Thomas Harris (architect) explained

Thomas Harris
Birth Date:	1829/30
Birth Place:	Britain
Significant Buildings:	Stokesay Court Milner Field

Thomas Harris (1829/30–1900) was a British architect.

Work

Harris was born in 1829 or 1830, the son of William Harris, a baker, and his wife Charlotte. Nothing is known of his training or early career, but he was established in independent practice in London by 1851 and was elected a fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) in that year. His works include Milner Field in Bingley (demolished), Bedstone Court and Stokesay Court in Shropshire and the remodelling of St Marylebone Parish Church in London.^[1]

Harris was described by Harry Stuart Goodhart-Rendel as one of a group of "those Gothic-Revival architects, addicted to Go, whose works were not marked by scholarship, serenity, or tact" for whose works he coined the term "Rogue Architecture".^[2] He wrote several works on architecture including the pamphlet Victorian Architecture (1860) in which he "had done nothing less than devise a term to describe a whole era".^[3]

Selected publications

• Victorian Architecture: a few words to show that a national architecture adapted to the wants of the nineteenth century is attainable (1860, London: Bell and Daldy)^[4]
• Examples of the Architecture of the Victorian Age (edited and largely written by him) (1862)
• Three Periods of English Architecture (1894, London: B.T. Batsford)^[5]
• A historical and descriptive sketch of Marylebone Gardens. Collated from various sources by Thomas Harris (1887, London: Printed by the Chiswick Press for private circulation)^[6]

Further reading

• Harbron . D. . Thomas Harris . Architectural Review . 1942 . 63-66. Includes drawing by T. R. Davison

Notes and References

1. 63561. Harris, Thomas (1829/30–1900).
2. Book: Oxford Dictionary of Architecture . 2021 . 4th . 20 March 2023 . Rogue Architecture. Oxford University Press . 978-0-19-191874-2 .
3. Web site: H.S. Goodhart-Rendel and the 20th century Victorians . Less Eminent Victorians . 20 March 2023 . en . 1 March 2021.
4. Book: Harris. Thomas . Victorian architecture: a few words to show that a national architecture is attainable . 1860 . en. Google books.
5. Web site: Catalogue record for "Three Periods..." . British Library . 20 March 2023.
6. Web site: Catalogue record for "A historical and descriptive ..." . British Library . 20 March 2023.