John Henry Hirst

John Henry Hirst (29 April 1826 – 6 July 1882) was an English architect who designed civic, commercial and domestic buildings, mainly in Bristol and Harrogate. He is known in Harrogate for the designs which he created for the developer George Dawson, including large Neoclassical buildings, and the Gothic Revival St Peter's Church. Several of those designs, such as Prospect Crescent, Cambridge Crescent, and St Peter's Church, are now listed buildings. He is known in his home town, Bristol, for various projects, notably the Neoclassical Stoke Road Drinking Fountain, which is also a listed building.

Hirst died unexpectedly at home in Bristol in circumstances which first appeared unclear, but the inquest found that he had fallen downstairs at some point in the night or early morning and broken his neck.

Background Hirst was born into a Yorkshire agricultural family. His paternal grandfather was Henry Hirst of Heckmondwike, West Riding of Yorkshire, who is buried in Westgate Congregational Chapelyard of that town. His father was Thomas Hirst who was a merchant, a farmer of Oakwood House, Wakefield. Hirst, the eldest of four male siblings, was born on 29 April 1826, in Heckmondwike. In 1841, Hirst was living with his parents and two brothers in Newton Lane End, Stanley, Wakefield, West Riding of Yorkshire.

At Christ Church, Clifton Down, Bristol, on 29 April 1856 Hirst married Harriet Jane Wyld, daughter of William Hopton Wyld of Clifton, Bristol. The officiating priest was Rev. W. Battersby, Hirst's uncle. Hirst was then living at Brighton Park, Clifton. The Building News noted their large family; Ethel Maude, Reginald Arthur, Florence Charlesworth, Hirst and his wife employed a governess for their children. By 1861 Hirst and his wife were living at 1 Brighton Park, Clifton, Bristol, with their first child Edward B. Hirst, a relative, and two servants. In 1871 the family was living at Avonhirst, Westbury on Trym with six of their children and two servants. Hirst had designed the house with a lodge for their gardener. The family was still at Avonhirst in 1881, where the census finds Hirst with his wife, six of their children, two visitors and three servants.

Career Hirst kept an office in Harrogate.

Works in Weston-Super-Mare Royal Hotel, Weston-Super-Mare, c. 1850

This is a Grade II listed building. The hotel was originally built in 1808, but Hirst and Samuel Burleigh Gabriel substantially enlarged it around 1850. English Heritage describes it as, "a distinctive Italianate composition with ornate facades that have a high level of decorative detailing". Hirst and Gabriel also improved the posting and livery building in the courtyard to the north of the main hotel building. The hotel itself has cellars and three storeys. It has an entrance bay in the middle, and two long extensions either side of it, making the building symmetrical. The building has been much changed since 1850.

Works in Bristol The Building News said that Hirst was "connected with all the most important improvement schemes at Bristol, and his numerous buildings invariably exhibited taste and artistic skill". His office was subsequently at 30 Broad Street, Bristol.

Avonhirst and Towerhirst, Small Street, Bristol c.1867

Towerhirst is a Grade II listed building. Around 1867, Hirst built Avonhirst, in Small Street (now Seawalls Road), Bristol, as his own home, with another house, Towerhirst, next to it, and a semi-detached villa with 1.25 acres of land at 1 Sea Wall Villas, Sneyd Park. Note that Historic England incorrectly credits Towerhirst to the architect's son, H.C.M. Hirst, and gives it a later date of 1891–1892, although J.H. Hirst completed it in 1867.

When Avonhirst was advertised for sale or let in August 1882, a month after Hirst's death, its description was: "Exceptionally warm situation, suitable for invalids, commanding fine views of River Avon, with gardener's lodge, large fruit garden, vineries etc. and woods". Sales from Avonhirst's lodge at that time revealed that the garden had contained peafowl. The Building News described Avonhirst as "a beautiful villa upon one of the most romantic parts of the Avon's banks below Clifton", where he used it to "entertain a large circle of friends and acqaintances".

Stoke Road Drinking Fountain, Bristol, 1877

This drinking fountain on Stoke Road, Bristol, is a Grade II listed building. It is intended for people and animals, was commissioned from Hirst by the Royal Bath and West of England Society, and paid for by its showground's entrance fees. It is made of granite, Portland stone, Bath stone, and iron. It is a rectangular structure, made mainly of Bath stone. The plinth is of Portland stone, and the dressings are of granite, Mansfield stone and Pennant stone. Historic England describes it as: " large rectangular stele with a Pennant apron in front of the plinth with a granite basin, Mansfield moulding to a semicircular arch with a large key above the slate plaque; granite frieze with terracotta animal heads, heavy cornice and sloping top". It was the mayor of Bristol, George Edwards, who unveiled the fountain in 1877.

Almshouses, Bristol, 1882 On 21 April 1882, three months before his death, Hirst was calling for tenders for "the rebuilding of the Rev. Dr White's Almshouses for 36 inmates, between Temple Street and Temple Back", Bristol.

Works in Harrogate

Hirst ran an office in Harrogate, because between 1867 and 1882 he designed a large number of buildings there. The Building News commented, "He largely contributed to the architectural adornment of that thriving resort". For Dawson he designed the following Harrogate projects: Vanderbilt Court as Dawson's home in Victoria Avenue, the wings of the Crown Hotel in Crescent Road, Cambridge Crescent and Prospect Crescent,

Pump Room, Harrogate, 1869 Around 1869, Dawson built a new pump room designed by J.H. Hirst, near the Montpellier Quarter in Harrogate, but it was demolished in 1954.

Crown Hotel and Montpellier Estate, 1884–1870

This set includes the wings of the Crown Hotel and 1–3 Crown Place, all developed by George Dawson to designs by Hirst. 1–3 Crown Place are Grade II listed buildings. Historian Malcolm Neesam comments that, "the Crown's Georgian wings were removed and replaced by Hirst with a powerful pair of Italian Renaissance replacements that gave the building great character and nobility".

The Crown Place buildings were completed in 1884, as a commercial, 3-storey terrace with a gritstone ashlar frontage, slate roof and bracketed eaves. Between the shops are Corinthian columns, and above them are sash windows. Some of the shops have doorways with fanlights, and shop windows with moulded heads and keystones. intended to seat 1,000 worshippers at a cost of £10,000 without the tower. At the opening, Hirst presented the church with a "chaste marble screen". The Knaresborough Post said that the building, "situate in a commanding position ... will form a prominent and handsome addition to a locality which at present boasts some fine buildings". In the afternoon a separate dinner at the George Hotel was arranged for forty of the workmen who had constructed the edifice and their employers. Again there were many toasts, including one congratulating Hirst as architect, and God Save the Queen was sung when the event ended at eight o' clock.

Apart from the tower, which was added after Hirst's death, the church of 1871 was designed with many revived 13th- and 14th-century architectural features. It has a gabled porch, and the nave – which is complete with arcade, aisles, transepts, traceried windows and an apse – has an arch-braced roof, slated above, with coped gables. The exterior walls are of rusticated and ashlar sandstone, with parapets and buttresses. George Dawson had begun building Cambridge Crescent to Hirst's design by 1867, and by 1873 it was almost finished. Malcolm Neesam described the building, along with Prospect Crescent, as a "magnificent structure".

Grosvenor Buildings, Harrogate, 1874–1875

This is a Grade II listed building, comprising numbers 14–24 on the south side of Crescent Road, Harrogate. It is a terrace of shops with a curved end, having nine bays along the side, and six bays around the curved end. Like other designs by Hirst for Harrogate, it is fronted in gritstone ashlar and has a slate roof. This one has draped urns along the top of the cornice. There are rusticated pilasters which reach up from between the shops to the first floor. Above that are arched sash windows. Below each of the first- and second-floor windows are blind, balustraded balconies. Above the ground-floor and first-floor windows, Hirst designed segmented, shallow arches with keystones.

Prospect Crescent, Harrogate, 1873–1880 This is a Grade II listed building. Harrogate historian Malcolm Neesam describes Prospect Crescent as follows, while deploring the modern changes wrought on the building:

Historic England describes this design of Hirst's as a three-storey, symmetrical crescent in gritstone ashlar, with cellars below and central pavilions on the exterior. There is "ornamental iron cresting" on the pavilions, and a hipped roof with slates. The exterior has Corinthian pilasters, blind balustrades, decorative urns, sash windows and bay windows. In June 1915, Dawson died there, and his large funeral cortège proceeded to the house to pick up the coffin and transport it to the Wesley Chapel, Harrogate, for the funeral.

In 1915 part of the house was opened as a convalescent home for twelve officers injured in the First World War. Invalided officers who could not find a place in the home were housed in neighbouring buildings, and permitted to spend the day in Vanderbilt Court. The Baths Committee offered treatment, overseen by Doctor Morris, and neighbours who possessed cars arranged outings for the inmates. This was a short-lived arrangement, and by 1916 the building was being let out for rent as a house or apartments. A 1940s advertisement for a whole-house rent said that it had "a large entrance hall, two fine, lofty front rooms, back froom and lavatory. First floor: four excellent rooms, bathroom, water closet and scullery. Second floor: four rooms, bathroom-lavatory and kitchen. Basement: six various useful rooms, including sitting-room, kitchen, scullery, storerooms, pantries, and lavatory".

2–6 Crescent Road, Harrogate, 1884–1886 This is a Grade II listed terrace building. Although Hirst had died in 1882, George Dawson completed this project in 1886 to Hirst's original designs, it being the second phase of the development of the Crown Hotel Estate. It is similar to 1–3 Crown Place, which was also designed by Hirst. It is a three-storey building, fronted with gritstone ashlar, with a hipped roof and sash windows. It is also a commercial building, with shop windows which have keystones above. The shop doors originally had fanlights, and the shop windows have rusticated pilasters between them.

Affiliations Hirst was a Freemason of the Royal Sussex Lodge of Hospitality in Bristol, between 1855 and 1858,

Accidental death Towards the end of his life, Hirst was ill for some time. Sellick alerted Hirst's sons in the house, and his brother-in-law G.W. Edwards, and Dr Marshall, were also called. "Apparently [Hirst] had gone to bed that night". The doctor noted that Hirst had broken his neck, his body was still warm, he had rigor mortis and he "had been dead some time", Hirst was fully dressed, his body had no marks or injuries, and the doctor concluded that Hirst had died instantaneously after falling downstairs.

When The Building News in London reported his death on 14 July 1882, some of the facts were changed:

The family being from home, and Mr Hirst alone, the servants went to bed at the usual hour on Wednesday night, leaving Mr Hirst up. Nothing else is known until the next morning when a servant coming down found the unfortunate gentleman at the foot of the stairs, head downwards, fully dressed, but dead and cold. Medical examination proved that his neck was dislocated, and that his death must have been instantaneous. It is surmised that on retiring to rest he must have been seized with dizziness or a fit, and falling backwards had died directly. The verdict of the jury was accidental death by falling downstairs.