Ewan Christian (1814–1895) was a British architect. He is most frequently noted for the restorations of Southwell Minster and Carlisle Cathedral, and the design of the National Portrait Gallery. He was Architect to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners from 1851 to 1895. Christian was elected A RIBA in 1840, FRIBA in 1850, RIBA President 1884–1886 and was awarded the Royal Gold Medal in 1887.
He is an uncle of English-American architect Gordon W. Lloyd.
Life
National Portrait Gallery Ewan Christian is well-known for designing the National Portrait Gallery (1890–1895) in St Martin's Place, London, just north of Trafalgar Square. The building's facade, faced in Portland stone, is not typical of his work and was built towards the end of his life, completed shortly after his death. Christian was an unexpected and controversial choice for such a commission and was appointed by the donor for the new building, W. H. Alexander (1832–1905). In the autumn of 1889 the architect embarked on a study tour of continental museums and art galleries to prepare himself for the task, an exhausting project which included visits to Bruges, Ghent, Antwerp, Amsterdam, Berlin, Frankfurt, Kassel and Dresden. Christian was obliged to match the Greek Classical style of the National Gallery (built in 1838 by William Wilkins 1778–1839), which was set immediately to the south of the NPG site and adjoined it on its east side, but he provided a strikingly original design for his main north block towards Charing Cross Road based on the style of a Florentine Renaissance palazzo. The first floor for this block has large round-arched windows which bear portrait busts in roundels of famous painters, sculptors, antiquarians and historians, including Hans Holbein, Sir Peter Lely, Sir Anthony van Dyck, Sir Godfrey Kneller, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Sir Thomas Lawrence, William Hogarth, Louis Francois Roubiliac, Sir Francis Chantrey and Horace Walpole. The impressive pedimented entrance block is richly treated with more portrait busts in roundels, which include that for the 5th Earl Stanhope (1805–1875) whose campaign in parliament had led to the NPG's foundation in 1856 (the Gallery first opened in a Georgian house in Great George Street, Westminster, in 1859). He is flanked by busts of Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) and Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800–1859), historians who gave support to the idea of a National Portrait Gallery. The entrance frontage is modelled on the facade of the late 15th-century oratory of Santo Spirito in Bologna which Christian probably saw on one of his earlier Italian study tours. Above the doors are the Royal Arms sculpted by Frederick C. Thomas (fl.1892–1901) who was also responsible for the busts.
Early life Christian was born in Marylebone, London, on 20 September 1814, the seventh of nine children. His father, Joseph Christian (d. 1821), came from an old Isle of Man family of landed gentry whose own grandfather was Thomas Christian (d.1770), Rector of Crosthwaite in Cumberland. Many senior members of the family had held the post of Deemster (justice) on Man for centuries past. They lived at Milntown on the island and had estates in Cumberland, particularly at Ewanrigg Hall (demolished 1903) near Maryport. Ewan is a popular given name in the family. The famous mutineer of HMS Bounty, Fletcher Christian (1764–c.1793), was also of the family, descended from a senior line to the architect's. Ewan Christian's mother was Katherine Scales (d.1822) of Thwaitehead in Lancashire. Both of the architect's parents died when he was around seven years old and he was thereafter brought up by his grandparents at Mortlake and then, after his grandfather died, by his eldest brother, John, who lived in Wigmore Street in Marylebone. He was educated at Christ's Hospital School from the age of nine, first at the junior school in Hertford then at the main school in Newgate Street, London (this moved to Horsham in 1902 and Christian, who became a governor of the school, acted as assessor in an architectural competition for the new buildings in 1893). On his 15th birthday Christian was articled to the London architect Matthew Habershon (1789–1852) and also enrolled at the Royal Academy Schools.
In 1836 Christian briefly joined as assistant the office of William Railton (c.1801–1877), later architect of Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square, London, who was appointed as Architect to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in 1838 – a post which Christian later succeeded to. The Ecclesiastical Commissioners were set up as a permanent body by the government in 1836 to administer the estates and revenues of the Church of England. Following a study tour of Italy in 1837 Christian went into the office of John Brown (1805–1876) in Norwich and supervised the construction of Brown's St Margaret's Church at Lee in Lewisham and his Colchester Union Workhouse (here Christian's close scrutiny of the work so irritated the labourers that they deliberately caused a drain to burst in order to discredit him). In 1841 he designed his first independent building, the Marylebone Savings Bank, perhaps commissioned through local and family connections. Between 1841 and 1842 Christian embarked on a long continental study tour in company with other young architects who were to remain lifelong friends and following this he established his own architectural practice in October 1842 at 44 Bloomsbury Square, London, where he also lived (he later moved across to the former home of Isaac D'Israeli, father of the famous prime minister, on a corner of the square). On his marriage in 1848 to Annie Bentham (1814–1913), a relation of the Utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham, Christian set up home in Hampstead in the north London suburbs while continuing his business in Bloomsbury. The couple were to have four daughters – Eleanor, Anne Elizabeth, Agnes and Alice. Anne Elizabeth, known as 'Bessie', was Christian's favourite daughter who died in 1890 after giving birth to Christian's only grandchild, Ewan Christopher Blaxland (1889–1954), who became a clergyman as his grandfather was originally intended to be.
Career
Influences Christian became one of the most respected and successful men in his profession and was highly regarded by many leading architects of the Victorian era. Many became personal friends, particularly Samuel Sanders Teulon (1812–1873) who also lived in Hampstead and designed his masterpiece St Stephen's Church there, and Horace Jones (1819–1887), later architect to the Corporation of the City of London (both were companions on the Continental tour of 1841–42) who designed Smithfield Meat Market, Billingsgate Fish Market and Leadenhall Market for the city. George Edmund Street (1824–1881), designer of the Royal Courts of Justice in the Strand in London, was an influence on his church work as was John Loughborough Pearson (1817–1897), the architect of Truro Cathedral and St Augustine's, Kilburn, who was a close friend and married Christian's Isle of Man cousin Jemima in 1862 (Jemima's brother Joseph Henry Christian (1832–1906) became a partner in Christian's practice in 1874 together with a former pupil Charles Henry Purday (d.1900), though work continued to be carried out in Ewan Christian's name only). W. D. Caroe (1857–1938) had been a managing assistant in Christian's office and took over as Architect to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners on Christian's death, for example at St David's Church, Exeter.
RIBA and the Ecclesiastical Commissioners Christian was made an associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1840 and a Fellow in 1850 at the age of 36. The RIBA, a prestigious national body of architects, had been formed in 1834 for the advancement of the profession and its members. Christian was elected vice-president of the institute in 1880 and reached the height of his career when he served as president of the RIBA from 1884 to 1886 and was awarded the institute's Royal Gold Medal in 1887. Many of Christian's over 2,000 works were for the Church of England. He carried out about 1,300 restorations and additions to churches throughout England and Wales and built some 90 new churches, as well as building, restoring and adding to many vicarages, deaneries, canonries and bishop's palaces. Much of his church work, particularly his 880 chancel restorations, was carried out in his capacity as Architect to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, an influential post to which he was appointed in 1851 and which he held until his death in 1895. This gave him considerable control over the construction and restoration of many church buildings across the country at a time of church expansion and development in Victorian Britain. On his appointment, Christian moved his practice into the Commissioners' premises in Whitehall Place, Westminster, later converting nearby stables into his offices when the Commissioners needed more space. Here Christian was to remain for the rest of his life and during this time, in addition to his building and restoration work, he produced thousands of reports on designs for Church of England buildings that were submitted to the Commissioners for approval, completed surveys on the fabric of ancient churches including 14 cathedrals, and assessed many architectural competitions, work which continued to within four days of his death at the age of 80.
Early successes
Christian's early work on churches in the 1840s led to the beginnings of his success. Soon after establishing himself in Bloomsbury Square he produced the winning design in the competition for St John the Evangelist, Hildenborough, in Kent, his first church, completed in 1844. The church was in Christian's favourite Early English Gothic style, built in stone with tall, pointed lancet windows and was of preaching church form, very broad, open and spacious inside, centring attention on the sermon during services. It reflected Christian's own preferences and beliefs as a low-church Anglican. His Evangelical religion was deeply woven into his life; he regularly worshipped at St John's Downshire Hill, in Hampstead, and was for more than 35 years a Sunday school teacher and superintendent there. He read Matthew Henry's Exposition of the Old and New Testaments (1708–10) daily and kept Sunday free of business. A fondness for incorporating into his designs improving mottoes, proverbs and biblical quotations perhaps expresses this aspect of him – 'Thwaitehead', the house he built for himself in Hampstead, displayed his favourite, "God's Providence Is Mine Inheritance", while his own office bore the motto "Trust And Strive".
After Hildenborough, Christian began work on Illustrations of Skelton Church, Yorkshire, his only book, published in 1846. St Giles' Church, Skelton, is an example of the Early English style of Gothic architecture which Christian admired and was built about the year 1247, probably by the masons of York Minster's south transept. Christian was later appointed to restore the church, providing it with a new open timber roof in 1882. Some of the drawings for the publication were done by J. K. Colling (1816–1905), a friend and fellow pupil from their time in Habershon & Brown's offices; Colling later provided foliage designs for the interior decoration of Christian's National Portrait Gallery. Christian gained recognition from these achievements, particularly from supporters of the Gothic Revival in architecture, and he went on to win the competition for the restoration of St Mary's Church, Scarborough in 1847 which he called "the cornerstone of success". That year, Christian was appointed Consulting Architect to the Lichfield Diocesan Church Building Society and also became a consulting architect to the Incorporated Church Building Society, a body established in 1818 for funding the building and restoration of churches throughout the country. He later was chairman of its Architects Committee.
Southwell Minster and Carlisle Cathedral