Mervyn Macartney

Macartney was born in London on 16 September 1853, the youngest of the four sons of Elizabeth and Maxwell Macartney, a doctor. His half brother was the painter C. H. H. Macartney. He was privately educated{{cite book|title=Mervyn Edmund Macartney, architect, 1853–1932: the life and work of Sir Mervyn Macartney, BA, FRICA, FSA|author=Ward. Jan|date=1998|publisher=Jan Ward |isbn=0953464105}} until 1873 when he completed his education at Lincoln College, Oxford, before working under the tutorial of Richard Norman Shaw.{{cite web|url=http://www.scottisharchitects.org.uk/architect_full.php?id=201449|title=(Sir) Mervyn Edmund Macartney|website=Scottish Architects|access-date=23 November 2021}}{{cite web|url=https://architecture.arthistoryresearch.net/architects/macartney-mervyn-edmund|title=Macartney, Mervyn Edmund 1853–1932|website=Biographical Dictionary of British and Irish Architects 1800–1950 – Art History Research net|access-date=30 December 2023}} Before he started his own practice he travelled across Europe visiting  France, Italy and Germany. There are various dates to when Macartney started his own practice, ranging from 1877,{{cite book|title=Who's Who in Architecture 1914|author=London: Technical Journals Ltd|date=1914}} which must be inaccurate as he was articled to Shaw at this time, to 1882. It was in 1882 that his first design from his own practice, Kent Hatch in Westerham, Kent was completed.{{cite web|url=https://www.archiseek.com/2013/1882-kent-hatch-westerham-kent/|title=Kent Hatch Westerham|website=Archiseek|date=24 February 2013 |access-date=25 November 2021}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xtDizMX8yusC&dq=%22mervyn+macartney%22+newbury&pg=PA131|title=L'Architecture Arts & Crafts|author=Davey. Peter|date=1980|page=131|publisher=Editions Mardaga |isbn=2-87009-269-5}} In 1891, he married the Hon. Elizabeth Wilhelmina Ritchie, the daughter of Charles Ritchie, 1st Baron Ritchie of Dundee.

Examples of buildings and estates that Macartney worked on include:

• a pilastered conservatory at Swaylands in the Kentish Weald{{cite web|url=https://webapps.kent.gov.uk/KCC.ExploringKentsPast.Web.Sites.Public/SingleResult.aspx?uid=MKE44158|title=HER Number:TQ 54 SW 274 Type of record: Landscape Name: Swaylands|website=Kent County Council Exploring Kents Oast|date=25 January 2008 |access-date=26 January 2024}}
• a rebuilding of St Leonard's Church, Downham in Lancashire{{Citation | last1 =Hartwell| first1 =Clare| last2 = Pevsner | first2 = Nikolaus | author2-link =Nikolaus Pevsner| series= The Buildings of England| title =Lancashire: North | publisher =Yale University Press | year =2009 | orig-year=1969 | location = New Haven and London| page = 277 | isbn = 978-0-300-12667-9}}
• The Court, Woolhampton{{cite web|url=https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1319514?section=official-list-entry|title=The Court and Forecourt Walls to North List Entry Number: 1319514|website=Historic England|date=10 November 1983}}
• South Avenue in Whiteley Village{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5b6dCBlfCLUC&dq=Sir+Mervyn+Macartney&pg=PA520|title=Surrey|author=Ian Nairn, Nikolaus Pevsner, Bridget Cherry|date=2002|page=520|publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=9780300096750}}
• Egerton Place, Knightsbridge on the Smiths Charity Estate{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T87kAAAAMAAJ&q=Sir+Mervyn+Macartney|title=Southern Kensington, Brompton|author=Greater London Council|page=123-124|date=1983|publisher=Athlone Press |isbn=9780485482416}}{{cite book|url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol41/pp120-126|title=Survey of London: Volume 41, Brompton|author=F H W Sheppard|page=120-126|date=1983}}
• 169 Queen's Gate in South Kensington, London{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J4Im36d7qdsC&q=Mervyn+Macartney|title=Baltic Security and Defence Review|volume=11|page=128|date=2009}}
• Islington South Library{{cite news|url=https://www.islingtoncitizen.co.uk/2021/05/12/town-hall-save-grade-ii-listed-south-library-disrepair/|title=Town Hall to save Grade II-listed South Library from disrepair|newspaper=Islington Citizen|date=12 May 2021}}
• Guinness Trust tenements in Draycott Avenue, Chelsea, in 1891.(Robert John Stirling was instructed to use them as a model when he came to design tenements for the Trust to the north of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin){{cite web|url=https://www.dia.ie/architects/view/3767/MACARTNEY-MERVYNEDMUND%28SIR%29%23|title=MaCartney, Mervyn Edmund (Sir)|website=Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720–1940|access-date=26 January 2024}}
• Welders, Chalfont St. Giles (his father-in-law Charles' home){{cite web|url=https://heritageportal.buckinghamshire.gov.uk/Monument/MBC18780|title=Building record 1252800000 - Welders House, Jordans|website=Buckinghamshire Herotage Portal|date=11 December 2019}}
• Newbury Town War Memorial{{cite web|url=https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1431903?section=official-list-entry|title=Newbury Town War Memorial|website=Historic England|date=11 May 2016}}

File:Newbury War Memorial.jpg

In addition to his architectural designs, Macartney also designed the organ case at St Thomas Church in Winchelsea, the only known example of this type of work.{{cite web|url=https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/winchelseaorgan?alertType=error&alertMessage=donationError|title=The Friends of Winchelsea Church. The Organ Appeal|website=Just Giving|access-date=28 January 2024}}

Macartney was one of the original editorial board members of The Architectural Review, founded in 1896, along with Sir Reginald Blomfield, Ernest Newton and Henry Wilson.{{cite journal|url=https://www.architectural-review.com/archive/ar-120/ar-120-jonathan-glancey-on-campaigns|title=AR 120: Jonathan Glancey on Campaigns|journal=The Architectural Review|date=17 January 2017}} In 1896, he wrote a piece for the review criticising the redevelopment of Charing Cross Road by the Metropolitan Board of Works, which he had previously submitted plans for as part of the competition for the redevelopment.{{cite journal|url=https://archive.org/details/architecturalrev06unse/page/243/mode/1up|title=From Holborn to The Strand: an ideal street|journal=The Architectural Review|page=239-244|date=1896|volume=6}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O6OEwapysf4C&dq=%22mervyn+macartney%22+kingsway+competition&pg=PA24|title=London 1900|author=Jonathan Schneer|date=2001|isbn=9780300089035|page=23-24|publisher=Yale University Press }} In 1903, Macartney had a disagreement with the then editor of the review, D.S. MacColl, who had criticised the 1903 Art and Crafts Exhibition Society show as being amateurish, with Macartney reposit being that MacColl wasn't an architect.{{cite journal|url=https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Theme%3A+Centenary%2C+1896-1921.-a018443457|title=Centenary, 1896-1921|journal=Architectural Review|date=1 May 1996}} MacColl was sacked after another financial crisis at the journal, and Macartney replaced him as the editor for the review serving from 1905 until 1921.{{cite web|title=Sir Mervyn Edmund Macartney (1853—1932)|date=2006|work=A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture|publisher=Oxford University Press|url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100121685|access-date=2020-12-30}} Under Macartney, the journal moved with the British architectural style, from being broadly devoted to Arts and Crafts architecture to increasing what is now call Edwardian Baroque. In 1913, Macartney relaunched the Review, with pages of whole pictures in a new lavish style, while new topics including The Architecture of the Liner were added. Macartney created a special issue to mark the end of World War I to celebrate the 'Great Peace' in which ideas and plans for the centre of the proposed League of Nations were shown.

File:Kingsway and Aldwych - Plan showing new street before removal of buildings - drawn by Mervyn Macartney.png

In February 1906, Macartney was appointed the Surveyor of the Fabric of St Paul's Cathedral{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LPlIAQAAIAAJ&q=Sir+Mervyn+Macartney|title=Sense and Sensitivity: Durham Cathedral and Its Architects : Delivered in the Prior's Hall in Durham, 14 March 1985|author=Ian Curry|date=1985|publisher=Dean and Chapter |isbn=9780907078173}} and remained in the role until his resignation in November 1930.{{cite web|url=https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C10297014|title=Sir Mervyn Macartney, Surveyer of the Fabric of St Pauls: Extracts from The Times ref.CO 447/127/17|website=The National Archives|date=1930}} He was made the consulting architect for Durham Cathedral in 1911, replacing C. Hodgson Fowler who had died the previous year. Macartney completed extensive repairs and restoration to St Paul's during his time at the Cathedral, especially work on the piers, which Macartney said had been built of indifferent quality by various contractors.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bzMrDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22mervyn+macartney%22+design&pg=PA114|title=Victorian Perceptions of Renaissance Architecture|author=Katherine Wheele|page=114|date=2017|publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781351537766}}{{cite news|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/OAM19190916.2.47|title=Here and there|newspaper=Oamaru Mail |date=16 September 1919|page=6}}{{cite journal|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/P19080201.2.53|title=The Condition of St. Paul's Cathedral|journal=Progress|volume=3|issue=4|page=133|date=1 February 1908}} With architect Detmar Blow and sculptor Sir William Reid Dick, they designed the Kitchener Memorial in the All Souls' Chapel in St Paul's.{{cite web|url=https://fleischmann.org.uk/cgi-bin/public_view_author.pl?Type=ViewRecord&OwnerNumber=2089|title=Sir William Reid Dick|website=Fine Art Facts|access-date=26 January 2024}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rknwsC8RficC&q=Sir+Mervyn+Macartney|title=The Buildings of England: Northumberland|author=Nikolaus Pevsner|date=1951|page=122}} Other work included completing the work of his predecessor as surveyor, Somers Clarke, on the St Michael and St George's Chapel,{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Tv7ZRMhNIWYC&dq=%22mervyn+macartney%22+design&pg=PA260|title=St. Paul's: The Cathedral Church of London, 604-2004|author=Arthur Barnes|page=260|date=2004|publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=9780300092769}} and the adding of a hot water heating system for the building and later installing fire resistance partitions to the cathedral's iconic dome. Macartney, along with W. Godfrey Allen, set the building restriction St Paul's heights to protect the view of the Cathedral's views across the city.{{cite book|url=https://democracy.cityoflondon.gov.uk/documents/s18518/Appendix%201%20-%20Conservation%20Area%20Character%20Summary%20and%20Management%20Strategy%20SPDs%20adoption.pdf|title=City of London Local Development Framework. Supplementary Planning Documents. Eastcheap Conservation Area. Fenchurch Street Station Conservation Area. St Paul's Cathedral Conservation Area. Appendix 1 - Statement of Consultation|author=City of London|date=March 2013|page=13}} Macartney designed the St Paul's Choristers war memorial, a timber free standing screen built by Henry Poole, which is located at the north wall of the quire aisle.{{cite web|url=https://www.warmemorials.org/search-grants/?gID=1281|title=St Paul's Choristers|website=War Memorials|access-date=28 January 2024}}

Macartney was a member of the St George's Art Society, which along with fellow society, the Fifteen, promoted the unity of the arts. However, in 1884, both the Royal Academy of Arts and the Royal Institute of British Architects were seemingly trying to work against this.{{cite ODNB|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-96545|title=Founder members of the Art-Workers' Guild (act. 1884–1899)|author=Whyte. W|date=4 October 2007|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/96545|isbn=978-0-19-861412-8}} Macartney, along with fellow Shaw apprentices W. R. Lethaby, Edward Prior, Ernest Newton and Gerald C. Horsley, plus metal worker W. A. S. Benson, designer Heywood Sumner, painter and brother C. H. H. Macartney, sculptors Hamo Thornycroft and Edward Onslow Ford,{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cZfrAAAAMAAJ&q=%22master+of+the+art+Workers%27+Guild%22+portraits|title=The Encyclopedia of the Victorian|author=Harriet Bridgeman, Elizabeth Drury|page=188|date=1975|publisher=Country Life |isbn=9780600331230}} and the architect John Belcher{{cite web|url=https://victorianweb.org/art/institutions/awg.html|title=The Art Worker' s Guild|website=Victorian Web|access-date=3 August 2021}}{{cite web|url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bloomsbury-project/institutions/art_workers_guild.htm|title=UCL Bloomsbury Project – Art Workers Guild|website=UCL|access-date=3 August 2021}} set about founding the Art Workers' Guild.

Macartney, along with Blomfield and John Belcher complained to The Times in 1901 about the Victoria and Albert Museum holding an exhibition of continental Art Nouveau.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Kv7BAgAAQBAJ&dq=Sir+Mervyn+Macartney&pg=PA167-IA10|title=The Art Nouveau Style: A Comprehensive Guide with 264 Illustrations|author=Stephan Tschudi Madsen|date=2013|publisher=Courier Corporation |isbn=9780486142371}}

File:Desk MET DP-14204-166.jpg]]

Six years after the creation of the Art Worker's Guild in 1890, he was one of the co-founders of the furniture company Kenton & Co.. His co-founders were Sidney Barnsley, Reginald Blomfield, William Lethaby, Ernest Gimson, Stephen Webb and Colonel Harold Esdaile Malet. The company had been setup with the object of designing, making and supplying furniture of excellent quality from an idea by William Lethaby and Ernest Gimson, with the formal registration in February 1891 with capital of £3000.{{cite web|url=https://bifmo.furniturehistorysociety.org/entry/kenton-co-1891-1892|title=Kenton & Co. (1891-1892)|website=British and Furniture Makers Online - The Furniture History Society|date=30 November 2019}} Macartney was the company chairman and the business operated from Jubilee Place, Chelsea before moving to Brownlow Mews in Guilford Street.

Blomfield in his memoirs written during 1932 stated of the management of the business:

{{blockquote|We used to meet in each other’s rooms, undertake designs of our own choice and invention more or less in turn, except the Colonel, who held, as it were, a watching brief on the whole proceeding. Each man was responsible solely for his own design and its execution, and it was delightful to go to the [work]shop and see one’s design growing into shape in the hands of our skilful cabinet-makers. We made no attempt to interfere with each other’s idiosyncrasies.}}

The company had an exhibition of their works at Barnard's Inn at Holborn, and in the January 1892 edition of Furniture and Decoration praised the design of Macartney' chairs but criticised the price of £24 for six chairs, though The British Architect, December 1891 edition {{blockquote|found the furniture beautiful in form, delightful because of the quality of the workmanship and reasonable in price.}}

Although the company had healthy sales, a further share issue was completed in January 1892 which raised £465, though £40 remained unpaid. However four months later the owners realised that the business required a further £1,000 investment to keep going, so the company was wound up and the remaining stock was distributed amongst the board members.

A desk designed by Macartney was shown at the 1893 Arts and Crafts Exhibition at the New Gallery, London, and was favorably commented on in The Cabinet Maker and Art Furnisher, {{blockquote|An escritoire by Mr. Mervyn Macartney….is quite a gem. Original in design, dressed up with lovely wood, and perfectly made by Mr. W. Hall, it is one of the few miniature woodwork triumphs of the exhibition. Hitherto the French have had a monopoly in dainty things of this sort. The buyer who has the means need not now go to Paris to satisfy the taste of his lady-love.{{cite web|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/231657|title=Desk|website=The Met|access-date=26 January 2024}}}}

File:Monuments at St. Paul’s, March 2022 49.jpg]]

Macartney was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (FRIBA) in 1889, before resigning in 1891, along with John Belcher and Ernest Newton over a dispute before being reinstated in 1906.{{cite journal|title=The Old Question: What is an Architect|journal=The Builder|volume=58|page=288|date=19 April 1890}} A bust of Macartney carved by Michael Murphy was exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in London during 1892.{{cite web|url=https://www.ribapix.com/sir-mervyn-edmund-macartney_riba98214#|title=Sir Mervyn Edmund Macartney RIBA reference number RIBA98214|website=RIBApix|access-date=26 January 2024}} He was made an Honorary Corresponding Member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and was elected the Master of the Art Workers' Guild in 1899.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q2qbAAAACAAJ|title=Mervyn Edmund Macartney, architect, 1853-1932|author=Ward. J|date=1998|publisher=Jan Ward |isbn=0953464105}}{{cite web|url=http://www.scottisharchitects.org.uk/architect_full.php?id=201449|title=(Sir) Mervyn Edmund Macartney|website=Scottish Architects|access-date=23 November 2021}} Macartney died on 28 October 1932.

• Later Renaissance Architecture in England (1901)
• English Houses and Gardens in the 17th and 18th Centuries (1908)
• The Practical Exemplar of Architecture (1908–27)

• Mervyn Edmund Macartney, Architect, 1853-1932: The Life and Work of Sir Mervyn Macartney, BA, FRIBA, FSA, with Particular Reference to His Houses and Clients on the Surrey/Kent Border by Jan Ward 1998

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• [https://www.ribapix.com/sir-mervyn-edmund-macartney_riba98214 Bust of Mervyn Edmund Macartney] (RIBA Collections)

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