Charles John PHIPPS, FSA

1835 - 1897  (62 years)

• Name	Charles John PHIPPS
  Suffix	FSA
  Nickname	CJ
  Born	25 Mar 1835	Charlcombe, Somerset
  Christened	22 May 1835	Parish Church, Charlcombe, Somerset
  	John Rashleigh Phipps also christened aged 35, 9 months after two of his children, Charles & Emily.
  		Phipps family Parish record.
  Gender	Male
  Living	22 May 1835	Charlcombe, Somerset
  Occupation	1851
  	Solicitor's Articled Clerk
  Census	1 Apr 1851	3 Spencers Belle Vue, Walcot, Somerset
  Occupation	1861
  	Architect
  Census	1 Apr 1861	5 Paragon Buildings, St Michael, Bath, Somerset
  Occupation	1871
  	Architect
  Census	1 Apr 1871	26 Mecklenburgh Square, St Pancras, London
  	The family have a governess, 2 servants and a visitor, Esther Ford, probably a relative of Honnor.
  Occupation	1881
  	Architect
  Census	1 Apr 1881	26 Mecklenburgh Square, St Pancras, London
  	The family have 2 servants.
  Probate (Grant of)	22 Sep 1884
  	Granted probate on the estate of his mother
  		John Rashleigh Phipps & Elizabeth Ruth Phipps London Gazette 19/12/1884
  Occupation	5 Jul 1887
  	Architect
  Occupation	1891
  	Architect
  Census	1 Apr 1891	26 Mecklenburgh Square, St Pancras, London
  	The family have 3 servants. Mildred Bush, a niece, is living with the family.
  Occupation	18 Oct 1893
  	Architect
  Name (also known as)	9 Jun 1896
  	Charles James Phipps
  Died	25 May 1897	26 Mecklenburgh Square, Middlesex
  Probate	14 Aug 1897
  	Probate granted to Honnor Phipps, widow,
  		Charles John Phipps England & Wales, National Probate Calendar
  Buried	Highgate Cemetery, London
  Notes	Phipps, Charles John (1835–1897), architect, was born at Lansdowne, near Bath, the son of John Rashleigh Phipps and Elizabeth Ruth Neate. Educated locally at St Catherine's Hermitage, Bath, he was articled to James Wilson (d. 1900) and Thomas Fuller (1822–1898), an architectural partnership which had produced a wide range of designs. In 1857 a brief sketching tour on the continent was followed by the opening of his own practice in Bath, where he also received his first theatre design commission, a reconstruction (1863) of the Theatre Royal, originally designed by George Dance. Supported critically by Edward Godwin, and clearly fulfilling client needs, Phipps designed a further provincial theatre, the Theatre Royal, Nottingham (1865), before opening an office in London in 1866. Phipps had married Honor Hicks of Euborne, Berkshire, on 10 April 1860; they had four children, all born in Bath: Ethel (b. c.1861), Charles (b. c.1862), Alwyn Rashleigh (b. c.1865), and Ida (b. c.1867). The family moved to London in 1868 and lived at 26 Mecklenburgh Square, from where Phipps also practised until his death. Phipps's move to the capital coincided with a revival in the critical fortunes of the theatre. Although only sporadically involved with designs of the music hall type, Phipps can be regarded as the ‘establishment’ architect for the London theatre in the second half of the century. While contemporary enthusiasts are more aware of the work of Frank Matcham, it was actually Phipps who designed theatres for the leading stage figures of the West End, such as Squire and Marie Bancroft, for whom he reconstructed the Theatre Royal, Haymarket (1880); Richard D'Oyly Carte, for whom he built the Savoy (1881); Henry Irving, the Lyceum (1885); and Herbert Beerbohm Tree, Her Majesty's (1897). Phipps never employed an identifiable decorative style and the decoration of his various theatres responded to the vagaries of contemporary taste: Greek at the Queen's Theatre, Long Acre (1867), and Gothic at the Gaiety (1868). Early theatres employed a range of decorative figurative panels over the proscenium arch; those at the Gaiety Theatre (1868) were executed by Henry Stacy Marks. A particular characteristic of his theatre type was the use of a domestic-scaled lobby and front-of-house space. This reflected on the absence of development space and the commercial pressures of the British theatre, but it also managed to exude an atmosphere of ‘home’ admired by the theatre going public. Phipps's early London theatres developed an auditorium design which only marginally altered over the decades and involved the employment of various tiers with private boxes abutting the proscenium arch. Historically this design type can be traced back to the continental theatre and to a certain extent the Italian Opera House, Haymarket (reconstructed 1790–91 by M. Novosielski; 1816–18 by J. Nash and E. Repton; des., 1867; rebuilt, 1868–9; dem., except the Arcade, c.1895). But Phipps was never afforded the luxury of unlimited space, not to mention funds, in which to give exercise to his imagination. His expertise lay in two directions: his ability to have a theatre erected in a remarkably short time and his ability to accommodate the multifarious requirement of lobbies and backstage requirements in often cramped, ill-lit spaces. While none of his theatres reached the norms advocated by critics such as Sachs and Woodrow, the type was widely popular and his standard London plan was emulated throughout the United Kingdom; George Bernard Shaw, otherwise critical of his work, was full of praise for his last theatre, Her Majesty's, London. During the execution of this work, and while engaged with a further project, the Tivoli Theatre, Dover, Phipps developed a chill (he had for some time suffered from a combination of heart and kidney problems) and died of associated complications on 25 May 1897 at home at 26 Mecklenburgh Square. His funeral service took place at the church of St Alban the Martyr, Holborn, on Friday 28 May and his remains were interred in Highgate cemetery. He was survived by his wife. Hugh Maguire Sources   H. Maguire, ‘C. J. Phipps (1835–97) and nineteenth century theatre architecture (1863–97)’, PhD diss., U. Lond., 1990 · H. F. B. Maguire, ‘A view of the new Theatre Royal, Bristol’, Theatre Notebook, 42 (1988), 35–7 · D. Howard, London theatres and music halls, 1850–1950 (1970) · V. Glasstone, Victorian and Edwardian theatres: an architectural and social survey (1975) · E. O. Sachs and A. E. Woodrow, Modern opera houses and theatres, 3 vols. (1896–8) · CGPLA Eng. & Wales (1897) Archives   TNA: PRO, corresp., LC 1 |  Raymond Mander-Joe Mitchenson Theatre collection, London · University of Bristol, Theatre collection, Beerbohm Tree collection Likenesses   photograph, RIBA BAL · wood-engraving (after photograph by V. Haye), NPG Wealth at death   £10,292 1s. 9d.: probate, 14 Aug 1897, CGPLA Eng. & Wales Source: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
  Person ID	I11075	5. Somerset Ennevers (2)
  Last Modified	6 Sep 2018

  
  

  Father	John Rashleigh PHIPPS,   Born:  2 Sep 1800, Bath, Somerset ,   Died:  19 May 1853, Bath District, Somerset  (Age 52 years)
  Mother	Elizabeth Ruth NEATE,   Born:  1810/1, Devizes, Wiltshire ,   Died:  22 Jul 1884  (Age 73 years)
  Married	24 Jun 1834	Parish Church, Charlcombe, Somerset
  	IGI records the marriage as on 25th June & bride as Elizabeth Ruth Neate, location as Charlton-Mackrell.
  		John Rashleigh Phipps & Eliza Neate Marriage notice in Bristol Mercury 28/6/1834
  Family ID	F3173	Family Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family (spouse)	Honnor HICKS,   Born:  1837/8, Enborne, Berkshire ,   Died:  Yes, date unknown
  Married	1860	Bath District, Somerset
  Children	1. Ethel Nora PHIPPS,   Born:  1 Nov 1860, Bath, Somerset ,   Died:  Yes, date unknown   2. Henry PHIPPS,   Born:  1 Nov 1860, Bath, Somerset ,   Died:  Yes, date unknown   3. Charles Eugene PHIPPS,   Born:  1861/2, Bath, Somerset ,   Died:  1880, Pancras District, London  (Age 18 years)   4. Ida Mary PHIPPS,   Born:  1863, Bath, Somerset ,   Died:  10 Aug 1931, Chardonne, Switzerland  (Age 68 years)   5. Alwyn Rashleigh PHIPPS,   Born:  1864, Bath, Somerset ,   Died:  Yes, date unknown   6. Mary Rashleigh PHIPPS,   Born:  1872/3, Mecklenburgh Square, Middlesex ,   Died:  Yes, date unknown
  Last Modified	15 Aug 2019
  Family ID	F7839	Family Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Event Map

  Born - 25 Mar 1835 - Charlcombe, Somerset Christened - 22 May 1835 - Parish Church, Charlcombe, Somerset Living - 22 May 1835 - Charlcombe, Somerset Census - 1 Apr 1851 - 3 Spencers Belle Vue, Walcot, Somerset Married - 1860 - Bath District, Somerset Census - 1 Apr 1861 - 5 Paragon Buildings, St Michael, Bath, Somerset Census - 1 Apr 1871 - 26 Mecklenburgh Square, St Pancras, London Census - 1 Apr 1881 - 26 Mecklenburgh Square, St Pancras, London Census - 1 Apr 1891 - 26 Mecklenburgh Square, St Pancras, London Died - 25 May 1897 - 26 Mecklenburgh Square, Middlesex Buried - - Highgate Cemetery, London  = Link to Google Earth

  
  

• Photographs

  Charles John Phipps Source: wikipedia

  
  

  Family histories

  Well-known family members All family members who I have found featured in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography or its Australian equivalent, Who's Who 2008 or with an obituary in The Times.