# Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Belcher, John

​BELCHER, JOHN (1841-1913), architect, the eldest of the ten children of John Belcher, a London architect, by his first wife, Anne Woollett, a descendant of Philip Woollett, father of the eighteenth-century engraver, William Woollett [q.v.], was born at 3 Montague Terrace, Trinity Square, London, 10 July 1841. The family were members of the ‘Catholic Apostolic’, or ‘Irvingite’, Church, in which Belcher was a minister throughout his life. He was educated at private schools and at Luxemburg, and after spending a few months in Paris as an architectural student (1862-1863) he became partner to his father in a good city practice in 1865.
After his father’s retirement in 1875 Belcher soon gave evidence of individuality in his building in the City. At the corner of the new Queen Victoria Street he boldly adopted French Gothic for business premises (1871), and later on (1876) he introduced a ‘Queen Anne’ building at the Bucklersbury corner of the same block. He built two versions of the hall of the Curriers Company in London Wall; the first building was bought and pulled down by Messrs. Rylands, whose adjoining warehouses in Wood Street Belcher also designed; the second (1874), which also has been dismantled, had a French Gothic elevation to London Wall, reminiscent of Jacques Cœur’s house at Bourges. As a designer, Belcher was at home in domestic work, and of much that he did his own house on Champion Hill, Camberwell, is a good example (1885). For the Earl of Eldon he reconstituted the old mansion of Stowell Park, Gloucestershire, and prepared a scheme for gardens—one of the first endeavours to revive an architectural garden without serpentine paths and formal beds (1886).
Belcher’s artistic sympathy quickly responded to the spirit of the day, when Italian renaissance was succeeding to the Gothic revival. The palaces of Genoa aroused his enthusiasm, and their influence lasted, giving opportunity for the use of sculpture and mural decoration, and liberty in employing the classic tradition. The offices of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, which he built in 1890 on an obscure site behind Moorgate Street, at once made his fame, and became a landmark in City architecture; the sculptured frieze, placed at the foot of the columns, was executed by his lifelong friend, (Sir) William Hamo Thornycroft, R.A., and Harry Bates adorned the basement with terms and corbels. The architect was here seen to be not only courageous but in sympathy with the sculptor. The design for the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1891 added to Belcher’s reputation. Colchester town hall (1898), with a picturesque campanile, was also a success. Electra House, Finsbury (1902), is a fine classical mass with good sculpture at the entrance, and the Winchester House elevation to London Wall is original and profuse in its combination of the two arts. Messrs. Mappin and Webb’s shop in Oxford Street (1907) and a building at the west corner of St. James’s Street and Piccadilly (1908) were novel attempts to employ vertical lines without a classical order, and have little of the usual sculpture.
Whiteley’s stores in Bayswater (1912) were the first example of a new architectural interpretation of the requirements of business, and the house of the Royal Society of Medicine in Wimpole Street (1918) showed the restraint and dignity which the occasion demanded. The offices of the Zoological Society of London in Regent’s Park (1913) mark a later development in the direction of modern French treatment. Lord Ashton gave Belcher the opportunity for a purely monumental building: the Ashton Memorial (1906) in the Williamson park at Lancaster is reminiscent of Wren’s method at Greenwich. Holy Trinity church, Kingsway, London, is original in the recessing of the front on a semi-circular plan (1910).
​Belcher’s work is the striking outcome of a traditional education in classical architecture stimulated to revolt by the Gothic revival, and producing an eclecticism which opened the way for new alliances with sculptors and painters, untrammelled by convention. He was quick to respond to new movements, and had the courage of his convictions. His work, therefore, represents the approach of architecture to the arts and crafts movement in renaissance building, as does that of his friend John Dando Sedding [q.v.] in Gothic. He was an original member of the Art Workers’ Guild, and his presidency of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1904 proved a valuable link between the two societies. He published a small book of essays, Essentials in Architecture (1893), and collaborated with Mervyn E. Macartney in publishing an important collection of photographs of houses, entitled The Later Renaissance in England (1897-1899); this has had considerable influence on contemporary building.
Belcher was elected A.R.A. in 1900 and R.A. in 1909. The Royal Institute of British Architects nominated him in 1907 for the royal gold medal of architecture. He married in 1865 Florence, daughter of Matthew Parker, a minister, of Dublin. They had no children. He died at Redholm, Champion Hill, Camberwell, 8 November 1918, and is buried in Norwood cemetery. An excellent portrait by F. Dicksee, R.A., hangs in the gallery of the Institute.
[Journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects, 22 November and 6 December 1913; personal knowledge.]
A. B. P.