Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol I (1901).djvu/285

 BLOMFIELD, ARTHUR WILLIAM (1829–1899), architect, fourth son of Charles James Blomfield [q. v.], bishop of London, by his wife Dorothy, daughter of Charles Cox, was born at Fulham Palace on 6 March 1829. He was brother of Admiral Henry John Blomfield and of Alfred Blomfield, bishop-suffragan of Colchester. He was educated at Rugby and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. and M.A. in 1851 and 1853 respectively. On leaving college he was articled for three years to Philip Charles Hardwick (1822- 1892), son of Philip Hardwick [q. v.], then architect of the Bank of England, and he followed up this training in 1855 by a continental tour in company with Frederick Pepys Cockerell [q. v.] Though his architectural schooling had not been under Gothic influences, Blomfield showed, when in 1856 he opened his first office in Adelphi Terrace, that Gothic was to be the style of his choice. His family connection with the clergy soon assured him occupation in various church works. He joined the Architectural Association (established about 1846 for junior architects), of which he became president in 1861, and subsequently the Royal Institute of British Architects, of which he was elected fellow in 1867. Later (in 1886) he became vice-president of the institute, but declined nomination to the presidentship.

Blomfield's works, though mainly ecclesiastical, were not exclusively so, nor wholly Gothic. In 1883 he succeeded to his old master's post of architect to the Bank of England, for which he built the law courts branch, his most important classic building. On the death of George Edmund Street [q. v.] in 1881, Blomfield was associated with Street's son, Arthur Edmund, in super-intending the erection of the law courts. He was also a trustee of Sir John Soane's museum. The works with which Blomfield felt the most satisfaction, probably as being least hampered therein by questions of money, were the private chapel at Tyntesfield (the residence of the late William Gibbs), Privett church, Hampshire (designed for William Nicholson), and St. Mary's, Portsea (begun 1884), which was due to the liberality of William Henry Smith [q. v.] His most important productions other than churches were Denton Manor, near Grantham, Lincolnshire, for the late Sir William Welby Gregory, bart.; the Whitgift Hospital Schools at Croydon; the King's Schools at Chester; the Bancroft School at Woodford for the Drapers' Company; the Sion College Library on the Thames Embankment; and the Qneen's School at Eton College, attached to which is the 'Lower' school chapel. One of Blomfield's principal works for the church was the complete scheme for the Church House in Dean's Yard, Westminster, which, though the great hall block was opened for use in 1890, is at present only partially completed. Blomfield designed more than one church for the colonies or for English congregations abroad, such as the cathedral of St. George, George Town, Demerara, built largely of timber on a concrete raft, owing to insecure foundations; a church for the Falkland Isles, for which most of the materials were exported from England; the church of St. George at Cannes, consecrated 1887, and built as a memorial to the Duke of Albany; the little English chapel at St. Moritz; and (in 1887) the important church of St. Alban at Copenhagen, in connection with which he was elected an honorary member of the Danish Academy and received the order of the Danebrog (3rd class) from the king of Denmark. In 1888 he was elected an associate of the Royal Academy; in 1889 he was knighted, and in 1891 was awarded the gold medal of the Royal Institute of British Architects for his distinguished works.

Blomfield admitted the possibility of individuality in ecclesiastical art, and even held that 'where convenience is at stake we ought not to be too much confined by the precedent of mediaeval architecture.' In the matter of materials he felt that architects ought not to allow blind adherence to tradition to deprive them of the benefits of modern discovery. He instanced the advisability of sometimes making use of iron columns in the nave of a church, and he even carried this particular suggestion into practice in the small church of St. Mark, Marylebone Road. In spite of these unconservative views he was rightly regarded as a conscientious restorer, and had four cathedrals under his care at various times — Salisbury (for repair of tower), Canterbury, Lincoln, and Chichester, in the case of the two latter succeeding to John Loughborough Pearson [q. v., Suppl.], with whom he was in 1896 consulted as to the restorations at Peterborough. He was also diocesan architect to Winchester, and built the cathedral library at Hereford. The work of restoration by which he will be best known is his complete and skilful rebuilding of the nave and south transept of St. Mary Overie (St. Saviour's, South wark). These operations, costing 60,000l., were in progress from July 1890 to February 1897. The south porch is entirely Blomfield's creation, and the nave, which is of fine 'early English' work, may perhaps be looked upon as rather a revival than a restoration; it replaced a structure of 