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E. Bassett Keeling — a Postscript
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 April 2016
Extract
In 1973 our first investigations relating to the career of Enoch Bassett Keeling (1837–86) were published as an illustrated paper in Architectural History; so this brief Postscript is intended to augment and correct the information previously noted. We ended our paper with a plea that Keeling’s work should be reassessed ‘before his last buildings vanish’, but, in spite of our modest suggestion, many more demolitions and alterations have taken place.
One of Goodhart-Rendel’s ‘Rogue Goths’, Keeling has not been treated with kindness by posterity. The late Mr Gordon Barnes referred to ‘poor old Bassett Keeling’, a valedictory remark from which it would be difficult to dissent, for not only were his buildings often panned during his lifetime, but they were savaged by later critics. The church of St Mark, Notting Hill (1862–63), for example, was denounced as an ‘atrocious specimen of coxcombry’ in Building News, and Pevsner perceived that work as endowed ‘with all the ham-fisted ugliness which [Keeling] commanded’. The façade, to Pevsner, was ‘madly asymmetrical’, and the interior employed a ‘wild use of multi-coloured brick’. Professor George L. Hersey has likened the arrival of Butterfield’s church of All Saints, Margaret Street, in a world ‘not greatly disturbed by Pugin’, to a ‘Congo chieftain’ bursting ‘into a performance of Les Sylphides’, but the simile perhaps is even more apposite in the case of St Mark’s, the barbaric uproar of which was more strident than anything Butterfield achieved. St Mark’s was demolished in the 1970s, a fate that has befallen many of Keeling’s creations, while other surviving fabric has been neglected or altered almost beyond recognition.
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References
Notes
1 Architectural History, 16 (1973), pp. 60-69, Figs 26a-32.
2 Goodhart-Rendel, H. S. (1949), ‘Rogue Goths of the Victorian Era’, Journal of the RIBA, 3rd series, 56/6, pp. 251-59Google Scholar.
3 In a personal communication.
4 Building News, 17 (13 August 1869), p. 121.
5 Pevsner, Nikolaus, London except the Cities of London and Westminster (Harmondsworth, 1952), p. 299 Google Scholar.
6 Hersey, George L., High Victorian Gothic: A Study in Associationism (Baltimore and London, 1972), p. 117 Google Scholar.
7 Pevsner, op. cit. as in Note 5, p. 244.
8 Building News, 11 (22 July 1864), p. 560.
9 Sheppard, F. H. W. (ed.), Survey of London, vol. XXXVII, Northern Kensington (London, 1973), pp. 245-47Google Scholar.
10 Hobhouse, Hermione (ed.), Survey of London, vol. XLII, Southern Kensington: Kensington Square to Earl’s Court (London, 1986), pp. 375-78Google Scholar.
11 Information kindly provided by Dr Peter Nockles of The John Rylands University Library, Manchester.
12 Webster, Christopher (1995), ‘The Architectural Profession in Leeds 1800-50: a case-study in provincial practice’, Architectural History, 38, pp. 176-91CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
13 Minutes of conference… of People Called Methodist (London: Wesleyan Conference Office, 1870), pp. 6-8. Reference kindly provided by Dr Peter Nockles.
14 Information kindly provided by Mrs A. D. Fell, Assistant Librarian, the former Leeds Polytechnic, in 1973.
15 Felstead, Alison, Franklin, Jonathan, and Pinfield, Leslie (Compilers), Directory of British Architects 1834–1900 (London. 1993), pp. 111, 409-10, 517, 919Google Scholar; RIBA Nomination Papers A, Vol. 3, 59; Nomination Fiche 5/E2. Keeling’s Registration Number was 1834, 82. See R.I.B.A. Notices and Proceedings, 1859-60, 1871-72.
16 Pepperell, William, The Church Index (London, 1872), p. 4, 33-34Google Scholar, and passim. See also F. H. W. Sheppard, op. cit. as in Note 9, p. 320.
17 The Builder, 26 (14 March 1868), p. 200.
18 The Architect, 36 (19 November 1886), p. 294. Building News, 20 (17 March 1871), p. 193, records that Keeling submitted designs for the Metropolitan Railway Building Competition, Faringdon Road Estate, which he won. His designs were described.
19 The Builder, 39 (14 August 1880), p. 215.
20 Ibid., 51 (14 August 1886), p. 232.
21 Ibid., 46 (10 May 1884), p. 668.
22 Felstead, Franklin, and Pinfield, op. cit. as in Note 15, pp. 604, 747.
23 Death Certificate, Somerset House. While alcoholic cirrhosis of the liver is well understood, that organ can be damaged by other factors, not necessarily through alcohol. In Keeling’s case, however, the disease seems to have been the result of extremely heavy drinking, but he was probably also worn out by overwork, anxiety, grief, financial worries, and the sad circumstances of a life in which early promise soon turned sour.
24 Abney Park Cemetery Records, 1972. Recent (1998) enquiries to The Friends of Abney Park Cemetery have produced no further information.
25 Jeremiah, John, Notes of Shakespeare, and Memorials of The Urban Club, etc. (London, 1876)Google Scholar.
26 Vine, John R. S. and Church, W. E., A Record of The Urban Club and its Old Home at St John’s Gate, Clerkenwell (London, 1879)Google Scholar.
27 We are indebted to the late Mr Gordon Barnes, the late Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, and Mr Bernard Stanley for valuable information regarding Keeling, his family, and his work. Mr Trevor Todd of the RIBA was also most helpful relating to Keeling entries in Victorian journals. Our former colleagues in the Survey of London generously shared information with us, especially Mr Victor Belcher, Mr Peter Bezodis, and Mr John Greenacombe. We are also indebted to Mr Robert Elwall, Photographs Curator, The RIBA British Architectural Library, for permission to reproduce the two perspective drawings (Figs 2 and 3).