Beswick
Life
Harry Beswick (1856-1929) was born in Chester and attended the Kings School. He was awarded the Duke of Westminster medal in 1871. He had his pupillage under T. M. Lockwood. In turn he trained Maxwell Ayrton from 1890 to 1894 and Ayrton remained with him as an assistant until 1897.
The influence of both Douglas and Lockwood on Beswick was reflected in some of Beswick's brick buildings. Following Beswick's appointment to the post of County Architect to the Cheshire County Council in 1895, a position that he held for 30 years, he began to design many beautiful buildings throughout Cheshire, particularly schools and other public buildings.
The city council opened its own isolation hospital on the south side of Sealand Road almost at the city boundary in 1899 to meet its statutory obligation to provide treatment for patients with certain notifiable infectious diseases, among which scarlet fever, diphtheria, and typhoid were the most common. The hospital was designed by Harry Beswick with an administration block and four separate pavilion wards, accommodating 46 patients in all. It cost £21,300.
Works in Chester
1890's
- 1892 - Oakfield Manor (in part, following earlier work by Ould), Headquarters of Chester Zoo;
- 1899 - 3 Northgate Street (part of the City Club in Shoemakers Row );
- 1899 - Sealand Isolation Hospital (now largely demolished)
1900's
- 1902 - 21-23 Northgate Street (part of Shoemakers Row);
- 1903 - Stonework for the statue of Queen Victoria at Chester Castle;
- 1909 - Love Street School (St Werburgh Middle School) - behind Forest House in Love Street;
Links & Sources
- The church of St. John the Baptist, Chester : a short account of its history and architecture, Harry Beswick, published by Phillipson and Golder,
