Chapters on: Henry Roberts (1803-76) & Bassett Keeling (1837-86)

by James Stevens Curl. Book edited by Christopher Webster

Reading: Spire Books Ltd., 2012
ISBN: 978-1-904965-35-0 (hbk)

This publication by Spire Books contains two well-illustrated scholarly chapters by Curl on two 19th-century architects:

Chapter One (14-47): Henry Roberts (1803-76) architect and housing reformer. Evangelical, family, and other connections - whose name is closely associated with philanthropic housing for the working classes;

and

Chapter Two (106-143): Enoch Bassett Keeling (1837-86) Acrobatic Gothic, freely treated: the rise and fall of Bassett Keeling (1837-86) - designer of the notorious Strand Music-Hall, many ‘Rogue’ Gothic churches, and several inventive office-buildings.

Both men had difficulties:

Roberts fell from favour with the Establishment through an out of-character sexual peccadillo and had to retire abroad; and Keeling, mercilessly savaged by the architectural critics, not only went bankrupt, but succumbed to the Demon Drink at the age of 49.