Henry Bloomfield Bare was born in Hungerford, Berkshire, England on 21 January 1848 and was a pupil of the ecclesiastical architect Charles Edmund Giles (1822-1891) from 1861 to 1863. He then worked as an assistant to Thomas John Wilson (1824-1903) and Samuel Joseph Nicholl (1826-1905) from 1863 to 1868. From 1866 to 1876 he worked for the railway engineer William Baker (1817-1878) as District Resident Assistant on the London & North Western Railway.
Bare commenced independent practice as an architect in Liverpool in 1876 and was in partnership with Henry Langton Beckwith (1861-1940) from c.1886. In the 1891 he moved to the USA and practised as an architect in New Jersey and Philadelphia. He had an office at 430 Walnut Street, Philadelphia in 1891.
In 1895 he returned to Liverpool and resumed his practice. The commission for which Bare is best known is the Philharmonic Hotel (1898-1900), a Grade 1 listed public house at 36 Hope Street, Liverpool, which was reputedly John Lennon's favourite pub. He also designed the ornate Art Nouveau-inspired entrance gates to the entrance of the Philharmonic.
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (FRIBA) in 1888. He was also elected an associate member of the Liverpool Architectural Society in 1878 and a Fellow of the Society in 1880. In the 1880s he was Vice-President of the Society. It is sometimes stated that he was a member of the Art Workers Guild but this appears to be incorrect.
In addition to his work as an architect, Bare also designed repoussé metalwork. He contributed occasional articles to The Studio magazine, He exhibited at the Royal Academy in London in 1888 and at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool between 1884 and 1911.
He died in Liverpool on 8 June 1912.
Armstrong, Barrie and Armstrong, Wendy. The Arts and Crafts movement in the North West of England: a handbook. Wetherby, England: Oblong Creative Ltd., 2006
Cavanagh, Terry. Public Sculpture of Liverpool. Liverpool, Liverpool University Press, 1997
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
Armstrong, Barrie and Armstrong, Wendy. The Arts and Crafts movement in the North West of England: a handbook. Wetherby, England: Oblong Creative Ltd., 2006
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
‘Obituary’. The Builder vol. 102, 26 January 1912 p. 108