Wednesday, February 14, 2018

THOMAS ARCHER, ARCHITECT


British architecture enjoyed a golden age in the late 17th and early 18th centuries when the remarkable genius of Wren, Hawksmoor and Vanbrugh flourished. There were other very talented figures too, like James Gibbs and one I find tantalising, elusive Thomas Archer (1668-1743), whose completed works are rare, who contributed to parts of several great houses and who revelled in being “a gentleman architect”. I describe four of his buildings which have interested me.

Thomas Archer



Heythrop Park
                               
Born the son of a prosperous MP at imposing Umberslade House in Warwickshire, Archer left Trinity College, Oxford for a 4-year Grand Tour of Germany, Austria and Italy. He was enchanted by the new Baroque style, particularly that of Bernini and Borromini, at a time when England was slowly emerging from traditional Tudor and Jacobean influences.


Archer’s debt to Bernini is exemplified by the front elevations of Heythrop Park in Oxfordshire, a commission completed in 1720 and won from the Talbot family, briefly Dukes of Shrewsbury. The fenestration, roof-line and massive columns are derived from a never-completed plan by Bernini for the Louvre. Archer’s building was a little unlucky; his huge entrance hall still exists but the sumptuous interior by James Gibbs succumbed to a fire in 1831 and although the Gothic Revivalist Alfred Waterhouse reworked the interior in his own style, the building fell into disrepair becoming a Jesuit seminary. Acquired by NatWest Bank in the 1950s, the estate was developed as a training centre and conference venue. In my banking days, I visited and appreciated convivial Heythrop many times. Sold in 1999, it is now the site of two up-market hotels.

St Philip, Birmingham (Birmingham Cathedral)

St Philip was built in 1715 in the Baroque style, so dear to Thomas Archer yet so rare in England. It was built as a new parish church for the growing industrial area of Birmingham and became a cathedral (one of England’s smallest) in 1905. It sits in an oasis of calm in elegant Colmore Row and its churchyard is a welcoming haven. I used regularly to visit an office closely nearby and often popped in to St Philip. The interior is splendidly imposing, in the Italianate manner, with fluted Tuscan columns. Long after Archer’s time the church was embellished by 4 beautiful stained-glass windows by the pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones.


One might suppose that the stolid people of Birmingham are not much engaged in theological speculation but one would be wrong. In 1977 a collection of essays The Myth of God Incarnate was published and ascribed to the liberal Birmingham school, including John Hick and Frances Young from the University reinforced by Maurice Wiles, Dennis Nineham and other Oxbridge figures. The book was an honest discussion of Christology and the origins of the Incarnation Myth. It caused a sensation and a deadly backlash from the conservative Anglican establishment, blighting the church careers of the contributors. The book was scholarly, moderate and remains seminal.


Thomas Archer’s masterpiece is said to be St Paul’s Deptford, erected in 1712.

St Paul's Deptford

The poet and architectural writer John Betjeman declared that St Paul’s was A Baroque Pearl in the heart of London. Its misfortune is that Deptford is now one of the most deprived and bleak areas of London, tucked away just South of the Thames in the borough of Lewisham. From the early 16th century until 1869 Deptford prospered as a Royal Navy Dockyard, repairing and refitting the fleet. Pepys and the other diarist Evelyn were often there though it declined as ships grew larger but continued as the main Victualling Centre until the Navy moved out in the 1920s. Now the civilian docks and depots have closed and Deptford is a wilderness.


St Paul’s was one of the Fifty New Churches planned by Act of Parliament of 1710, a Tory measure to bolster the Anglican Church, as opposed to the thriving Dissenters, lavishly financed by the old coal tax which funded the restoration of the City after the Fire of 1666. In the event only 12 churches were built, 2 by Archer the others mainly by Hawksmoor and Gibbs, as later the ascendant Whigs were not enthusiastic supporters of Anglican expansion.


St Paul’s has an impressive semi-circular portico and a noble cylindrical tower crowned by a fine steeple. Some years ago I tried to visit the interior but it was firmly chained up and unwelcoming. I understand that local vandalism was a problem and that a restoration programme has now been completed – so I am sure a Baroque feast rewards an adventurous trip to Archer’s Deptford, best combined perhaps with a drive to the glories of Greenwich.


Archer’s final building and the second of his contributions to the Fifty New Churches programme is St John’s, Smith Square erected between 1713 and 1728.

St Johns, Smith Square

Archer’s huge church, with its 4 high towers acquired the early nick-name “Queen Anne’s Footstool”. Legend has it that the ailing Queen was pestered by Archer to approve his plans and, on being asked what shape she preferred, petulantly kicked over her footstool and said “Like this!” In truth the 4 towers were required by Archer to diffuse the weight of masonry on the marshy ground of the site.


The exterior of St John’s is exuberantly Baroque as described by the architect and writer Sir Hugh Casson in 1981. The outside is such a turmoil of movement that you could almost say there are no walls or windows ... only a composition of classical elements, columns and cornices, moulded pediments and heavily modelled towers ... Archer handles all this with an energy, courage and confidence which is irresistible.” The building is a superb adornment to a now upmarket corner of Westminster.


In 1941, a German firebomb gutted the interior of St John’s and the ruined building was open to the skies until the early 1960s. In time it was restored as a concert hall, hosting many a chamber orchestra, choir or recital. Smith Square was for many years synonymous with Conservative Central Office which occupied No. 32 from 1958 to 2004 and was a political hotbed in the eras of wily MacMillan, unlucky Heath and blessed Thatcher. But my happiest memory is attending a concert of Baroque music by Rameau and Charpentier, given by the matchless Caen-based ensemble Les Arts Florissants led by the American William Christie. Such lovely music in such an appropriate setting! All thanks to Thomas Archer!



S.M.D.
14.02.2018. 
Text Copyright ©.Sidney Donald 2018.

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