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| Elmes
- the original architect |
Harvey
Lonsdale Elmes was born near Chichester, West Sussex in 1814, the
son of a architect. He worked for his father in London and had only
completed two projects before winning the competition to design
St George’s Hall.
His
previous work was:
The interiors for a solicitors offices
Planning and surveying of an estate of about 800 houses for Lord
Strathmore.
He
won the commission for St George’s Hall and the law courts by entering
competitions in The Times. During the work on the hall Elmes also
managed several other projects, most notably in Liverpool The Liverpool
Collegiate Institution in Shaw Street.
In
1847 ill health forced him to take a break from work and he retired
to the Isle of Wight. In September he went to Jamaica to avoid the
cold winter in Liverpool but two months after his arrival there
he died of consumption.
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| Cockerell
was an advisor to Elmes prior to his death. |
Although
Elmes had completed the plans as far as possible they were changed
by the replacement architect. Charles Robert Cockerell was appointed,
initially as a consultant, to take over where Elmes left off.
The
exterior of the building is a Elmes designed it but the interior
was altered quite drastically by Cockerell
The
addition of the organ in the great hall was his idea, without it
the judges in both courts would have sat facing each other - possibly
a deliberate idea but…
The
Small Concert Hall was exclusively Cockerell's idea as was the famous
Minton tile fall in the Great Hall.
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