Ewan Christian

Ewan Christian (1814–1895) was a British architect. He is most frequently noted for the restorations of Southwell Minster and Carlisle Cathedral, and the design of the National Portrait Gallery. He was Architect to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners from 1851 to 1895. Christian was elected A RIBA in 1840, FRIBA in 1850, RIBA President 1884–1886 and was awarded the Royal Gold Medal in 1887.

He is an uncle of English-American architect Gordon W. Lloyd.

Life

National Portrait Gallery Ewan Christian is well-known for designing the National Portrait Gallery (1890–1895) in St Martin's Place, London, just north of Trafalgar Square. The building's facade, faced in Portland stone, is not typical of his work and was built towards the end of his life, completed shortly after his death. Christian was an unexpected and controversial choice for such a commission and was appointed by the donor for the new building, W. H. Alexander (1832–1905). In the autumn of 1889 the architect embarked on a study tour of continental museums and art galleries to prepare himself for the task, an exhausting project which included visits to Bruges, Ghent, Antwerp, Amsterdam, Berlin, Frankfurt, Kassel and Dresden.thumb Christian was obliged to match the Greek Classical style of the National Gallery (built in 1838 by William Wilkins 1778–1839), which was set immediately to the south of the NPG site and adjoined it on its east side, but he provided a strikingly original design for his main north block towards Charing Cross Road based on the style of a Florentine Renaissance palazzo. The first floor for this block has large round-arched windows which bear portrait busts in roundels of famous painters, sculptors, antiquarians and historians, including Hans Holbein, Sir Peter Lely, Sir Anthony van Dyck, Sir Godfrey Kneller, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Sir Thomas Lawrence, William Hogarth, Louis Francois Roubiliac, Sir Francis Chantrey and Horace Walpole. The impressive pedimented entrance block is richly treated with more portrait busts in roundels, which include that for the 5th Earl Stanhope (1805–1875) whose campaign in parliament had led to the NPG's foundation in 1856 (the Gallery first opened in a Georgian house in Great George Street, Westminster, in 1859). He is flanked by busts of Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) and Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800–1859), historians who gave support to the idea of a National Portrait Gallery. The entrance frontage is modelled on the facade of the late 15th-century oratory of Santo Spirito in Bologna which Christian probably saw on one of his earlier Italian study tours. Above the doors are the Royal Arms sculpted by Frederick C. Thomas (fl.1892–1901) who was also responsible for the busts.

Early life Christian was born in Marylebone, London, on 20 September 1814, the seventh of nine children. His father, Joseph Christian (d. 1821), came from an old Isle of Man family of landed gentry whose own grandfather was Thomas Christian (d.1770), Rector of Crosthwaite in Cumberland. He was educated at Christ's Hospital School from the age of nine, first at the junior school in Hertford then at the main school in Newgate Street, London On his 15th birthday Christian was articled to the London architect Matthew Habershon (1789–1852) and also enrolled at the Royal Academy Schools. and was highly regarded by many leading architects of the Victorian era. Many became personal friends, particularly Samuel Sanders Teulon (1812–1873) who also lived in Hampstead and designed his masterpiece St Stephen's Church there, and Horace Jones (1819–1887), later architect to the Corporation of the City of London (both were companions on the Continental tour of 1841–42) W. D. Caroe (1857–1938) had been a managing assistant in Christian's office and took over as Architect to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners on Christian's death, for example at St David's Church, Exeter. St Mary's Church, Scarborough, one of Christian's first church restorations in 1848–1852. He rebuilt the outer north aisle (on the left of the picture) and restored the west front (shown) to its present appearance.

RIBA and the Ecclesiastical Commissioners Christian was made an associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1840 and a Fellow in 1850 at the age of 36. The RIBA, a prestigious national body of architects, had been formed in 1834 for the advancement of the profession and its members. Christian was elected vice-president of the institute in 1880 and reached the height of his career when he served as president of the RIBA from 1884 to 1886 and was awarded the institute's Royal Gold Medal in 1887. The church was in Christian's favourite Early English Gothic style,

Church designs Among Christian's original churches are Holy Trinity, Sunk Island, in the East Riding of Yorkshire (completed in 1877), St Matthew's Church in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire (1878–79), and St Mark's Church, Leicester (1869–1872), all cited in his RIBA Royal Gold Medal award of 1887. Holy Trinity displays a typical red brick lancet style with nave and chancel under a single steep-pitched high roof, a deep apse to the chancel and a tower topped by a pyramidal spire. The tower has another familiar feature, a projecting circular stair-turret to its east side which is capped by its own small curved roof. thumb Holy Trinity Church, Dalston, by Ewan Christian 1878–79: crossing tower The red-brick tower Christian provided for Holy Trinity Church, Dalston (1878–79), in the London Borough of Hackney, is set high over the crossing and is reminiscent of the work of Samuel Sanders Teulon (1812–1873). His red brick lancet style was also used in the little churches Christian built for new villages around The Wash in Lincolnshire, particularly at Holbeach St Marks and Christ Church at Gedney Dawsmere, both completed in 1869. The nave and deeply apsed chancel are under a single sweep of roof with scant interior division. They are provided with either a bellcote or spirelet rather than a dominant tower.

Despite his being thought to be mostly a red-brick architect, Christian used other facing materials where appropriate and when funding was adequate. The Church of St Matthew's (1878–79) in Cheltenham, praised by David Verey as "admirable and handsome", is built in white stone with ashlar dressings, while at All Saints, Viney Hill (1867), also in Gloucestershire, the church is appropriately built in the local sandstone. Like these, St Mark's Church (1869–1872) on Belgrave Gate, Leicester, uses different materials. St Mark's is unusually faced in dark purple-grey slate from the quarries of the donor, William Perry Herrick (1794–1876), in Charnwood Forest, Leicestershire The church displays a chancel apse, high roof and a tower topped by a Doulting limestone spire rising to 168 feet. St Mark's and St Matthew's were both designed as Evangelical preaching churches and have lofty naves with little division from the chancel, and focused attention on the pulpit. Inside, St Mark's has stone arcading with polished pink Shap granite columns, capitals with carved foliage and striped polychrome arches. Above them are alabaster roundels showing figures of saints and prophets. Tall marble shafts decorate the chancel and the walls of the interior display Christian's fondness for decorating his buildings with biblical texts.

St Mark's southern and western boundaries were originally canted, so that the site narrowed from east to west and its length to decreasrf from south to north. Christian set the tower at the south-east corner of the church and provided three stepbacks from there towards the west which resulted in the church's stepped and gabled exterior to the south wall. Inside, the cant is disguised by the south aisle appearing to have two chapels projecting from it. At the west end Christian provided a triangular vestibule below the level of the west window to fit within the boundary; it was demolished when the church was extended to the west by one bay in 1904. St Mark's has been regarded as Christian's masterpiece among churches.

Styles Though the Early English style was Christian's favourite he was not restricted to it. Many of his original churches and church restorations display beautiful window tracery in other styles of Gothic architecture. An excellent example of his Decorated Gothic work can be seen at St John's Church, Kenilworth in Warwickshire built in 1851–52, using rough cut red sandstone for the body of the church with ashlar dressings and displaying a fine south-west steeple with a broach spire. Typically the interior is open and spacious with little division between nave and chancel. Other churches by Christian in the Decorated style include the prominently sited Christ Church, Forest Hill (1852–1862) in the London Borough of Lewisham, built in Kentish Ragstone with an impressive tower and spire of 1885, and the charming St Paul's Church, Swanley Village in Kent completed in 1861 with a west tower added 1862–1865 which is built of rubble stone with bands of red and yellow brick and topped by shingled pyramidal spire. thumb St Paul's Church, Swanley Village in Kent, 1861 by Christian; the tower was added in 1865Christian also worked in the Perpendicular Gothic style, providing some Perpendicular traceried windows for the church of St James the Greater (1883), in Oaks-in-Charnwood, Leicestershire, which was built in local granite and has a fine west tower. He also did so for the church of St Dionis, Parsons Green in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, built in red brick with stone dressings in 1884–85, its tower completed after Christian's death in 1896. For the restoration of the ancient Church of St Laurence (1860) in Warkworth, Northumberland, Christian provided a group of chancel east windows in the round-arched Norman style, and designed a Neo-Norman organ case for Romsey Abbey in Hampshire in 1858. In 1876–77, he added a Norman-style family chapel and vestry to St Andrew's Church near Weston Park in Staffordshire, to match the classical work of 1701 a little better than with Gothic. The composition of Minor Canonries (1878–1880), that Christian designed as residences for canons of St Paul's Cathedral, London in nearby Amen Court is in the manner of Norman Shaw's Domestic Revival architecture, inspired by original Elizabethan and Jacobean buildings. Here Christian provided a careful design in red brick, set along the court, with large mullioned and transomed windows; patterned gables and tall chimneys; a tower topped by his usual pyramidal roof and elegant shell hoods over the doors. The court is entered through a pretty gateway, also in red brick, with a Tudor-style arch which has an oriel window above on both sides.

In a similar Elizabethan style is the bank (1884–1886) that Christian designed for Messrs Cox & Co, bankers to the army, in Whitehall, Westminster, though here the building is faced in stone. The former bank is set at the north corner of Craig's Court and has three large gables decorated with a raised grid pattern similar to the work at Amen Court, perhaps alluding to the timber-framed gables of Elizabethan buildings. Below the gables there is a wide expanse of mullioned and transomed windows for each of the upper floors. An extension was added to the corner under a smaller gable in 1900, designed by J. H. Christian. Also in an attractive Shaw style were two large convalescent homes which Christian designed, the first at Folkestone in Kent (1881, chapel added 1888) and the second, the Surrey Convalescent Home at Seaford, East Sussex (1888–1891, demolished in the 1960s), both had the usual bold display of heavy mullioned and transomed stone windows, big gables, tall chimneystacks and dormers. Finally, Christian's National Portrait Gallery in London as noted above was designed in a striking Italian Renaissance style.

The former Cox & Co Bank in Whitehall, Westminster, designed by Christian, 1884–86; lower extension on the corner of Craig's Court, 1900 by J. H. Christian

House designs Though Christian is often referred to as being a church architect he also designed about 120 houses, Thwaitehead's design predominantly displays the influence of the Domestic Revival style of architecture made popular at that time through the work of Richard Norman Shaw (1831–1912) and W. E. Nesfield (1835–1888). Shaw also lived in Hampstead in a house that he designed for himself (completed in 1876) and his house for the children's book illustrator Kate Greenaway in nearby Frognal, Hampstead, built in 1884–85, displays pretty tile-hanging and a balcony and is in its character similar to Christian's own house, built three years before.

Surveys and architectural competitions Christian's colossal work load required enormous amounts of energy to match it and despite having some bouts of serious illness as he got older the architect continued to meet the demands of his large practice. Typical of this is his appointment in 1887 as Consulting Architect to the Charity Commissioners for whom he produced a great report on the City of London churches which was said to be 'the most complete account [of them] ever written'. St James the Apostle's Church, Bonsall, Derbyshire (1861–2) St Michael's Church, Stanton by Bridge, Derbyshire (1865–6) St Pancras' Church, Alton Pancras, Dorset (1875) St George's Church, Bourton, Dorset (1878) St Thomas' Church, East Orchard, Dorset (1859) All Saints' Church, Gussage All Saints, Dorset (1860) St Mary the Virgin Church, Piddlehinton, Dorset (1867) All Saints' Church, Piddletrenthide, Dorset (1880) Christ Church, Weymouth, Dorset (1874) St Michael's Church, Heighington, County Durham (1872–5) St Peter's Church, Preston Village, East Sussex (1878) St Peter and St Paul's Church, Hellingly, East Sussex (1869) Holy Trinity Church, Sunk Island, East Yorkshire (1876–7) St Matthew's Church, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire (1878–9) St Michael and All Angels' Church and Vicarage, Poulton, Gloucestershire (1868) All Saints' Church, Viney Hill, Gloucestershire (1865) All Saints' Church, East Meon, Hampshire (1869–70) St Mary the Virgin Church, Greywell, Hampshire (1870–1) St Peter & St Paul Church, Hambledon, Hampshire (1876) St John the Evangelist Church, Langrish, Hampshire (1869–70) Romsey Abbey, Romsey, Hampshire (1858) Christ Church, Winchester, Hampshire (1861) St Mary Magdalene Church, Eardisley, Herefordshire (1863) Holy Trinity Church, Hertford Heath, Hertfordshire (1863) St Mary's Church, Goudhurst, Kent (1865–70) St John the Evangelist Church, Hildenborough, Kent (1844) St Matthew's Church, Holbeach St Matthew, Lincolnshire (1868–9) Holy Trinity Church, Dalston, London (E8) (1878–9) St Antholin's Church, Nunhead, London (SE15) (1878) Holy Trinity Church, Lamorbey, London (1879) Christ Church, Forest Hill, London (SE23) (1852–62, 1885) St Dionis, Parsons Green, London (SW6) (1884–5) St James' Church, Castle Acre, Norfolk St John the Baptist Church, Abthorpe, Northamptonshire (1869–71) St Laurence's Church, Warkworth, Northumberland (1860) Holy Trinity Church, Scarborough, North Yorkshire (1880) St Giles' Church, Skelton, North Yorkshire (1880) St Mary with Holy Apostles' Church, Scarborough, North Yorkshire (1848–52) St Peter's Church, Shelford, Nottinghamshire (1876–8) Southwell Minster, Southwell, Nottinghamshire (1851–88) St Mary's Church, Bampton, Oxfordshire (1867–9) St Matthew's Church, Langford, Oxfordshire (1864) St James the Great's Church, South Leigh, Oxfordshire (1871–2) Church of All Saints, Terrington, North Yorkshire (1868–70) St Andrew's Church, Weston-under-Lizard, Staffordshire (1876–7) St Peter's Collegiate Church, Wolverhampton, Staffordshire (1852–65) All Saints' Church, Tilford, Farnham, Surrey (1867) St John's Church, Churt, Farnham, Surrey (1868) St Nicholas' Church, Austrey, Warwickshire (1844–45) St Michael's Church, Bishop's Itchington, Warwickshire (1872) St Theobald & St Chad's Church, Caldecote, Warwickshire (1857) St Michael and All Angels' Church, Claverdon, Warwickshire (1877–8) St John's Church, Kenilworth, Warwickshire (1851–2) St Nicholas' Church, Nuneaton, Warwickshire (1852–3) Messrs Cox & Co. Bank, Whitehall, Westminster (1884–6) St Mary the Virgin Church, Aldingbourne, West Sussex (1867) St Mary the Virgin Church, Calstone Wellington, Wiltshire (1884–5) All Saints' Church, Farley, Wiltshire (1875) St Mary the Virgin Church and Manor House, Market Lavington, Wiltshire (1860, 1865) St Peter's Church, Pitton, Wiltshire (1878–80) St Peter's Church, Inkberrow, Worcestershire (1887) St Nicolas' Church, Kings Norton, Worcestershire (1863) St James' Church, Norton, Worcestershire (1874–5) St John's Church, St John's, Worcestershire (1884)

Isle of Man Abbey Memorial Church, Ballasalla Chapel of Ease, Cronkbourne Christ Church, Dhoon St Thomas' Church, Douglas Christchurch. Laxey New Church, Marown

Wales St Mary's Church, Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire (1881–9) St Andrew canonry, Llandaff, South Glamorgan St Cross canonry, Llandaff, South Glamorgan

Germany English Church, Bad Homburg, Hesse (1861–5)

Gallery