Harry Redfern

Born in April 1861, he was educated at Abingdon School from 1871-1877.[1]

Redfern designed work in Oxford, Cambridge, Abingdon and Carlisle. At the University of Cambridge he was architect of the chemical, metallurgical, physical and biological laboratories, and restored portions of Christ's College, Cambridge and Magdalene College, Cambridge. At Oxford he carried out additions and restoration work at Oriel College, Oxford and St John's College, Oxford; and was architect of the bio-chemistry laboratories.[2]

At Abingdon he completed work at St Michael's church, the Malthouse, designed the lodge at Abingdon School (where he was educated) and restored the Roysse Room (1911). He was responsible for designing, in an imaginative and varied manner, a number of notable public houses in the Carlisle district under the auspices, as chief architect, of the Home Office State Management Scheme (SMS). The SMS built fourteen New Model Inns to Redfern's designs, with a strong theme of the Arts and Crafts movement. He was particularly interested in restoring and designing churches.[2]

He was commemorated towards the end of his work for the SMS by the naming of the Redfern Inn (1938),[3] one of the distinctive New Model Inn designs, in Etterby, a district of Carlisle. The Redfern was designed by his assistant architect, Joseph Seddon, FRIBA (with Redfern's collaboration). It was a tribute to a man who had dedicated his talents to the quest for an improved public house style.

Redfern practiced from Porchester Gardens, London, and later resided at St Dunstan's Gdns, Ealing. His early business partner was J. J. Stevenson, FSA, (1831-1908). He was author of the article: Some Recollections of William Butterfield and Henry Woodyer (1950).

His obituary is found in the Journal of the RIBA following his death on 6 March 1950.[2]

• List of Old Abingdonians

• The Carlisle State Management Scheme: Its Ethos and Architecture, Olive Seabury, Bookcase Carlisle 2007, ISBN 9781904147305
• A City Under The Influence - The story of half a century of state pubs, John Hunt, Lakescene 1971, ISBN 978-0-9502120-0-5

• Dictionary of Scottish Architects