Arthur William Purnell

William Arthur Purnell F.R.A.I.A. (5 January 1878 – 29 June 1964), generally known as Arthur Purnell, and often written as though William were his middle name, was an architect in the State of Victoria, Australia.

Arthur Purnell was born the eldest son of William Purnell, jun., and his wife Emily, née Keown of Geelong, Victoria. He was educated at McManus Preparatory School, Flinders State School, Geelong College, then studied architecture at Gordon Technical College, and drawing at the Geelong School of Arts. His father and grandfather were partners in Purnell & Sons, builders, and Arthur joined the firm as a draftsman in 1895, then took further studies under C. A. Heyward, a government architect.

In 1900 Purnell left for China, and established himself in Canton (modern Guangzhou). In 1904 he teamed up with Charles Souders Paget (1874–1933), a civil engineer from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, as Purnell & Paget. Purnell designed a large number of public buildings and private dwellings in Guangzho, of which a dozen or so are still standing, also several buildings (a Customs house and a cement factory) on Shamian Island, which in those days was largely a British concession.

Purnell returned to Melbourne in 1910, with an office in the Nicholson Chambers at 101 Swanston Street. He moved to larger premises in Phair's Buildings at 327 Collins Street. Much of his work during this time and later was for people and businesses of Chinese origin, or contained elements of Chinese design. A notable design of this time was Michael's Corner, built in 1915, which still stands on Elizabeth Street.

In 1915 he joined with Isidor Beaver at his practice at Altson's Buildings (often misspelled "Alston's"), 82 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne, on the Collins Street corner. Beaver was a Manchester-born architect who had been in partnership with Edmund Wright in Adelaide and moved to Melbourne to supervise construction of their National Mutual Life building. An early project which may be attributed to Purnell was the Wattle Path Palais de Danse on the Esplanade at St. Kilda.

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