Smith, Thomas Roger 1830 - 1903

Thomas Roger Smith [also known as T. Roger Smith] was born in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England on 14 July 1830. He was articled to Philip Hardwick (1792-1870) and after a period of foreign travel, set up his own practice in London in 1855. He was in partnership with Arthur John Gale (1857-?) until 1891, and with his son, Ravenscroft Elsey Smith (1859-1930) from 1888.  

In 1864 he travelled to India to oversee the design of exhibition buildings in Bombay [now Mumbai], a project that was subsequently abandoned. However, several other buildings were erected in India from his designs including the post office and British Hospital in Bombay.

His work in England included 99 Southwark Street, London (1877); The North London Hospital for Consumption at Hampstead (1880-1903); a Sanatorium in Reedham, Surrey (1883); laboratories at University College, London (completed in 1892); and Emmanuel Church and its vicarage in South Croydon, Surrey (completed in 1897).

T. R. Smith was District Surveyor for Southward and South Lambeth, London from 1874 and for West Wandsworth, London from 1882.  

In addition to his work as a practising architect, he was Professor of Architecture at University College, London from 1880 to 1903, and lectured at the Architectural Association. He was also founder and editor of the Architect.

He was elected an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (ARIBA) in 1856 and a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (FRIBA) in 1863.  He was President of the Architectural Association in 1860-61 and 1863-64.  From 1901 he was Master of the Carpenters' Company. In 1869 he founded The Architect magazine, and was the author of A Rudimentary Treatise on the Acoustics of Public Buildings, (1861), Architecture, Classic and Early Christian (1882), and Gothic and Renaissance Architecture (1888).

His address was given as 57 Strand, London in 1862; 10 Lancaster Place, Strand, London in 1883 and 1886; and 130 Temple Chambers, Temple Avenue, London in 1888 and 1903. He died in London on 11 March 1903.

Worked in
UK
Works

Stratton Audley Park. Oxfordshire for George Glen (1860); Shephalbury, Manor Stevenage, Hertfordshire for Unwin Unwin-Heathcote (c.1866); Blythwood, Burnham, Buckinghamshire for George Hanbury (1869); and Stancliffe Hall, Matlock, Derbyshire for Sir J. Whitworth (1872).

Bibliography

Directory of British Architects 1834-1914. Compiled by Antonia Brodie, et al. Volume 2: L-Z. London; New York: British Architectural Library, Royal Institute of British Architects/Continuum, 2001

Girouard, Mark. The Victorian Country House.  New Haven and London: Yale University Press, revised and enlarged edition, 1979.

‘Obituary’. The Builder vol. 84, 13 March 1903 p. 289

‘Obituary’. Building News vol. 84, 13 March 1903 p. 369

‘Obituary’. Royal Institute of British Architects Journal vol. 10, 1903 pp. 276-277, 284

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