No other Victorian architect excites so much attention in Southsea as Thomas Ellis Owen (1804-62) whom so many contemporary topographers justifiably describe as the progenitor of Portsmouth’s middle class satellite. Southsea may have lacked the architectural panache of Brighton and certainly of Bath, but it did posses its own distinctive character by mid-century and this owed much to Owen’s idiosyncratic approach to development.
Owen studied in London, was heavily influenced by Italian architectural styles, worked for the government on the purchase of land and property and collaborated with his father Jacob on a number of local churches. He had a long career in local politics, was Mayor in 1847 and 1862, and espoused a number of causes such as railways and public water supply, quite apart from his work as a builder, surveyor, civil engineer and landlord on a considerable scale.
Owen’s houses were certainly architecturally distinctive. They were never built in sterile rows, rather placed at a variety of angles to each other and to the road that served them, they possessed great variations in size and shape and not least they were intergrated into a road system which used curves to great effect, providing a hint of the unexpected, and in some senses of a bucolic environment by the substantial use of trees and lanes.
2 comments:
If you look closely at the map you will see that Thomas Ellis Owen had either built or owned property on the beginning of our route.
Portland Lodge is demolished for modern residential. Heathfield villa, Hamilton Villa, Portland Cottage and Highbank Cottage have also been demolished and replaced by today's Debenhams and Fox's shopping departments.
Portland terrace was initially built for the officer class and aristocracy, it is now a housing association, lucky people!
Post a Comment