Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 3.djvu/609

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Waterhouse
599
Waterhouse

many surrounding buildings; he also built Abinger Hall (1871) for Lord Farrer; Buckhold, Berkshire (1884); and Allerton Priory, Liverpool (1867). Three times he built for himself, Barcombe Cottage, Fallowfield, Manchester (1864); Fox Hill in Whiteknights Park, Reading (1868); and lastly Yattendon Court (1877), where the village became a visible testimony to his sense of the obligations of a landlord.

In 1891 he took his eldest son, Paul, into partnership; works of note about this period were the National Provincial Bank, Piccadilly; the dining-hall and chapel, Girton (1872); additions to the Yorkshire College, Leeds (1878), a block of shops and offices, St. Andrews Square, Edinburgh (1895); medical school buildings for Liverpool University College, Liverpool Royal Infirmary, and a wing of the Nottingham General Hospital (1899). The Hotel Metropole, Brighton (1888), followed a little later, as well as improvements in the Grand Hotel, Charing Cross (1898), extensive alterations to the Grosvenor Hotel (1900), the Surveyors' Institution and University College Hospital (1897), the last-named being completed by Mr. Paul Waterhouse, Other works carried out from time to time which deserve mention are New Court, Carey Street, Lincoln's Inn (1875), Reading grammar school (1870), Hove town hall (1880), Foster's Bank, Cambridge (1891), Brown's Bank (now Lloyds). Leeds (1895), St. Margaret's School, Bushey (1894), and Rhyl Hospital, first block (1898); the last two buildings in partnership with his son.

Waterhouse's productive capacity was combined with critical insight. His services as assessor in competitions were widely sought, and there a clearness of perception and a power of rapidly grasping a scheme as a whole enabled him to arrive rapidly at decisions authoritatively founded on reasoned data. He was a member of the international jury for the competition for the new west front to Milan cathedral; was on the committee of selection for the Imperial Institute, acted as assessor for the Birmingham law courts, of which' he made a sketch plan for the competitors' guidance. Among the last competitions in which he took part himself was the first (inconclusive) competition for the admiralty and war office in 1882. Thenceforth his work came to him unsolicited.

Waterhouse's early liking for colour never deserted him; he was probably the most accomplished sketcher in water colours in the profession, and on various occasions exhibited in the water-colour room at the Royal Academy.

At the height of his career Waterhouse was regarded as the chief figure in the profession by a large majority of his fellow architects, and his eminence was recognised at home and abroad. He became a fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1861, was for many years a member of council, member and afterwards chairman of the art standing committee, president of the institute 1888-1891, and gold medallist in 1878, when the president described him as a 'great mason,' a phrase which expressed tersely the belief of architects generally that he knew precisely what his materials were capable of, and the best way to turn them to account. He was elected A.R.A. on 16 Jan. 1878, and R.A. on 4 June 1885, becoming treasurer in 1898, and proving of great service to the institution in that capacity. He gave up active membership of the R.A. in 1903. In June 1895 he received the LL.D. degree at Manchester, that being the first honorary degree conferred by the Victoria University. In 1893 he was made a corresponding member of the Institute of France. He held diplomas from Vienna, (1869), Brussels (1886), Antwerp (1887), Milan (1888), Berlin (1889); the 'grand prix' was awarded him at the Paris International Exhibition of 1867.

Waterhouse was treasurer of the Artists' General Benevolent Institution till 1901. He joined in founding and was president till 1901 of the 'Society for checking the Abuses of Public Advertising,' a form of vulgarisation of the scenery of town or country which was particularly odious to him.

In 1901 Waterhouse's health broke down and he retired from active work. His last years were spent at Yattendon, where he died on 22 Aug. 1905. He was buried in the churchyard there. He married in 1860 Elizabeth, daughter of John Hodgkin, and sister of Thomas Hodgkin the historian, by whom he had three sons and two daughters. His eldest son is Paul, his partner and successor; his elder daughter, Mary Monica, married Robert Bridges, the poet.

Besides official addresses, Waterhouse wrote an essay on architects in 'The Unwritten Laws and Ideals of Active Careers' (ed. Miss Pitcairn, 1889). There is a good portrait of him by Sir William Quiller Orchardson, which hangs with' those of other presidents in the galleries of the institute. Another portrait