page_title: Alfred Waterhouse
section_title: Personal life and family
hierarchical_section_title: Alfred Waterhouse / Personal life and family
caption_attribution_description: English: Foxhill House, seen across the lake in Whiteknights Park, the principal campus of the University of Reading, in Reading, England. The building now houses the universiy's School of Law. For more information, see the Wikipedia article Foxhill House.
context_page_description: Alfred Waterhouse RA PPRIBA was an English architect, particularly associated with the Victorian Gothic Revival architecture, although he designed using other architectural styles as well. He is perhaps best known for his design for Manchester Town Hall and the Natural History Museum in London, although he also built a wide variety of other buildings throughout the country. Besides his most famous public buildings he designed other town halls, the Manchester Assize buildings—bombed in World War II, and the adjacent Strangeways Prison. He also designed several hospitals, the most architecturally interesting being the Royal Infirmary Liverpool and University College Hospital London. He was particularly active in designing buildings for universities, including both Oxford and Cambridge but also what became Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds universities. He designed many country houses, the most important being Eaton Hall in Cheshire, largely demolished in 1961-63. He designed several bank buildings and offices for insurance companies, most notably the Prudential Assurance Company. Although not a major church designer he produced several notable churches and chapels.
context_section_description: In 1860 Waterhouse married Elizabeth Hodgkin (1834–1918), who was also a Quaker, daughter of John Hodgkin and sister of the historian Thomas Hodgkin, who was a school friend of Waterhouse. Elizabeth was herself the author of several books, including a collection of verse and some anthologies. Her best known work was The Island of Anarchy, a 
  Utopian story set in the late 20th century, first published in 1887 and more recently re-published by the Reading-based Two Rivers Press. Elizabeth was also an accomplished water-colourist and she and Alfred would often paint together, also she produced designs for embroidery and copper and brass ware in the style of the Arts and Crafts movement. Elizabeth also organised between 1890 and 1914 evening craft classes in Yattendon. She also arranged amateur theatricals at home.
  The eldest of the five children the couple had was Paul Waterhouse (1861-1924), after being educated at Eton College and taking a degree in Classics at Balliol College, Oxford he would follow his father's profession joining the practice in 1884, his father made him a partner in 1891. Paul's son Michael Theodore Waterhouse (1888-1968) would also become an architect. In turn Michael's son David Barclay Waterhouse (1921-1998) was the fourth generation to follow the profession retiring in 1989.
  Alfred's and Elizabeth's other children were: Mary Monica Waterhouse (1863-1949) who married Robert Bridges in 1884; Florence Eliot Waterhouse  (1866-1953); Alfred Maurine Waterhouse (1868-c.1881) and Amyas Theodore Waterhouse (1872-1956).
  In 1877 Alfred, Elizabeth and Paul changed their faith, all were baptised into the Church of England, the four younger children were baptised a few months later.
  Alfred's great-granddaughter Prudence Waterhouse (daughter of Michael), also an architect, was joint author with architectural historian Colin Cunningham of Alfred Waterhouse 1830-1905 Biography of a Practice published in 1992 by Oxford University Press.
  Waterhouse designed his own house in 1860, Barcombe Cottage, Fallowfield, Manchester. The purchase of 8 (now 61) New Cavendish Street, Marylebone, London, a late eighteenth-century Georgian terraced house was negotiated in the autumn of 1864, preparatory to his relocating in 1865 to London. Waterhouse went on to design the Gothic Foxhill House (1867–68), Reading,  as the family's first country residence. The site was next door to his parents' house, Whiteknights House. In 1877 he built the even grander Yattendon Court near Yattendon for £11,865 (approximately £1,400,000 in 2019).  Waterhouse's grandson sold Yattendon Court to Edward Iliffe, 1st Baron Iliffe, and it was demolished and replaced by the current house in 1926. After moving to Yattendon Waterhouse sold Foxhill. In the village of Yatton Waterhouse designed and paid for several buildings: a Reading Room and caretaker's cottage (1877) cost £570; several cottages, village shop and farm buildings (c.1878-1900); alterations to the parish church including a new porch, vestry, new altar and organ, and partial rebuilding of the tower (1881) cost £370; a new village school (1885–86) for £2,077. 
  Friends of Alfred and Elizabeth who regularly stayed at Yattendon included Hamo Thornycroft and Edmund Gosse, they also let the old manor house at Yattendon to their future son-in-law Robert Bridges. In the spring each year the Waterhouses held regular Thursday night dinners at their London house in New Cavendish Street. Guests included Hamo Thornycroft, his sister Theresa Thornycroft, Edmund Gosse, Frank Dicksee, Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Ford Madox Brown, Mary Augusta Ward, Benjamin Jowett, James Bryce, 1st Viscount Bryce and his sister Julia Gaskell. Alfred was a friend of fellow architects Richard Norman Shaw and William Burges. In 1861 Shaw designed a wooden cradle for the newly born Paul Waterhouse. It is now in the V&A Museum. He had been a guest of the Foreign Architectural Book Society, founded in 1859, it was restricted to fifteen members, so it was only on the death of Burges in 1881 that Waterhouse could join. Other members included 
caption: Foxhill House, Reading (1867-68) designed by Waterhouse as his family's country home until 1877 when they moved to Yattendon Court
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