*** Welcome to piglix ***

Beverley Ussher


Beverley Ussher (born Melbourne 1868; died Melbourne, 9 June 1908) was articled to Melbourne architect Alfred Dunn. Dunn was English and had worked for architect Alexander Lauder in Barnstaple, Devon, where he worked with Arts and Crafts movement theorist and practitioner W.R. Lethaby. Through Dunn's English connections, when Ussher completed his architecture articles in Melbourne, he visited England and was introduced to architect Walter Butler. Later Ussher and Butler formed a partnership in Melbourne.

Ussher's first architectural partner, Walter Richmond Butler (1864-1949), was an English architect who worked in London as chief assistant to ecclesiastical architect J. D. Sedding. Butler was accepted into the Arts and Crafts and Domestic Revival circles centred on William Morris and Richard Norman Shaw, among whom his closest friend was Ernest Gimson (1864-1919).

In June 1888 Butler left Sedding's office and sailed for Australia, perhaps at the prompting of young architect Beverley Ussher then visiting London. Three of Butler's brothers and one of his sisters also settled in Australia. From 1889 until 1893 Butler was in partnership with Ussher. In 1896 they were joined by George C. Inskip but they parted in 1905 after a dispute with the Royal Victorian Institute of Architects over the conduct of a competition.

Beverley Ussher and Henry (Hardie) Kemp (born Broughton, Lancashire, UK, 10 March 1859; died Melbourne, 22 April 1946) then formed a partnership in Melbourne in 1899, which lasted until Ussher's death (1908). This "brilliant partnership" pioneered the Australian Federation style of domestic architecture. Both Ussher and Kemp had strong Arts and Crafts commitments, and both had been in partnerships before forming their own.

The practice specialized in domestic work and their houses epitomize the Marseilles-tiled Queen Anne (or Federation style) houses characteristic of Melbourne, and considered now to be a truly distinctive Australian genre. At the time of their creation they were a break with the use of cement render, applied stucco ornament, cast iron, slates, and double hung windows. Their designs use red bricks, terracotta tiles and casement windows, avoid applied ornamentation and develop substantial timber details. The picturesque character of the houses results from a conscious attempt to express externally with gables, dormers, bays, roof axes, and chimneys, the functional variety of rooms within.


...
Wikipedia

...