Egyptian Revival architecture in the British Isles

Egyptian Revival architecture in the British Isles is a survey of motifs derived from

, also started to be used and became popular with architects.

As a result of the

synagogues

exist in this style.

By the end of the 19th century, the style had very nearly disappeared, but in 1922 with

, leading to a hybrid Art Deco style which appeared in the 1930s. Subsequently, there have been very few buildings in Egyptian Revival style.

Sources for the style

The first illustration of a

(1755). Norden had travelled widely in Egypt and provided much detailed information about the standing monuments.

Also of importance were the engravings of

, who published in 1743 A Description of the East and Some Other Countries were also a source for popularising Egyptian architecture.

The invasion of Egypt by

Thomas Hope

's house in Duchess Street, which was open to the public and had been well illustrated in Hope's Household Furniture and Interior Decoration (London, 1807).

At this point architects started producing examples Egyptian buildings that they hoped their clients would wish to have built. An example of this is a Perspective view of a Mansion in the Egyptian style by James Marshall in 1806.^[5] Designs for shopfronts were also being produced and probably executed at this time by architects in London.^[6]

The full publication of Napoleon's scientific expedition was published as the Description de l'Égypte in 23 or 29 volumes between 1809 and 1828. This was to provide a major resource for the architects and their clients if they were considering introducing Egyptian elements in their buildings. In particular the illustrations of the facade of the Grande Temple at Dendera was a popular source.

The

in south Wales.

The English architect and egyptologist

. In Cairo (1827–1828), In 1828 Bonomi worked in Cairo on the illustrations for James Burton's Excerpta hieroglyphica – Burton was the elder brother of the architect Decimus Burton. This was followed by the artist David Roberts. He is especially known for a prolific series of detailed lithograph prints of Egypt and the Near East that he produced from sketches he made during long tours of the region between 1838 and 1840.

Belzoni travels in Egypt were followed by Bononi David Hay Expedition.

Finally the

.

Forms and motifs

.

Obelisks

The first

estates in Lincolnshire.

In Ireland an early obelisk was constructed as a family funeral memorial by Sir Edward Lovatt Pierce for the Allen family at Stillorgan in Ireland in 1717, one of several Egyptian obelisks erected in Ireland during the early 18th century. Others may be found at Belan, County Kildare; and Dangan, County Meath. The Casteltown Folly in County Kildare is probably the best known, albeit the least Egyptian-styled.

Jubilee Tower, Moel Famau, Flintshire

A particularly ambitious example of an obelisk type monument was the tower, built to commemorate the

Obelisk Gallery

• 
  Duke Cumberland Obelisk 1765
• 
  Obelisk on St Georges Circus
• 
  General Wolfe's Obelisk Stowe, Buckinhamshire post 1759
• 
  Naseby Obelisk
• 
  Obelisk in Holkham Park
• 
  Prince of Orange obelisk, Bath 1734
• 
  Lincoln High Bridge obelisk originally a water conduit
• 
  Trinity House obelisk, Portland Bill 1844

General Sir David Baird's obelisk, near Crieff, erected 1832

Pyramids

Stone pyramids were occasionally used as funerary Mausoleum from the late 17th century onwards. The inspiration is likely to have been a pyramid built in Rome, about 18–12 BC, as a tomb for Gaius Cestius, a magistrate and member of the Septemviri Epulonum. This was well known from the mid-18th century engraving of the pyramid by Piranesi's. The earliest example in the British Isles of a pyramid is the Clark Mausoleum at Peniciuk in Scotland of the late 17th century. In 1783 a pyramid was added to an otherwise classical mausoleum designed by James Wyatt for the Darnley family at Cobham Park in Kent. Then in 1794–96 a pyramid mausoleum by the Italian architect Joseph Bonomi for William Assheton Harbord in Blickling Park in Norfolk. Bonomi would have been familiar with the Pyramid of Cestius in Rome^[13] Other pyramidal mausoleums are Franics Douce's of 1760 at Nether Wallop and his cousin built the pyramid at Farley Mount in 1734 to commemorate a racehorse he owned, while another relative "Mad" Jack Fuller had a pyramidal mausoleum built at Brightling in Sussex in 1834.

Pyramids were sometime used for the gateways or gate lodges to stately homes, as at Nostell Priory in Yorkshire, and Robert Adam produced a design for a pyramid shaped temple to be placed in parkland.

Pyramid Gallery

• 
  The Clerk mausoleum and old Kirk, Penicuik
• 
  DarnleyMausoleum, Cobham Park 1783
• 
  The monument to a racehorse Farley Mount 1734
• 
  Mausoleum, Gosford Estate
• 
  The pyramid, Brightling 1834
• 
  Francis Douce's mausoleum, Nether Wallop, Hampshire
• 
  The Blickling Pyramid
• 
  The Pyramid Tomb, Wicklow, Ireland

Sphinx

in the 1840s.

Sphinx Gallery

• 
  17thC sundial sphinxes, Newbattle Abbey
• 
  Chiswick House, Sphinx on gateway pillar
• 
  Cairness House, lodge gate pier
• 
  Sphinx in the Egyptian garden at Biddulph Grange c.1840

Examples

Bullock's Museum or Egyptian Hall

The Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly, London, commissioned by William Bullock as a museum to house his collection of curiosities was completed in 1812 at a cost of £16,000.^[14] It was amongst the first buildings in England to be influenced by the Egyptian style,^[4] The building was demolished in 1905.

Egyptian Library, Devonport

John Foulston (1772 – 30 December 1841) was a pupil of Thomas Hardwick and set up a practice in London in 1796.^[15] In 1810 he won a competition to design the Royal Hotel and Theatre group of buildings in Plymouth, Devon,^[16] and after relocating he remained Plymouth's leading architect for twenty-five years.^[15] Most of Foulston's work was in the Greek Revival style, but his best known project was the creation of a group of buildings in Ker Street, Devonport in 1821–24. This eclectic group consisted of a Greek Doric town hall and commemorative column; a terrace of houses in Roman Corinthian style and two houses in Greek Ionic; a "Hindoo" nonconformist chapel; and an "Egyptian" library. The Library became the Odd Fellows Hall, and today is a public House. Of these, all but the chapel and the houses survive, and are Grade I listed.

Egyptian House, Penzance, Cornwall

1835–37:

mouldings.

Mechanics Institute or Camera Obscura House, Stamford, Lincolnshire

A handsome building by the Stamford architect

Old Synagogue, King Street Canterbury

1846–48: The Old Synagogue, King's Street Designed in the Egyptian style by Hezekiah Marshall and opened in 1848, it was acquired by King's School in 1982 and is now used for lessons and concerts.

Masonic Lodge, Boston, Lincolnshire

Freemasons' Hall, Main Ridge, Boston, Lincolnshire. Designed by G. Hackford and built 1860–63. The building is plain brick, but its portico is based on that of the Temple of Dandour in Nubia.^[19]

Churches

Egyptian Revival style was not popular as an architectural style with either the

in 1973. Although worship no longer takes place in the building, its theatre-like design has made it a popular venue for concerts and musical events. The church is a combination of styles, including Egyptian Revival, which can be seen most clearly in the capitals. In Glasgow the Anglican Scottish Episcopal Church dedicated to St Jude was built to designs by John Stephen in 1840.^[22] The church has a severe but impressive facade based on the pylon with a big monumental doorway. It is now the Malmaison Restaurant.

Church Gallery

• 
  St John the Evangelist, Chichester – Egyptian Revival capital
• 
  St John the Evangelist's Church, Chichester
• 
  Malmaison Hotel (former St Judes Church)
• 
  Malmaison Hotel, Glasgow entrance, Former St Jude's church 1840

Egyptian Halls, Glasgow

The Egyptian Halls is a category A

. Strictly speaking the Egyptian Halls should be regarded as a Greco-Egyptian Revival building, as it has far stronger classical elements than Egyptian. Work started on the Egyptian Halls in March 1870 to provide new commercial premises for James Robertson, an iron manufacturer; and was completed in 1872.

lotus flower capitals.^[26] Behind these columns is a continuous glazed screen, which is not fixed to these columns. Topping these columns is another entablature with a cornice.^[26] This 'attic' room is lit by a series of sloping skylights.^[25]

Cemeteries and mausolea

Egyptian Revival architecture was widely used both as for the design if building associated with cemeteries and for individual tombs and monuments. Following the Metropolitan Cemetery Act of 1832 seven cemeteries known as the

Sheffield General Cemetery

In Sheffield the Sheffield General Cemetery which was opened in 1836 as a Nonconformist cemetery, was a response to the rapid growth of Sheffield and the relatively poor state of the town's churchyards. The cemetery, with its Greek Doric and Egyptian style buildings, were designed by Sheffield architect Samuel Worth (1779–1870) on the site of a former quarry.^[28] The main building in the cemetery showing Egyptian features are The Gatehouse (Grade II* listed)^[29] built directly over the Porter Brook in a Classical architectural style with Egyptian features. The Egyptian Gate (Grade II* listed)^[30] forms the entrance to the cemetery on Cemetery Road. It is richly ornamented and possesses gates bearing ouroboros, two coiled snakes holding their tails in their mouths. The Nonconformist chapel (Grade II* listed)^[31] is built in a classical style with Egyptian features. The sculpted panel above the door shows a dove, representing the Holy Ghost or the Holy Spirit. Stone steps lead down to a wall with catacomb-like entrances.

Abney Park Cemetery 1838–40, Hackney, London

The

in the then increasingly popular Egyptian Revival style, with hieroglyphics signifying the "Abode of the Mortal Part of Man":

Tombs and buildings in cemeteries

• 
  Andrew Ducrow's grave, Kensal Green Cemetery
• 
  Egyptian Avenue Highgate Cemetery
• 
  Entrance to The Kilmorey Mausoleum Richmond on Thames
• 
  ErnestCassel, Kensal Green Cemetery, c. 1925
• 
  Illingworth tomb, Undercliffe Cemetery, Bradford
• 
  The Registrar's House, Sheffield General Cemetery
• 
  Sheffield General Cemetery - Egyptian Gate

Industrial and transport examples

Whereas the use of Egyptian Revival architecture is rare for domestic buildings it was more often used by Victorian archits for industrial and for buildings such as waterworks and sewage plants. The concept of the pylon, was readily embraced by Civil Engineers as support structures such as bridges.

Gateway to the Sleaford Navigation Terminal

This was the gateway to the wharf of the

Lord Bute's Ironworks, Rhymney

The Bute Ironworks were established by the Marquis of Bute in 1824 near Rhymney in Glamorganshire. It was managed initially by William Forman under the name of the South Wales Mining Company. The original plan was to build 24 furnaces in an Egyptian style.^[33] Six of these furnaces were built between 1824 and 1839. They were designed by John Macculloch and the decorative detail of the Bute Works were said to resemble the ruins of Dendera. Initially the economic circumstances of the time adversely effected their profitability. However, after amalgamation with the Rhymney ironworks they started to flourish. A view of the ironworks was probably painted by Penry Williams around 1844 is now in the National Library of Wales.^[34]

Temple Mill or Marshall's Mill, Leeds

Marshall's Mill (also known as Temple Mill) was once a thriving flax mill, constructed as part of John Marshall's flax empire. Designed by James Bonomi, who worked for the Marshall family, the 396-foot-long and 216-foot-wide building was constructed with an ancient-Egyptian facade, as well as some interior decoration. Completed in around 1840, with offices added two years later, its vast single-storey weaving shed was described by some as the "single largest room in the world".^[35]

Former East Farleigh Waterworks

The East Farleigh Waterworks are now converted into offices. Built in 1860, by James Pilbrow, in an Egyptian style. Gault brick in English bond. Rectangular with two storeys. Battered clasping buttress to each corner, and two set close together towards centre of each long side, all running into deep brick plat band under eaves. Rendered coved cornice with deep roll to base and chamfer to top. Low rendered parapet. Truncated projecting brick stack, formerly tall and tapering, filling most of east gable end, with cornice carried round it and bearing the initial "P". Single-storey section in a similar style adjoining north-west corner. Two doorways with rendered coved and splayed cornices flanking base of stack to east.^[36][37]

Scottish lighthouses and keepers cottages

In Scotland 10 lighthouses were built for the Northern Lighthouse in the 1830s and 1840s by Robert Stevenson and his son Alan. At Hynish on Tiree in the Inner Hebrides, a barrack block was built for the lighthouse keepers which have massive pylon shaped doorways. These Keepers' cottages were to service the Skerryvore lighthouse on a remote reef that lies off the west coast of Scotland, 12 miles (19 kilometres) south-west of the island of Tiree. At lighthouses such as Cromarty, Alan Stevenson designed a massive entrance doorway with battered jambs.^[38]

Suspension bridges with pylons

Menai Bridge

The idea to use Egyptian Pylons for the supports of a suspension appears first to have been applied by Thomas Telford for the Menai Bridge. This was started in 1819 and completed in 1826.

Clifton Suspension Bridge

The Clifton Suspension Bridge opening in 1864, used Egyptian-influenced stone towers to support the suspension chains.^[39] The bridge was built to a design by William Henry Barlow and John Hawkshaw, based on an earlier design of 1831 by Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

20th-century revival

Egyptian Revival architecture made a re-appearance in the interwar years between 1919 and 1939 and was used mainly for the decoration of factory buildings and commercial buildings such as cinemas and garages. This revival of interest in the style is attributed to the discovery of

in 1922.

1926–28: Carreras Cigarette Factory, Camden, London.

Powderhall, Edinburgh

The former Duncan's chocolate factory in Beaverhall Road, Powderhall, Edinburgh appears to have been built in the 1920s and is most notable for the frieze of Egyptian deities on its facade. The factory is now an arts centre.^[41]

Cinemas

In the late 1920s and early 1930s a hybrid Art Deco/Egyptian Revival style evolved, which combined Egyptian motifs and features with

The pylon frontage design will also be seen on the Odeon, Altrincham and the Pyramid, Sale.

Examples of these cinemas include:

Former Carlton Cinema, Islington

Designed by architect George Coles in 1930. Typical of Coles' style such as the Troxy in Stepney Green and some other Odeon cinemas across the UK, the façade of the building is in the form of an Egyptian 'pylon' temple and is decorated with Egyptian iconography including lotus flowers and buds. It is faced with brightly-coloured ceramic tiles.

Former Pyramid Cinema, Sale (now L A Fitness)

Built in around 1933 to seat 1,940 people, Sale's Pyramid Cinema was one of the last Egyptian-style picture houses to be built in Britain. The building was designed by architect Joseph Gomersall and boasted an Egyptian exterior and interior, including an organ that featured pharaonic heads on either side, together with lotus columns and a winged music stand. Externally, the building relied on a series of columns to give it an Egyptian feel, while floral motifs, Egyptian tomb decorations, were used inside.

The Govanhill Picture House, Glasgow.

A Scottish example of Egyptian Revival cinema is the Govanhill Picture House in Glasgow. Built to the designs of Eric A Sutherland, it featured a unique Egyptian-styled facade, with columns and a moulded scarab above the entranceway. The interior sat 1,200, and although described as having stalls and balcony, the front of the 'balcony' came right down to the rear of the 'stalls' level, with a wooden dividing wall to keep the separate areas apart. The building was sold to ABC Cinemas in 1929, and remained open until 1961.

Lloyd's Bank, Sherrard Street, Melton Mowbray

A building of uncertain original use is Lloyd's Bank, Sherrard Street, Melton Mowbray. It may have been used for shops or a garage. Above the bank is a concrete facade with Egyptian motifs.

The later 20th century and 21st century

More recently Egyptian motifs have been used in shopping centre developments such as Trafford Centre, Manchester. In 1991–1992 a block of flats by the architects Coltart Earley were constructed for the Molendinar Housing Association. These are situated at the corner of Gallowgate and Bellgrove Street, Glasgow.

The Egyptian House at Moulsford

Sited on the Isis, close to Oxford, the Egyptian House was built in 1998–99 by to the designs of the architect John Outram.^[43] The design provides a modern rendering of Egyptian motifs. The house is constructed in blockwork, with precast concrete "beam & pot" floors. The roof is framed in timber and clad in copper sheet. A palette of coloured render was developed with a scraped finish, all incorporating black and white flecks to enliven the texture. Extensive use is also made of black, white and cream precast concrete elements. The windows are aluminium clad timber. A central watercourse runs down towards the river through four "Sphinx Pools", with pairs of sphinx sculptures on either side.

See also

• Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly
• Joseph Bonomi the Younger
• Kensal Green Cemetery
• Temple Lodges Abney Park
• Egyptian Revival architecture

References

Works cited

• Peck, William H. (2001). "Lepsius, Karl Richard". In
  ISBN 978-0-19-510234-5
  .

Further reading

• Antram N. (revised), Pevsner N. & Harris J., (1989), The Buildings of England: Lincolnshire, Yale University Press.
• Bridget Cherry & Nikolaus Pevsner (1989) The Buildings of England. Devon, pp. 674–675
  ISBN 0-14-071050-7
• Carrott R. G. (1978) The Egyptian Revival: Its Sources, Monuments, and Meaning, 1808–1858
• Colvin H. A. (1995), Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600–1840. Yale University Press, 3rd edition London
• J. S. Curl The Egyptian Revival: Ancient Egypt as the Inspiration for Design Motifs in the West (Abingdon & New York: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, 2005).
  ISBN 978-0-415-36119-4
  and 978-0-415-36118-7
• Elliot C., (2012), Egypt in England, English Heritage
  ISBN 978-1-84802-088-7
• Morley J.(1993) Regency Design, 1790–1840, Gardens, Buildings Interiors,Furniture. Abrams, New York
• Pevsner, N., & Lang, S. (1956), "The Egyptian Revival", Architectural Review, May 1956. pp. 242–254.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Egyptian Revival architecture in the United Kingdom.

• Littlewood K. (1999) "Rhymney's Egyptian revival images and interpretations of the Bute Ironworks", National Library of Wales Journal 31 (Summer)
• Packer J. A.(2012) Influences of Ancient Egypt on Architecture and Ornament in Scotland.
• World Digital Library presentation of Description de l'Egypte, ou, Recueil des observations et des recherches qui ont été faites en Egypte pendant l'expédition de l'armée française. Antiquitiés or Description of Egypt: Antiquities, Volume One (Plates): Or, Collection of Observations and Research Conducted in Egypt During the Expedition of the French Army. Second Edition. Bibliotheca Alexandrina. An extensive survey of Egypt's archeology, topography, and natural history. Royal Edition 1821–29.