farm School in 1850 (then known as Hastings), ‘purchased an additional house “Julians’” (i.e. Julian’s Way (c. 1905) was built on the site of this earlier house). Unbeknown to him, this property previously belonged to the family of Anthony Trollope, and when that author faithfully described it in his famous novel of 1862, Orley Farm, Hastings recognized the description and sought — and gained — the author’s permission to change the name of his school to ‘Orley Farm’.
83 Listed building 202109 at http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/Details/Default.aspx?id=202109&mode=adv (accessed on 24 April 2009).
84 The Royal Academy Exhibitors: 1905–10 (Trowbridge, 1973), p. 164.Google Scholar
85 Anon., ‘Recent Domestic Architecture’, The Studio, 26 (1902), p. 116.Google Scholar
86 Ibid., p. 116.
87 Listed building 462837 at http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/Details/Default.aspx?id=462837&mode=quick (accessed on 24 April 2009).
88 Listed building 5379 No. 274 [sic] at http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-428463-274-ipswich (accessed on 6 March 2012). Email from Ipswich Borough Council to author (9 February 2008).
89 Ibid.
90 Ibid.
91 Anon., ‘The Late Arnold Mitchell’, p. 89.Google Scholar
92 Conversation with the owners of 274 Norwich Road, Ipswich (11 March 2012); email from the owners of 274 Norwich Road, Ipswich, to author (12 March 2012).
93 Anon., ‘Standard A Cottage’, The Builder, 105 (28 November, 1913), pp. 574–76 (p. 575).Google Scholar
94 Weaver, Lawrence, The Country Life Book of Cottages (London, 1919), p. 15.Google Scholar
95 Ibid., p. 13.
96 Ibid., p. 12.
97 Ibid., p. 8.
98 Gradidge, , Dream Houses, p. 177.Google Scholar
99 Listed building 69567, Grade II* at http://www.imagesofenglandorg.uk/Details/Default.aspx?id=69567&mode=adv (accessed on 17 June 2008).
100 Ibid.
101 Ibid.
102 Listed building 204898 at http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/Details/Default.aspx?id=204898&mode=adv (accessed on 18 July 2010). The hospital was formerly the Merchant Seaman’s Orphan Asylum; Mitchell was surveyor to the Orphanage from 1898–1913.
103 ’Upper Cobb House’, Wood, John, All Over the Town (Lyme Regis, 2008), pp. 9, 10.Google ScholarPubMed
104 Usher, H. J. K., Black-Hawkins, C. D. and Carrick, G. J., An Angel Without Wings, The History of University College School, 1830–1980 (Harrow, 1981), p. 58.Google Scholar
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106 Listed building 477435 at http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/Details/Default.aspx?id=477435&mode=quick (accessed on 24 April 2009). Mitchell also designed a ‘pair of Mistresses’ Houses’ at St Felix School, Southwold, Suffolk, in Wrenaissance style; see Anon., ‘St Felix Schools, Southwold’, The Builder, 86 (16 January 1914), p. 60.Google Scholar
107 Anon., ‘Agricultural Buildings, Cambridge University’, The Builder, 98 (14 May 1910), pp. 555–56.Google Scholar
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109 Ibid., p. 262.
110 Verity, Frank, Flats Urban Houses and Cottage Homes (London, 1907), p. 120.Google Scholar
111 Ibid., p. 120.
112 Gray, , Edwardian Architecture, p. 262.Google Scholar
113 AMA; letter from Sir Peter Shepheard to Mr Sweet-Escott (17 March 1997).
114 Ibid.
115 The Temple of Travel (1926), p. 2 (TCA). For information on this archive, see http://www.thomascook.com/about-us/thomas-cook-history/company-archives/.
116 Anon., ‘Editorial Notes’, The Oriental Travellers’ Gazette (January 1926), p. 5.Google ScholarPubMed
117 Ibid., p. 5.
118 Ground-floor plan of the Thomas Cook building, Berkeley Street, 1926. TCG/GB08/11/4, TCA.
119 The Temple of Travel, p. 7.
120 Ibid., p. 7.
121 Ibid., p. 7.
122 Anon., ‘Editorial Notes’, The Oriental Travellers’ Gazette (January 1926), p. 5.Google ScholarPubMed
123 Ibid., p. 5.
124 Anon., ‘The Magic Carpet of Mayfair’, The Globetrotter (February 1927), p. 6 (TCA).Google Scholar
125 Ibid., p. 6.
126 Ibid., p. 7.
127 Ibid., p. 6.
128 Anon., ‘Editorial Notes’, The Oriental Travellers’ Gazette (January 1926), p. 5.Google ScholarPubMed
129 Anon., ‘Architectural Association Excursion, 1900’, Architectural Association Notes, 15 (September 1900), p. 126.Google Scholar
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132 Ibid.
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135 Ibid., pp. 102–03; Ranieri, Liane, Leopold II Urbaniste (Brussels, 1973), pp. 265–68.Google Scholar
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139 The Golf Club at Le Pau (1856) in France is the oldest in Europe. Their history recounts that, after the Napoleonic Wars and the Battle of Orthez (1814), two Scottish officers, who were confined to the area, became struck by the terrain and setting of the plain of Billière, which was perfect for their game of golf. These ‘strange characters in Scottish kilts […] tirelessly beat a little white ball using oddly shaped wooden sticks’. This is believed to be how the game of golf (as played by the Scots) was introduced to France; at http://www.paugolfclub.com/history (accessed on 16 March 2012).
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142 Royal Academy Exhibitors, p. 164.
143 Kruppstadt Museum, Berndorf, Austria; email from Susanne Schmieder-Haslinger of the Kruppstadt Museum, Berndorf to author (28 May 2009).
144 Archives of the Evangelische Kirche Berndorf; email from The Revd Andreas Hankemeier to author (13 September 2009).
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148 Ibid., p. 21.
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151 Royal Academy Exhibitors, p. 164.
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154 Email from Jorge Lyons of the Antofagasta Railway Company PLC to author (1 February 2010).
155 Ibid.
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159 Ibid., pp. 304–07.
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163 Ibid., pp. 85–86.
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166 Ibid., p. 4.
167 Ibid., p. 6.
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173 Ibid., p. 536.
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178 Ibid., p. 180.
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