ELMES, Harvey Lonsdale - b. 1814 Chichester, d. 1847 Jamaica

English architect, son of the architect James Elmes (1782-1862). After serving some time in his father’s office, and under a surveyor at Bedford and an architect at Bath, he became partner with his father in 1835, and in the following year he was successful among 86 competitors for a design for St George’s Hall, Liverpool. The foundation stone of this building was laid on the 28th of June 1838, but, Elmes being successful in a competition for the Assize Courts in the same city, it was finally decided to include the hall and courts in a single building. In accordance with this idea, Elmes prepared a fresh design, and the work of erection commenced in 1841. The design may have been influenced in part by published works of von Klenze and Schinkel, some of whose monumental buildings Elmes saw during a study-visit in 1842.

Other works by Elmes include the façades of houses in Ennismore Gardens and Prince’s Gate, Kensington, London (c. 1843-46), some houses in Wallasey, Cheshire (c. 1845), and the Lancashire. Country Lunatic Asylum, Rainhill, Lancashire (1847-51).

He superintended the progress of St. George’s Hall till 1847, when from failing health he was compelled to delegate his duties to Charles Robert Cockerell (1788-1863), and leave for Jamaica, where he died of consumption on the 26th of November 1847.

Exterior view

The greatest effect of the Greek Revival movement was felt in the new public buildings of the fast-growing cities. In this case, monumental temple forms were intended to express dignity and authority in governmental buildings, or learning and intellectual grandeur in cultural institutions.

Authoritative porticoes, pedimented fa�ades, and rows of columns remained the chief characteristic of government buildings right down to the gigantic St. George’s Hall in the prosperous industrial city of Liverpool, designed 1839-41 by Harvey Londsdale Elmes and completed only in 1856 by Charles Robert Cockerell.