Sir Arthur William Blomfield (6 March 182930 October 1899) was an English architect, a keen church builder. He became president of the Architectural Association in 1861; a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1867 and vice-president of the RIBA in 1886. Blomfield became architect to the Bank of England, built the Law Courts branch in 1883, an associate of the Royal Academy in 1888 and he was knighted, and in 1891 he received the gold medal of the RIBA.

Background He was the fourth son of Charles James Blomfield, Anglican Bishop of London, who began a programme of new church construction in the capital. Born in Fulham Palace, Arthur Blomfield was educated at Rugby and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he studied Architecture He was then articled as an architect to Philip Charles Hardwick, and subsequently obtained a large practice on his own account.

The young Thomas Hardy joined Blomfield's practice as assistant architect in April 1862, and the writer remained friends with Blomfield. He became president of the Architectural Association in 1861; a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1867 (proposed by George Gilbert Scott, H. Brandon and J. P. Seddon); and vice-president of the RIBA in 1886. In 1889, he was knighted. He was awarded the Royal Gold Medal in 1891.

He was twice married. His first wife was Caroline Harriet Smith (1840–1882) and his second wife, Lady Blomfield, was an author and humanitarian.Memorial to a shining star London, United Kingdom, 10 August 2003 (BWNS) Two of his daughters, Mary Esther and Ellinor Blomfield, were supporters of the suffragette movement and famously made a representation to the King. Two of his sons, Charles James and Arthur Conran Blomfield, were brought up to his own profession, and of which they became distinguished representatives. His nephew, Sir Reginald Blomfield, apprenticed under him, went on to design numerous buildings, public works, and sculpture, including the Cross of Sacrifice or War Cross, for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. These are in Commonwealth cemeteries in many countries.

He died at the Royal Societies Club in London on 30 October 1899 aged 70 and was buried on 3 November in Broadway, Worcestershire, where he lived at Springfield House.

Major works Blomfield designed St Peter's in Eastgate in 1870 as a replacement for a medieval church. The church as it now stands is the combined work of three eminent architects: nave and chancel by Blomfield, south aisle by Temple Moore (1914) and the chancel decoration by George Frederick Bodley (1884).

In 1882 Blomfield designed the Royal College of Music in London. In 1887 he became architect to the Bank of England and, in association with Arthur Edmund Street, designed the Law Courts branch of the Bank of England in Fleet Street. A. E. Street was the son of the architect G. E. Street.

In 1890–7 he rebuilt the nave of St Saviour's parish church, Southwark (now Southwark Cathedral), replacing an earlier reconstruction of 1839–40. It is a notable example of his use of a Gothic Revival style. He was highly regarded as a restorer; a spokesman for the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings said of his 1898 restoration of Salisbury Cathedral spire "conducted in the most conservative way possible ... I am confident that anyone who had been privileged to see the work that is being done ... would not withhold his subscriptions even though he was as ardent an anti-restorer as your obedient servant."William Morris and the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, Andrea Elizabeth Donovan, Routledge 2008 (p. 72)

In 1899 he completed St George's Anglican Cathedral in Georgetown, Guyana, which was the tallest wooden church in the world until 2003 when the Peri Monastery near Săpânţa in northern Romania was completed.

Other works (in chronological order)

St Leonard's Church, Linley, Shropshire, restoration, 1858 Christ Church, Crouch End 1862 Holy Trinity Church, Dartford, 1862–63 and 1877 Kent Archaeological Society, Holy Trinity Church, Dartford: Canterbury Diocese - Historical and Archaeological Survey, Tim Tatton-Brown, 1995. Retrieved 14 April 2023. Christ Church, East Sheen 1863 St Mary's parish church, Jackfield, Shropshire, 1863Pevsner, 1958, page 158 All Saints' parish church, Windsor, Berkshire, 1862–64Pevsner, 1966, page 299 St Luke's chapel at the former Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, 1864Sherwood & Pevsner, 1974, page 305 St Mary's Church, Banbury, Oxfordshire: restoration 1864Sherwood & Pevsner, 1974, page 436 Dartford Grammar School, Kent, 1864. St. Mary's parish church, Adwell, Oxfordshire, 1865Sherwood & Pevsner, 1974, page 419 St Mark's parish church, Binfield, Berkshire, 1866Pevsner, 1966, page 87 St Mary's parish church, Princes Risborough, Buckinghamshire, 1867–68 St John the Baptist parish church, Eton Wick, Buckinghamshire, 1867–69Pevsner, 1960, page 132 All Saints' parish church, Upper Caldecote, Bedfordshire, 1868 St. Mary's Church, Strood, Kent, 1868Homan 1984, page 105 The Halsteads, East Sheen, London, 1868 Vicarage House for Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry, Oxfordshire, 1868Jackson's Oxford Journal, 17 October 1868 St Saviour's parish church, Eddington, Berkshire, 1868Pevsner, 1966, page 136 St Mary Magdalen Church, Sheet, Hampshire, 1868–69 St John's Church, St. Moritz, 1868–75 St. Barnabas parish church, Jericho, Oxford, 1869Sherwood & Pevsner, 1974, page 290 St Peter in Eastgate, Lincoln 1870 St Stephen's Church, Tunbridge Wells, Kent, 1870 (demolished in 1889 and replaced by St. Barnabas' Church on the same site)Homan 1984, page 97 All Saints' parish church, Neenton, Shropshire, 1870–71 St Saviour's Church, Oxford Street, London 1870–73 St John the Baptist, Bathwick, Bath, 1871 Whitgift School, Croydon, 1871Whitgift School, Whitgift Middle School, Trinity School 1871-1965 by FHG Percy & JW Cove, 1965 St Mary-at-the-Walls, Colchester, 1872 St Nicholas' Church, Chawton 1872–73Chawton Village information St James' parish church, Ramsden, Oxfordshire, 1872Sherwood & Pevsner, 1974, page 734 Church of St Mary and St Ethelbert, Luckington, Wiltshire, 1872 St. Andrew's parish church, Surbiton, Surrey 1872Victorianweb.org St John the Baptist parish church, Crowthorne, Berkshire, 1873Pevsner, 1966, page 124 Holy Innocents parish church, High Beach, Essex, 1873 Tyntesfield chapel, Wraxall, Somerset, 1873 Christ Church, St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex, 1873-75 St Peter's Church, Netherseal, Derbyshire 1874 St Michael and All Angels Church, Hughenden, Buckinghamshire, 1874–90Pevsner, 1960, page 172 Grove Gardens Chapel, Richmond, Surrey, c.1875 St John the Baptist's Church, Eltham, Kent, 1875 St Michael and All Angels Church, Maidstone, Kent, 1876 Chapel Royal, Brighton, internal structural repairs and reordering 1876; new exterior 1896 Christ Church, Epsom, Surrey, 1876 Holy Innocents, Hornsey, London N8, 1876–77A P Baggs, Diane K Bolton, M A Hicks and R B Pugh, 'Hornsey, including Highgate: Churches', in A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 6, Friern Barnet, Finchley, Hornsey With Highgate, ed. T F T Baker and C R Elrington (London, 1980), pp. 172–182. British History Online, accessed 8 January 2017. Holy Trinity Church, Privett, 1876–78Pevsner, 1967, page 471 Haileybury and Imperial Service College Chapel, 1877 St Andrew's Church, Collingbourne Ducis, Wiltshire: restoration, 1877 All Saints' parish church, Roffey, West Sussex, 1878 St. Mary Magdalene parish church, Woodstock, Oxfordshire: restoration, 1878Sherwood & Pevsner, 1974, page 856 Trinity College, Cambridge Bishop's Hostel additions 1878 St Paul's Church, Clapham: East end extension, 1879

Denton Hall, Denton, Lincolnshire, rebuilt 1879–1883 (demolished 1938)'1879 – Denton Hall, Grantham, Lincolnshire', archiseek. All Saints Church, Fulham, 1880–81 St Nicholas' parish church, Heythrop, Oxfordshire, 1880Sherwood & Pevsner, 1974, page 646 St John the Evangelist's Church, St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex (1881; partly destroyed by bombing in 1943 and rebuilt by Harry Stuart Goodhart-Rendel) Lecture rooms, Durham University (now part of Palace Green Library), 1882 St Thomas' Church of England, Shepherd's Bush (now St Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church), 1882

Selwyn College, Cambridge, 1882-89 See also other nearby listings

Chester Cathedral restoration and additions, 1882 St Andrew's Church, Worthing, West Sussex (1882) St Luke's Church, Queen's Park, Brighton, Sussex, 1882–85 St Stephen's Church, North Mundham, West Sussex: addition of chancel and re-ordering of interior, 1883 St Andrew, Stoke Newington, 1883–4 Charterhouse School, the Great Hall 1884 St Leodegar's Church, Hunston, Sussex, 1885 St. Wystan's Church, Repton restoration 1885–1886 Wellington College, Berkshire: chapel apse and dormitories, 1886Pevsner, 1966, page 262 St. Alban's Anglican Church, Copenhagen, Denmark St Germanus' Church, Faulkbourne, Essex, 1886 St Andrew's Church, Leytonstone, Essex 1886–93. Royal Memorial Church of St George, Cannes, 1886–92 St Mary's Church, Walmer, Kent, 1887 St James' Church, West Hampstead, 1887-88 Minster Church of St Denys, Warminster, Wiltshire: rebuilding 1887–89 Holy Trinity Church, Gosport, Hampshire, restoration and campanile, 1887-89 St David's Church Bangor, Gwynedd, 1888CADW Listing page 16 St Mary's Church, Rostherne, Cheshire, 1888 All Saints' Church, Leatherhead, Surrey, 1888 St Mark's Church, Regent's Park, 1888-9 (alterations) St Mary's parish church, Rickmansworth, 1888–90 St Mark's parish church, Bourne End, Buckinghamshire, 1889 Bancroft's School, Woodford Green, Essex, 1889 St Stephen's Church, Brighton, additions 1889 Eton College, Berkshire: Lower Chapel and Queen's Schools, 1889–91Pevsner, 1960, page 131 All Souls Church, Hastings, Sussex, 1890 All Saints' Blackheath, additions in 1890 (vestries) and 1899 (porch) St Cyprian's Church, Brockley, London, 1890 St James' Church, West End, Hampshire 1890 Christ Church Cathedral (Falkland Islands), 1890–1892 Oxford House, Bethnal Green, London, 1891 St Mary's parish church, Liss, Hampshire 1892Lissparishchurch.co.uk Magdalen College School, Oxford, 1893–94Sherwood & Pevsner, 1974, page 304 West Sussex County Asylum, Chichester, West Sussex, 1894–97Cracknell, 2005, countyasylums.com The Catholic Church of Our Lady and St Edward the Confessor, Lyndhurst, Hants, 1894–96 Epsom College Chapel, Surrey 1895 St Werburgh's Church, Derby, new church added, 1895 St Mary's Church, Swansea, Glamorgan, 1896 St Michael's Church, Macclesfield, Cheshire, new nave and aisles, 1898–1901Pevsner & Hubbard, 1971, pages 135+, 265, 324 All Saints Church, Leamington Spa, two western bays to the nave and a south western bell tower, 1898–1902 Wellington College, Berkshire, chapel aisles, 1899 St Saviour's Church of Ireland parish church, Coolgreaney Road, Arklow, County Wicklow, 1899Ireland.anglican.orgPhilip Smith (writer), An Introduction to the Architectural Heritage of County Wicklow (Dublin: Wordwell Press / Government of Ireland, Department of the Environment, Heritage, and Local Government, National Inventory of Architectural Heritage, 2004). pp. 2–3, 70–71. Glenesk Mausoleum, East Finchley Cemetery, Barnet, 1899

As Sir A.W. Blomfield and Sons St John the Evangelist's Church, Preston Village, Brighton, Sussex, 1901 St George's Church, Ashtead, Surrey, 1905 St Saviour's Church, Raynes Park, Surrey, 1905 St Michael's parish church, Abbey Wood, Kent, 1907 Sea Marge Hotel in Overstrand, Norfolk, private residence for Sir Edgar Speyer, 1908 Church of Holy Trinity, Eltham, London, 1908 St Mellitus's Church, Hanwell 1909

References

Sources

External links

Profile on Royal Academy of Arts Collections