Biographies

Basil Champneys (1842-1935)

Champneys was the architect for Newnham College from 1874-1913. The core buildings were erected then on land acquired piecemeal, as demand. increased. It is this continuity over such a long period that resulted in the harmonious whole we see today. (The College stopped building during World War I, and did not resume until1938.)

Champneys came from an old county family, although his immediate relations were hard working, modest income, public servants. His father was an Evangelical Vicar of Whitechapel, with practical concern over the problems of London’s poor. Only very late in life was he promoted Dean of Lichfield.

Basil was one of 8 children and money was tight. He was intelligent and hardworking. Consequently he was able to go to school at Charterhouse, excelling in mathematics but showing no aptitude for drawing. In 1861 he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, where Henry Sidgwick was a Fellow, to read classics. In 1864, being disappointed at not achieving the First which was hoped for, he took articles with John Prichard, the Surveyor of Llandaff Cathedral, to study as an architect. He was one of the rising number of graduates to join the profession.. Basil set up in practice in 1867 at 32 Queen’s Square, London, near the office of William Morris & Co.

He believed that architecture was an art not a science, so declined to join the RIBA, preferring instead the Art Workers Guild. John Prichard was a firm adherent of the Gothic Style; but Champneys, although he could provide Gothic designs, became one of the pioneers of the “Queen Anne” style. He brought to Newnham a touch of lightness, as well as meticulous care about construction details, and care about costs.

He worked on at least 100 buildings throughout the country. In Cambridge there is the Old Divinity School, and the original Museum of Archeology (now Peterhouse Theatre). Two of his more notable buildings elsewhere are the Rylands Library in Manchester, and Mansfield College in Oxford.

He regarded himself as a man of letters. As well as numerous articles on architecture, art and literary subjects he published in 1874 “A Quiet Corner of England”, and two biographies: in 1901 Coventry Patmore, and in 1906 Adelaide Drummond.

Phyllis Hetzel, 2004

To read further

• “The Architecture of Basil Champneys”, David Watkin, Newnham College Cambridge, 1989
• "Basil Champneys: An Underrated Victorian", Susan James, in "The Victorian", March 2003, No 12.