Francis Eldred Lodge Harris [also known as F. E. L. Harris] was born in Bristol, England on 5 May 1864 and studied at Bristol School of Art. He was articled to W. H. Cowlin in Bristol from 1879 to 1884 and then worked as an assistant in the office of Frederick Mew (1832-1898) from February 1884. Harris qualified as an architect in 1887 and was elected an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (ARIBA) later that year. He commenced practice as an independent architect in Chelmsford, Essex in 1889 and was appointed Architect to the Co-operative Wholesale Society in Manchester in 1897, a position he held until 1918.
Harris was probably the first English architect to adopt reinforced-concrete construction on an extensive scale.He was elected a Fellow of the Manchester Society of Architects. He died in Congleton, Cheshire on 5 May 1924.
Mostly cooperative institutions in a number of the principal cities of England; control premises, Co-operative Wholesale Society, Manchester; drapery warehouses, London and Newcastle; flour mills at London, Bristol, Manchester, and Newcastle; depots at Bristol, Cardiff; weaving sheds, shoe factories, clothing factories, cocoa works, preserve works, soap works, biscuit works in various towns; central offices of the Co-operative Union; warehouses in Denmark and Spain; and numerous other factories, bakeries, and central and retail branch premises throughout the country.
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