Alfred William Stephens Cross was born in Blackheath, Lewisham. Kent [now London], England on 8 March 1858 [1] and studied at King's College, London, Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, and the National Art Training School [now Royal College of Art] in Kensington, London. He was articled to his father, Alfred Cross (1830-1882) and Arthur Wells in Hastings, Sussex in 1875, and remained with them as an assistant until 1880. He also worked in the offices of his uncle, William Stephens Cross (1823?-1897)
He commenced practice as an architect in London in the early 1880s and, following the death of his father in 1882, moved to Hastings. He qualified as an architect in 1883. He was in partnership with Henry Spalding (1832-1910) from 1889 to 1899; with Charles Edward Mallows (1864-1915) as Cross & Mallows in the 1900s; and with his son, Kenneth Mervyn Baskerville Cross (1890-1968) as A.W.S. & K.M.B. Cross (Cross & Cross), from 1919. Cross was an authority on the design of public baths and was the author of Public Baths and Wash-Houses: a treatise on their planning, design, arrangement, and fitting, having special regard to the acts arranging for their provision (1906); and co-author, with Kenneth M. B. Cross, of Modern Public Baths and Wash-Houses (1930, revised 1938). He also designed numerous public libraries, schools and laboratories. He won more than 26 national architectural competitions.
He was elected an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (A.R.I.B.A.) in 1883, and a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (F.R.I.B.A) in 1892. He died in London on 27 December 1932.
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[1] Note:, the entries on him in the 1914, 1923 and 1926 editions of Who's Who in Architecture incorrectly give his year of birth as 1860.
Municipal School of Technology, Manchester; Memorial Laboratories, Aberystwyth University; public baths at Haggerston and Hoxton; the Merchant venturers' Technical College, Bristol; almshouses at Wood Green; Shoreditch Town Hall; the Municipal Dye-House, Manchester ; labourers' dwellings at Oldham Road and Pollard Street, Manchester. Has acted as professional adviser and assessor in many competitions. [Source: Who's Who in Architecture 1914]
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Municipal School of Technology, Manchester; Memorial Laboratories, Aberystwyth University: public baths at Haggerston, Hoxton, Finchley, Hampstead, etc.; additions to St. John's College, Cambridge ; schools at Finchley, Poplar, Gospel Oak, Hampstead, etc.; Congregational churches and schools at Harlesden and West Hampstead, etc.; working men's clubs at Hampstead, Walworth and Croydon; houses at Bexhill, Wakeswood, St. Mary Bourne, Cheam, Abingdon, Byfleet, Boxmoor, etc.; almshouses at Wood Green; the Town Hall, Shoreditch; the Municipal Dye House, Manchester; labourers' dwellings at Oldham Road and Pollard Street, Manchester; the Merchant Venturers' Technical College, Bristol; Gosport Technical Institute. [Source: Who's Who in Architecture 1923]
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Other work by A. W. S. Cross in partnership with K. M. B. Cross included houses at Cheam (1919), Abingdon (1920), Byfleet (1921), and Boxmoor (1922); additions to St. John's College, Cambridge (1921-22); public baths at Walker (Newcastle-on-Tyne), Heaton (Newcastle-on-Tyne), and Deptford. As sole architect: — Additions to Upshire Bury, Waltham Abbey (1922); showroom, workshop and offices at Windermere (1922); house at Elstead (1922); alterations and additions, Bowes and Bowes, Cambridge (1923); bungalow at Tiptree (1923); bungalow and farm buildings at Sandon (1924); the Soho swimming pool in Westminster, London (1928); Ironmonger Row Baths in Islington, London (1931, with additions 1937); Town Hall in Morecambe, Lancashire (1931-32); and a sea-water swimming pool in Morecambe, Lancashire which opened in 1936.
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
Gray, A. Stuart. Edwardian architecture: a biographical dictionary. London: Gerald Duckworth & Co., Ltd., 1985
‘Obituary’. The Builder vol. 144, 6 January 1933 pp. 5, 21
‘Obituary’ The Builder vol. 144, 13 January 1933 p. 56
Who's Who in Architecture 1914. London: Technical Journals, Ltd.
Who's Who in Architecture 1923. Edited by Frederick Chatterton: London: Architectural Press, 1923