Peter Ellis (architect)

Peter Ellis (1805–1884) was a British architect from Liverpool.

From the mid-1840s he lived at 40 Falkner Square, a house which he designed and on which an English Heritage Blue Plaque is now sited.

Peter Ellis designed Oriel Chambers in 1864 at the corner of Water Street and Covent Garden in Liverpool, considered by many architectural historians to be one of the most influential buildings of its age, a precursor of the modernist style in architecture and one of the earliest attempts to break away from the classical tradition of commercial architecture. It was described by Charles Reilly, Professor of Architecture at Liverpool University as the "oddest building in Liverpool, at once so logical and so disagreeable...as a cellular habitation for the human insect it is a distinct asset to the town," and by Nikolaus Pevsner as "one of the most remarkable buildings of its date in Europe."

His other well-known commission was 16 Cook Street, Liverpool, of 1866. This building has been noted for its "surprisingly modern" spiral staircase, cantilevered out from the main building and clad with sheets of iron and glass.

From evidence in the Liverpool Mercury he is known to have had commissions for at least four other buildings (1856-1874), whilst the Corporation Lease Registers reveal that his early career (1833-1844) involved his design and construction of a variety of houses for sale, rent or personal use (see Career).

Peter Ellis was born on 1 August 1805 at Shaw's Brow (subsequently renamed William Brown Street), the third son in a family of seven born to Peter Ellis senior and Ann (née Appleton). The family moved to Primrose Hill in 1807 where Peter's father was involved in the construction of courts, and to Gloucester Street (now buried beneath Lime Street Station) in 1811 where his father worked with other builders in developing the area. In 1822 they moved to Low Hill and it was whilst living there that Peter subsequently met Mary Helen Syers who was living in Everton Village and whom he married in 1836.

Although Peter first appeared in Gore's Liverpool Directory in 1834 as an architect with an office in Renshaw Street, prior to that he would have learned his trade working with his father on several terraces of properties in Audley Street (1824), Kent Square (1830), and Great George Square / Upper Pitt Street (1832). Then in 1833 Peter Ellis the Younger of Liverpool Surveyor first appeared in the Corporation Lease Register regarding terraces of property to be built along the south east side of Great George Square and into Cookson Street.

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