Charles Bell (British architect)

Charles Bell
Bermondsey Central Hall, Bermondsey Street
Born 1846
Grantham, Lincolnshire
Died 1899
Nationality British
Alma mater Pupil of John Giles
Occupation Architect
Awards FRIBA[1]
Buildings Holme School, Grimsby, Kent College Canterbury and Darwen Town Hall.
Projects John Wesley Memorial Church and buildings, Epworth, Lincolnshire.

Charles Bell FRIBA[1] (1846–99) was a British architect who designed buildings in the United Kingdom, including over 60 Wesleyan Methodist chapels.[2]

Career

Bell was born in Grantham, Lincolnshire in 1846 and was educated at Grantham Grammar School.[2] He was articled to London architect John Giles.[3] In 1870 he was elected an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects and started independent practice.[4] In 1888 he was working from Dashwood House, 9 New Broad Street, London.

His works include:

Public Building

Town Hall, Darwen

Commercial Buildings

Nos 42 and 44–46 St John Street. Clerkenwell, London 1877
  • Bacon Warehouse and Smokery,42 & 44-46 St. John Street, Islington, London (1877)[3] Warehouses. No. 42 for Dillamore & Rowley, cork manufacturers, Nos 44–46 for Edward Richard Parker, provision merchant. Nos 44–46. shows the ground floor with embellishments in Portland stone, with polished granite pilasters. The upper part, faced in Bath stone. At the back was a bacon smoking warehouse.[7]
Warehouse, Ludgate Hill
  • New Warehouse, Ludgate Square, London for Messrs. Fourdrinier, Hunt and Co. 1878. Wholesale Paper Merchants.[8]

Schools

  • Kent College (Wesleyan College), Canterbury, Kent (1885)[5] Boy's Methodist Public School.
  • Fairfields Primary School, Basingstoke.(1887). Red brick with filling-in of knapped flint work characteristic of the district. Bell described the school as Queen Anne, modified to suit their special purpose. There was ample light in each classroom by means of large windows; open fires heated the infants’ department, but innovative heating in the senior school was provided by a hot water boiler supplying radiating coils.[9]

Children's Holiday Home

  • Passmore Edwards Holiday Home for Children, Marine Parade, Clacton on Sea. 1898.[10] The Home later became a Convalescent Home and was demolished in 1986.

Cemetery Layout and Cemetery Chapels

  • Hampstead Cemetery. Bell designed the cemetery layout, lodges and cemetery chapels for the Hampstead Cemetery. For the double cemetery chapel with a central arch surmounted by a short spire he is either copying or modifying a design which was widely used in Lincolnshire and the Midlands by the Lincoln architects Bellamy and Hardy.

Methodist Churches

Work in Lincolnshire

Bell also had an office in the 1880's in Grimsby in Lincolnshire. Bell describes himself as of London and Great Grimsby on his drawing of the Liberal Club in Grimsby published in The Building News, November 21, 1884.[19] His work in Lincolnshire includes

Holme Hill School, Grimsby
Holme Hill School Grimsby
  • Holme Hill School, Grimsby, Lincolnshire (1876). Corner of Heneage Road and Wellington Street.[5] The school was built for the Great Grimsby School Board to accommodate 1,165 children and cost £11,749. Over the entrance a central roundel bearing relief carving of the town seal with figures of Grim and Havelock the Dane, and above a stone band, inscribed “Great Grimsby Public Elementary Board School”. The School closed in 1967 and was extensively restored in 2014.[20]
  • Wesleyan Chapel, Mavis Enderby. (1877)[21]
  • Methodist Chapel, Spilsby. (1877-8). Described as stock brick with geometrical tracery and no tower.[22]
The Corn Exchange, Bourne, Lincolnshire, 1870
  • Methodist Chapel, Algitha Road, Skegness. (1881)[21]
  • The Liberal Club, Central Market Place. Grimsby.(1884)[23] The building ceased as a Liberal Club in 1899. Possibly destroyed in Second World War.
  • The Wesley Memorial Church, School and Manse, Epworth (1888-9).[21]
  • The Wesleyan Church, St Catherine’s, Lincoln.[24][25]
  • Bourne. Corn Exchange 3 Abbey Road. (1870). Built for the Bourne Public Hall and Corn Exchange Company Limited. the contract for the construction work went to Robert Young of Lincoln in May 1870 after his tender of £1,150 was accepted. The Corn exchange was substantially extended and re-built in 1990.[26]

References

  1. 1 2 "Bell, Charles (1846–99)". Archiseek. 7 June 2009. Retrieved 9 June 2014.
  2. 1 2 "Charles Bell". Dictionary of Scottish Architects. Retrieved 9 June 2014.
  3. 1 2 Historic England. "Bacon Smokehouse (1419034)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 27 March 2016.
  4. ↑ Brodie, Antonia (2001). Royal Architectural Library, Royal Institute of British Architects: Directory of British Architects 1834–1914, vol.1. New York: Continuum. ISBN 0-8264-5513-1.
  5. 1 2 3 "Charles Bell". Archiseek. Retrieved 9 June 2014.
  6. ↑ "1879 – Selected design for Public Market, Over Darwen, Lancashire". Archiseek. Retrieved 9 June 2014.
  7. ↑ Survey of London
  8. ↑ The Building News ~ May.10th.1878
  9. ↑ Victoria County History Hampshire
  10. ↑ The Building News, May 20, 1898
  11. ↑ "History". Vale Royal Methodist Church, Tunbridge Wells. 2017. Archived from the original on 4 July 2017. Retrieved 4 July 2017.
  12. ↑ Cherry, Bridget and Pevsner, Nikolaus (1 March 1991). London 3: North West. Yale University Press. p. 56. ISBN 978-0-300-09652-1. Retrieved 27 March 2016.
  13. ↑ Cherry, Bridget and Pevsner, Nikolaus (1983). The Buildings of England – London 2: South. London: Penguin Books. p. 340. ISBN 0-14-0710-47-7.
  14. ↑ Cherry, Bridget and Pevsner, Nikolaus (1983). The Buildings of England – London 2: South. London: Penguin Books. p. 413. ISBN 0-14-0710-47-7.
  15. ↑ "New Wesleyan Chapel in York". York Herald. York. 14 October 1887. Retrieved 18 June 2015.
  16. ↑ "1876 to 1976". Who We Are. Leytonstone Methodist Church. Retrieved 27 March 2016.
  17. ↑ Lloyd, David W.; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2006). The Isle of Wight. The Buildings of England. London: Yale University Press. p. 227. ISBN 978-0-300-10733-3.
  18. ↑ Cherry, Bridget and Pevsner, Nikolaus (1983). The Buildings of England – London 2: South. London: Penguin Books. p. 601. ISBN 0-14-0710-47-7.
  19. ↑ Pevsner refers to Bell of Grimsby not apparently realising that he was the same architect as the London architect. ‘‘Antram’’ (1989), pg 69.
  20. ↑ Grimsby Telegraph
  21. 1 2 3 ‘‘Antram’’ (1989), pg 272
  22. ↑ ‘‘Antram’’ (1989), pg. 681
  23. ↑ The Building News, November 21st 1884. ,
  24. ↑ Front Perspective published in The Architect, April 13th 1888.
  25. ↑ ‘‘Antram’’ (1989), pg 502
  26. ↑ https://www.bournelocal.co.uk/news/looking-back-at-the-changing-face-of-the-town-s-corn-exchange-1-4929874.

Literature

  • Antram N (revised), Pevsner N & Harris J, (1989), The Buildings of England: Lincolnshire, Yale University Press.
  • Antonia Brodie (ed), Directory of British Architects, 1834–1914: 2 Vols, British Architectural Library, Royal Institute of British Architects, 2001, Vol 1, pg. 154.
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