decorationed initial Alfred Edward Purdie (1843-1920) was a Roman Catholic architect, believed in one source to have been a pupil of A. N. W. Pugin ("English Martyrs Church"), although this is not mentioned in Rosemary Hill's very detailed biography of Pugin, and would have been unusual for him. But the two architects did work on the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Farm Street, Westminster, where the high altar was by Pugin, and some of the side altars, and the presbytery, were by A. E Purdie ("Church of the Immaculate Conception"). Elsewhere, Purdie is said to have been articled to Gilbert Robert Blount, architect to Cardinal Wiseman, in London. He is on record as having become Blount's assistant in 1863, and as having started his own practice in 1875. In the following year, after Blount died, he took over his old master's practice. He became a fellow of RIBA in 1893, and died at Canterbury in 1920. His work crops up regularly in Pevsner, and one Roman Catholic chapel, at Rudding Park in Harrogate, N. Yorkshire, is described by Peter Leach and Nikolaus Pevsner as "extraordinarily lavish" (676) — Jacqueline Banerjee

Works

Sources

"Alfred Edward Purdie." Dictionary of Scottish Architects. Web. 14 Nov. 2011.

"Church of the Immaculate Conception." . British Listed Buildings. Web. 14 Nov. 2011.

"English Martyrs Church" (see Appendix 2). EMBC Design and Access Statement. Web. 14 Nov. 2011.

"Gilbert Robert Blount." Dictionary of Scottish Architects. Web. 14 Nov. 2011.

Leach, Peter, and Nikolaus Pevsner. The Buildings of England: Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North. New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2009.


Last modified 14 November 2011