George Ashdown Audsley was born in Elgin, Scotland on 6 September 1838 and trained as an architect in the office of Alexander Reid (1816?-1897) and William Reid (1865-1906) in Elgin from c.1852 to c.1856. He then moved to Liverpool where he worked for John Weightman (1798-1883), the City Surveyor, and from c.1860 to 1863 was in partnership with John Cunningham (1799-1873) as Cunningham & Audsley.
In 1863 he established the architectural practice W. & G. Audsley [also known as Audsley & Audsley] with his older brother William James Audsley (1833-1907). The firm subsequently designed churches, synagogues and private houses in Liverpool and London.
In 1876 the two brothers were elected Fellows of the Royal Institute of British Architects (FRIBA).
In addition to their work as architects, the Audsley brothers wrote several of books on architecture, ornamentation, illumination and Japanese art, the first being Guide to the Art of Illuminating and Missal Painting (1861). In 1892 G. A. Audsley collaborated with his son, Maurice Ashdown Audsley (1865-1958) in the production of The Practical Decorator and Ornamentist for the Use of Architects, Practical Painters, and Designers, a manual and guide containing 102 chromolithographic plates of Greek, Renaissance, mediaeval, oriental and Gothic patterns and motifs, which is considered one of the great nineteenth-century design books [1]
George Ashdown Audsley was also an illustrator and designer of pipe organs. He was the author of 'The Art of Organ Building' (1905) and built a number of organs in England and the USA.
In the 1883 the Audsleys visited New York City, to where, in 1892 [or 1893 - sources differ] they relocated their practice. Over the next decade they designed office buildings, schools, churches and a library in New York and elsewhere in the USA.
William James Audsley died in 1907. George Ashdown Audesley died in Bloomfield, New Jersey on 21 June 1925.
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[1] [2] Brownell, Charles. The Audsleys, the Blackies and The Practical Decorator and Ornamentist. MA thesis, Virginia Commonwealth University, 2010
Brownell, Charles. The Audsleys, the Blackies and The Practical Decorator and Ornamentist. MA thesis, Virginia Commonwealth University, 2010
Directory of British Architects 1834-1914. Compiled by Antonia Brodie, et al. Volume 1: A-K. London; New York: British Architectural Library, Royal Institute of British Architects/Continuum, 2001
Theis, Terry Marc. George Ashdown Audsley. M.M. thesis. University of Nebraska - Lincoln, 1969
Withey, Henry F. and Withey, Elsie Rathburn. Biographical dictionary of American architects (deceased). Los Angeles, California: New Age Publishing Co., 1956