Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hardwick, Philip
HARDWICK, PHILIP (1792–1870), architect, son of Thomas Hardwick [q. v.], architect, was born on 15 June 1792, at 9 Rathbone Place, London, and was educated at the Rev. Dr. Barrow's school in Soho Square. In 1808 he entered the schools of the Royal Academy, and became a pupil in his father's office. Between 1807 and 1814 he exhibited seven architectural drawings in the Royal Academy. In 1815 he went to Paris to seethe Louvre, then enriched with the pictures brought from all parts of Europe by Napoleon, and in 1818–19 he spent about twelve months in Italy. On his return to England he commenced to practise his profession independently of his father. In 1820 he exhibited in the Royal Academy a 'View of the Hypæthral Temple at Pæstum, with a General View of the Temples,' taken in 1819. To later Academy exhibitions he sent twenty-two drawings in all. He became architect to the hospitals of Bridewell and Bethlehem in 1816; to the St. Katharine's Dock Company in 1825; to St. Bartholomew's Hospital in succession to his father in 1827; and to the Goldsmiths' Company in 1828. He was also architect to Greenwich Hospital and to the Duke of Wellington, and surveyor to the Portman estate, London. He held the post at Bridewell and Bethlehem Hospitals for twenty years, and resigned that at St. Bartholomew's to his son in 1856.
Hardwick's first executed works of importance were the dock-house (Grecian), warehouses, and other buildings, erected 1827–8 at St. Katharine's Docks. The docks themselves (opened 25 Oct. 1828) were designed by Telford. Previously to their erection Hardwick had been concerned in the numerous compensation cases which arose during the clearances on the site. Drawings of Hardwick's buildings were in the Academy in 1825 and 1830 ('General Plan' and 'View of Docks,' engraved by Baynes and Hullmandel). In 1829 he designed the new hall for the Goldsmiths' Company, a fine example of Italian architecture, the exterior of which was completed in 1832. The hall was opened with a banquet 15 July 1835. A north-east view was in the Academy in 1831, and drawings of the staircase in 1839 and 1842 (plan and elevation, engraved by J. Gladwin). In 1829 he designed the free grammar school at Stockport (Tudor Gothic), built at the expense of the Goldsmiths' Company, and opened 30 April 1832. In the same year he superintended the rebuilding of Babraham House, near Cambridge, a splendid Elizabethan mansion, for J. Adeane, esq. Between 1834 and 1839 he was engaged in works for the London and Birmingham Railway Company; these included the terminus stations and the Euston and Victoria hotels. Euston station (the first erected in London with any architectural pretensions) was finished in 1839, and was the last work executed by Hardwick without the assistance of his son. The Propylæum, or architectural gateway, with its lodges, separating the station from the public street, is remarkable for its magnitude and its strictly classical character. A drawing was in the Academy in 1837 (see Bourne and Britton, Drawings of the London and Birmingham Railway, p. 14, and drawing ii. engraving by C. F. Cheffins; plate in Companion to the Almanack, 1839, p. 233). The great hall at Euston station was afterwards added, from designs by Hardwick's son, Mr. P. C. Hardwick. A drawing of the principal entrance to the Birmingham station (classical) was in the Academy in 1837 (see Bourne and Britton, drawing xxxvii.; plate in Companion to the Almanack, 1839, p. 236). The station has since been pulled down. In 1833 some alterations to the bishop's palace at Hereford were completed under his superintendence. In 1836 the Globe Insurance office in Pall Mall was rebuilt from his designs; in 1837 he designed the City Club-house in Broad Street (plan and elevation engraved by Baynes and Harris); and in 1842 a dwelling-house (Italian) for Lord Sefton at the south-east angle of Belgrave Square. In the same year Hardwick commenced designs for the hall, library, and offices of Lincoln's Inn. His health seriously failing him, the work had to be placed in the hands of his son. The first stone was laid 20 April 1843, and the buildings were opened by the queen 30 Oct. 1845. A south-east view was in the Academy in 1843 (see Drawings of the New Hall and Library at Lincoln's Inn, with report by P. Hardwick, 1842; plate in Companion to the Almanack, 1845 p. 241; view and plan in Civil Engineer, 1844, p. 31; view of interior of hall in Builder, 1845, p. 526). In 1851 he recased Gibbs's buildings at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and exhibited to the British Archæological Institute, 7 Feb. 1851, three curious specimens of mediæval glazed ware (about fourteenth century) found during the excavations (woodcut in Archæological Journal, 1851, p. 103). In 1851–4 he with John Morris restored Hawksmoor's church of St. Anne's, Limehouse, the interior of which had been burnt 29 March 1850. Designs for the rebuilding of Brasenose College, Oxford (Gothic), signed 'Philip Hardwick, Berners Street, 26 June 1810,' are still in the possession of the college (T. Graham Jackson in Magazine of Art, August 1889, p. 238).
Hardwick was elected F.S.A. in 1824 and was a member of council in 1842. On 5 May 1831 he exhibited to the society a Roman altar discovered in December 1830 when excavating for the foundations of Goldsmiths' Hall (Archæologia, xxiv. plate cv.) He was elected member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, 13 April 1824, and became F.R.S., 8 Dec. 1831. He was an original member of the Institute of British Architects, 1834 ; signed the first address of the institute 2 July; was vice-president in 1839 and in 1841, and received the queen's gold medal in 1854. He became F.G.S. in 1837, A.R.A. in 1840, and R.A. in 1841, From 1850 to 1861 he was treasurer and trustee to the Royal Academy, and at his own request was placed on the retired list in 1869. At the Paris exhibition of 1855 he exhibited drawings of the dining-room at Lincoln's Inn and of Goldsmiths' Hall, and was awarded a gold medal of the second class. His business capacities led to an extensive employment as referee. He acted as such in 1840, in conjunction with Sir Robert Smirke [q. v.] and Joseph Gwilt [q. v.], in the competition for the erection of the Royal Exchange. He was one of the examiners of candidates for the office of district surveyor under the Metropolitan Building Act of 1843. Thomas Henry Wyatt (sometime president R.I.B.A.) was his pupil. He resided successively in Great Marlhorough Street (1818), Russell Square (1826), and Cavendish Square (1852). He died, after many years of failing health, at his son's residence, Westcornbe Lodge, Wimbledon Common, 28 Dec. 1870, in his seventy-ninth year, and was buried at Kensal Green.
Hardwick married in 1819 a daughter of John Shaw, the architect, by whom he had two sons, Thomas (1820–1835), and Philip Charles, born 1822, who succeeded to his business, and survives.
[Information from P. C. Hardwick, esq.; authorities quoted in the text; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Athenæum, 1871, p. 23; Builder, 1843 p. 39, 1845 pp. 621, 522, 526, 1852 p. 39, 1855 pp. 149, 555, 1871 p. 24; English Cyclopædia (biography) and Supplement; Royal Academy Catalogues, 1807–44; Graves's Dict. of Artists; Opening Address at R.I.B.A. by T. H. Wyatt, president, 6 Nov. 1871, pp. 4, 5; P. Cunningham's Handbook for London, 1850; Cat. of Drawings, &c., in R.I.B.A.; Archæologia, 1832, xxiv. 350; Companion to the Almanack, 1829 pp. 219, 220, 1833 pp. 216, 219, 1836 p. 231, 1838 pp. 233, 242, 243, 1839 p. 233, 1840 p. 223 n., 1842 p. 205, 1843 p. 231, 1844 p. 235, 1845 p. 241, 1846 p. 238; Civil Engineer, 1837, pp. 28, 220, 276, 277, 401; Architectural Magazine, 1836, pp. 139, 329; Bourne and Britton's Drawings of the London and Birmingham Railway, pp. 13, 14, 25; Sandby's Hist. of the Royal Academy, pp. 202, 203, 410; Thomson's List of R.A.; List of Geological Soc.; List of Royal Society; List of Institution of Civil Engineers; List of Soc. Antiq. Lond.; Archæological Journal, 1851, viii. 103; Clement and Hutton's Artists of the Nineteenth Century, i. 330; Kelly's Cambridgeshire, p. 21; Diet, of Architecture; Jones's Hereford, p. 79; Earwaker's East Cheshire, i. 416.]
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.147
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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