George Edmund Street [also known as G.E. Street] was one of the leading figures in the Gothic Revival movement in Britain. He was born in Woodford, London, England on 20 June 1824 and was articled to Owen Browne Carter (1806-1859) in Winchester, Hampshire from 1841. After completing his articles, in 1844 he went to work in the London office of George Gilbert Scott (1811-1878) as an improver. He established his own independent practice in London in 1849.
As well as his work as an architect, Street was a decorative designer. He designed furniture, tiles, and stained glass. Notable among his work as a designer of stained glass was the windows he deigned for St Peter's in Bournemouth.
He was elected a Fellow of the Society of Architects (FSA) in 1853, and a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (FRIBA), in 1859. He was President of the Royal Institute of British Architects (PRIBA) in 1881. He was also elected and Associate of the Royal Academy (ARA) in 1866, and a full member of the Royal Academy (RA) in 1871. In 1874 he was awarded the RIBA Royal Gold Medal and in 1880 was appointed the Royal Academy Professor of Architecture. He died in London on 18 December 1881.
Street was primarily a church architect. Significant among his commissions were a church at Biscovey, near Par, Cornwall, his first commission (1847); St Peter's, Bournemouth, Hampshire [now Dorset] (1855-79); St James the Less, Westminster. London (1858-61); Crimea Memorial Church in Istanbul (1858-68); Church of St. Philip and St James in North Oxford (1859-65); restoration of St. Edward the Confessor in Leek, Staffordshire, with Ewan Christian (1865-67); St Saviour’s, Eastbourne, East Sussex (1865–72); St. Mary Magdalene in Paddington, London (1867-77); St Andrew’s, Toddington, Gloucestershire (1868–78); the chancel of St. John's Church in Torquay, Devon (1869); restoration of St Andrew's Church, Weaverthorpe, Yorkshire (1870-72); restoration of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin (1871-78); St. Mary the Virgin Church in Holmbury St. Mary, Surrey (1879); and The American Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, Paris (1882-86), completed after Street's death. In addition to the design of many other churches, Street was responsible for the restoration of numerous church buildings. He also designed vicarages and a theological college in Cuddesdon, Oxfordshire (1852–54)
Although he made a profound contribution to church architecture, it is for a non-ecclesiastical commission that Street is probably best known - the Royal Courts of Justice in London on which he worked on for the last 15 years of his life, from 1866 to 1881.
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See also:
Wikipedia - List of new churches by G. E. Street [link below]
Wikipedia - List of church restorations and alterations by G. E. Street [link below]
Wikipedia - List of domestic buildings by G. E. Street [link below]
Wikipedia - List of miscellaneous works by G. E. Street [link below]
British Listed Buildings - 292 entries on G. E. Street [link below]
Historic England - 199 entries on G. E. Street; 39 entries on George Edmund Street [link below]
Wikimedia Commons - 144 entries on George Edmund Street [link below]
RIBApix! - 111 images of buildings by G. E. Street
Allan, David. ‘The Neo-Gothic Church Silver at G.E. Street's American Church (now The American Cathedral) in Paris’. The Journal of the Decorative Arts Society 1850 - the Present no. 18, 1994 pp. 31-35
Armstrong, Barrie and Armstrong, Wendy. The Arts and Crafts movement in the North East of England: a handbook. Wetherby, England: Oblong Creative Ltd., 2013
Armstrong, Barrie and Armstrong, Wendy. The Arts and Crafts movement in the North West of England: a handbook. Wetherby, England: Oblong Creative Ltd., 2006
Brownlee, David B. The Law Courts: the Architecture of George Edmund Street. New York: Architectural History Foundation/Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1985
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
Fisher, Michael. Vision of Splendour : Gothic Revival in Staffordshire, 1840-90. Stafford: Michael Fisher, 1995 [The book examines in detail the work of George Gilbert, A.W.N. Pugin, George Edmund Street, G.F. Bodley and Richard Norman Shaw in Staffordshire]
George Edmund Street: A Victorian Architect in Berkshire. Edited John Elliott and John Pritchard. Reading, Berkshire: University of Reading, 1998
Goodhart-Rendel, H. S. 'George Edmund Street'. The Builder vol. 184, 3 April 1933 pp. 519-520
Hitchcock, Henry-Russell. ‘G. E. Street in the 1850s’. Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians vol. 19, 1960 pp. 145–171
Hussey, Christopher. 'Haddo House, Aberdeenshire'. Country Life vol. 140, 18 August 1966 pp. 378-381 [First part of a two-part article on a chapel at Haddo House in Methlick Ellon Aberdeenshire designed by Street and built between 1876 and 1881. Haddo House was designed by William Adam and built between 1731 and 1734]
Hussey, Christopher. 'Haddo House, Aberdeenshire'. Country Life vol. 140, 25 August 1966 pp. 448-452 [Second part of a two-part article on a chapel at Haddo House in Methlick Ellon Aberdeenshire designed by Street and built between 1876 and 1881. Haddo House was designed by William Adam and built between 1731 and 1734]
Hutchinson, John. George Edmund Street in East Yorkshire: a centenary exhibition. Hull: Dept of the History of Art, University of Hull, 1981.
Jackson, Neil. 'George Edmund Street (1824-41): An Architect on Holiday' in Episodes in the Gothic Revival: Six Church Architects, edited by Christopher Webster. Reading: Spire Books Ltd., 2011 pp. 163-198
Jackson, Neil. ‘The UnEnglishness of G. E. Street's Church of St. James-the-Less’. Architectural History vol. 23, 1980 pp. 86-94.
King, Georgiana Goddard. George Edmund Street. Unpublished notes and reprinted papers. New-York: Hispanic Society of America, 1916.
Kinneard, Joseph. ‘G. E. Street, the Law Courts and the ‘Seventies’ in Victorian Architecture, edited by Peter Ferriday. London: Jonathan Cape, 1963 pp. 221-234
Long, E. T. 'Churches of a Victorian squire'. Country Life vol. 144, 26 September 1968 pp. 770-772 [Includes details of churches designed by Street for Tatton Sykes]
'Obituary'. Architect & Building News vol. 11, 1882 pp. 13-14
'Obituary'. The Builder vol. 41, 24 December 1881 pp. 777-779, 784-785
'Obituary'. The Builder vol. 41, 31 December 1881 p. 831
'Obituary'. The Builder vol. 42, 7 January 1882 p. 26
'Obituary'. The Builder vol. 42, 14 January 1882 pp. 54-55
'Obituary'. The Builder vol. 42, 4 February 1882 p. 147
'Obituary'. The Builder vol. 42, 11 February 1882 p. 176
'Obituary'. The Builder vol. 42, 8 April 1882 p. 414
Port, Michael H. ‘The new Law Courts competition, 1866-67’. Architectural History, vol. 11 , 1968 pp. 75-120
Service, Alastair. The Architects of London and their buildings from 1066 to the present. London: The Architectural Press, 1979
Stamp, Gavin. The English House 1860-1914. Catalogue of an exhibition of photographs and drawings. London: InternationalArchitect and the Building Centre Trust, 1980 pp. 9
Street, Arthur Edmund. Memoir of George Edmund Street RA, 1824-1881. London: John Murray, 1888
Street, G. E. ‘On the Future of Art in England’. The Ecclesiologist vol. 19, 1858 pp. 232–240
Street, G. E. ‘On the Proper Characteristics of a Town Church’. The Ecclesiologist, vol. 11, 1850 pp. 227–233
Summerson, John. 'The Law Courts Competition of 1866-67'. RIBA Journal vol. 77, 1970 pp. 11-18
Victorian Church Art. Londoin: H.M.S.O., 1971 [Catalogue of an exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum, November 1971-January 1972 pp. 46-54]