1.
1933 in architecture
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The year 1933 in architecture involved some significant architectural events and new buildings. The Bauhaus school in Berlin is permanently closed by the Nazi government, modern Architectural Research Group established as a think tank by younger architects and critics involved in the modernist movement in Great Britain. Completion of restoration of Herstmonceux Castle in England by Walter Godfrey, july - New Midland Hotel, Morecambe, Lancashire, England, designed by Oliver Hill. August 23 - Leeds Civic Hall, Yorkshire, England, designed by Vincent Harris in 1926, Royal Masonic Hospital at Ravenscourt Park in London, designed by Thomas S. Tait of Sir John Burnet, Tait and Lorne. Labworth Café on Canvey Island, England, designed by engineer Ove Arup, myer Emporium renovation, Bourke Street, Melbourne, Australia. The Round House, designed by Berthold Lubetkins Tecton Architectural Group to house gorillas at London Zoo, battersea Power Station, London, with Giles Gilbert Scott as consultant architect, begins operation. College Hall, Royal Air Force College Cranwell, England, designed by James Grey West, mercado de Abastos de Algeciras, Spain, designed by Eduardo Torroja. Villa Markelius in Stockholm, designed by Sven Markelius for himself, schminke house in Löbau, Germany, designed by Hans Scharoun. Töss Footbridge, Winterthur, Switzerland, designed by Robert Maillart, AIA Gold Medal - Ragnar Östberg. Royal Gold Medal - Charles Reed Peers, grand Prix de Rome, architecture - Alexandre Courtois. John Betjeman - Ghastly Good Taste, or the story of the rise. The Information Book of Sir John Burnet, Tait & Lorne, G. R. Sprague, British theatre architect
2.
Mosque
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A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. There are strict and detailed requirements in Sunni jurisprudence for a place of worship to be considered a mosque, many mosques have elaborate domes, minarets, and prayer halls, in varying styles of architecture. Mosques originated on the Arabian Peninsula, but are now found in all inhabited continents, the mosque serves as a place where Muslims can come together for salat as well as a center for information, education, social welfare, and dispute settlement. The imam leads the congregation in prayer, the first mosque in the world is often considered to be the area around the Kaaba in Mecca now known as the Masjid al-Haram. Others regard the first mosque in history to be the Quba Mosque in present-day Medina since it was the first structure built by Muhammad upon his emigration from Mecca in 622. The Islamic Prophet Muhammad went on to another mosque in Medina. Built on the site of his home, Muhammad participated in the construction of the mosque himself and helped pioneer the concept of the mosque as the focal point of the Islamic city. The Masjid al-Nabawi introduced some of the still common in todays mosques, including the niche at the front of the prayer space known as the mihrab. The Masjid al-Nabawi was also constructed with a courtyard, a motif common among mosques built since then. Mosques had been built in Iraq and North Africa by the end of the 7th century, the Imam Husayn Shrine in Karbala is reportedly one of the oldest mosques in Iraq, although its present form – typical of Persian architecture – only goes back to the 11th century. The shrine, while operating as a mosque, remains one of the holiest sites for Shia Muslims, as it honors the death of the third Shia imam. The Mosque of Amr ibn al-As was reportedly the first mosque in Egypt, serving as a religious, like the Imam Husayn Shrine, though, nothing of its original structure remains. With the later Shia Fatimid Caliphate, mosques throughout Egypt evolved to include schools, hospitals and it was the first to incorporate a square minaret and includes naves akin to a basilica. Those features can also be found in Andalusian mosques, including the Grand Mosque of Cordoba, still, some elements of Visigothic architecture, like horseshoe arches, were infused into the mosque architecture of Spain and the Maghreb. The first mosque in East Asia was reportedly established in the 8th century in Xian, however, the Great Mosque of Xian, whose current building dates from the 18th century, does not replicate the features often associated with mosques elsewhere. Indeed, minarets were initially prohibited by the state, mosques in western China were more likely to incorporate elements, like domes and minarets, traditionally seen in mosques elsewhere. In turn, the Javanese style influenced the styles of mosques in Indonesias Austronesian neighbors—Malaysia, Brunei, Muslim empires were instrumental in the evolution and spread of mosques. Although mosques were first established in India during the 7th century, reflecting their Timurid origins, Mughal-style mosques included onion domes, pointed arches, and elaborate circular minarets, features common in the Persian and Central Asian styles
3.
Mandatory Palestine
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Mandatory Palestine was a geopolitical entity under British administration, carved out of Ottoman Southern Syria after World War I. British civil administration in Palestine operated from 1920 until 1948, further confusing the issue was the Balfour Declaration of 1917, promising British support for a Jewish national home in Palestine. At the wars end the British and French set up a joint Occupied Enemy Territory Administration in what had been Ottoman Syria, the British achieved legitimacy for their continued control by obtaining a mandate from the League of Nations in June 1922. The civil Mandate administration was formalized with the League of Nations consent in 1923 under the British Mandate for Palestine, the land west of the Jordan River, known as Palestine, was under direct British administration until 1948. The land east of the Jordan, a region known as Transjordan, under the rule of the Hashemite family from the Hijaz. The divergent tendencies regarding the nature and purpose of the mandate are visible already in the discussions concerning the name for this new entity. As a set-off to this, certain of the Arab politicians suggested that the country should be called Southern Syria in order to emphasise its close relation with another Arab State. During the British Mandate period the area experienced the ascent of two major nationalist movements, one among the Jews and the other among the Arabs, following its occupation by British troops in 1917–1918, Palestine was governed by the Occupied Enemy Territory Administration. In July 1920, the administration was replaced by a civilian administration headed by a High Commissioner. The first High Commissioner, Herbert Samuel, a Zionist recent cabinet minister, arrived in Palestine on 20 June 1920, following the arrival of the British, Muslim-Christian Associations were established in all the major towns. In 1919 they joined to hold the first Palestine Arab Congress in Jerusalem and its main platforms were a call for representative government and opposition to the Balfour Declaration. The Zionist Commission was formed in March 1918 and was active in promoting Zionist objectives in Palestine, on 19 April 1920, elections were held for the Assembly of Representatives of the Palestinian Jewish community. The Zionist Commission received official recognition in 1922 as representative of the Palestinian Jewish community, Rutenberg soon established an electric company whose shareholders were Zionist organizations, investors, and philanthropists. Palestinian-Arabs saw it as proof that the British intended to favor Zionism, when Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Kamil al-Husayni died in March 1921, High Commissioner Samuel appointed his half-brother Mohammad Amin al-Husseini to the position. Amin al-Husseini, a member of the clan of Jerusalem, was an Arab nationalist. As Grand Mufti, as well as the influential positions that he held during this period. In 1922, al-Husseini was elected President of the Supreme Muslim Council which had created by Samuel in December 1921. The Council controlled the Waqf funds, worth annually tens of thousands of pounds, in addition, he controlled the Islamic courts in Palestine
4.
Konstantin Melnikov
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Konstantin Stepanovich Melnikov was a Russian architect and painter. His architectural work, compressed into a decade, placed Melnikov on the front end of 1920s avant-garde architecture. Although associated with the Constructivists, Melnikov was an independent artist, in 1930s, Melnikov refused to conform with the rising Stalinist architecture, withdrew from practice and worked as a portrait painter and teacher until the end of his life. Konstantin Melnikov was born and died in Moscow and he was the fourth child of the family. His father, Stepan Illarionovich Melnikov, originally from Nizhny Novgorod region, was a maintenance foreman. Mother, Yelena Grigorievna, came from the peasants of Zvenigorod district, the whole family occupied a single room of a state-managed working class barrack in Hay Lodge, then a quiet northern suburb of Moscow. Melnikovs tried hard to rise above bitter poverty, to return to farming and eventually relocated to their own small house, Konstantin Melnikov later praised his father, who noticed the little boys addiction to drawing and regularly brought him scrap paper for drawing from the Academy. However, all the education they could afford was a parish school. Konstantin met his golden day in life through a delivery woman, who happened to serve the family of Vladimir Chaplin. She recommended Konstantins drawings to Chaplin, who was so impressed that he hired the teenager to his firm, Chaplin overestimated Melnikovs basic education, and Konstantin failed his grammar test at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in 1904. One year later, he passed the admissions that selected a class of 11 out of 270 applicants, Melnikov studied at the School for 12 years, first completing General Education, then graduating in Arts and Architecture. Despite Chaplins calls to concentrate on architecture, Melnikov leaned to painting, by the time he joined the Architecture classes, he already was a well-recognized portrait painter. Later, he recalled Konstantin Korovin, Sergey Malyutin and Abram Arkhipov as his mentors in art, as for architecture, he gave his regards only to Ivan Zholtovsky, Melnikov married Anna Yablokova in 1912, they had two children, born in 1913 and 1915. During World War I and the first years after Russian Revolution of 1917, before the Revolution, he was involved in AMO Truck Plant project. In 1918-1920, he was employed by the New Moscow planning workshop headed by Zholtovsky and Alexey Shchusev, designing Khodynka, meanwhile, the Russian educational system collapsed, the new art college, VKhUTEMAS, was formed in 1920. Its architectural faculty was split between three factions, An Academic Workshop, left-wing United Workshops, and a joint workshop of Melnikov and Ilya Golosov, known as New Academy and Workshop No.2. Melnikov and Golosov resisted both the academic and left-wing camps, in 1924, when the management merged New Academy with Academic Workshop, Melnikov quit VKhUTEMAS. In 1923-1924, Melnikov temporarily associated himself with the ASNOVA and LEF artistic groups, however, he was not involved in public disputes, in particular, he clearly distanced himself from the Constructivist group, led by Moisei Ginzburg and Alexander Vesnin
5.
Vladimir Shukhov
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He is also the inventor of the first cracking method. Besides the innovations he brought to the oil industry and the construction of bridges and buildings. These forms, based on non-Euclidean hyperbolic geometry, are known today as hyperboloids of revolution, Shukhov developed not only many varieties of light-weight hyperboloid towers and roof systems, but also the mathematics for their analysis. Shukhov is particularly reputed for his designs of hyperboloid towers such as the Shukhov Tower. Vladimir Shukhov was born in a town of Graivoron, Belgorod uezd and his father Grigory Ivanovich Shukhov was a minor government official, promoted for his efforts in the Crimean War. For a while, Grigory served as Mayor of Graivoron and later as an administrator in Warsaw, in 1864 Vladimir entered Saint Petersburg gymnasium from which he graduated with distinction in 1871. During his high school years he showed mathematical talents, once demonstrating to his classmates, the teacher praised his skills but he failed the grade for violating the textbooks guidelines. After graduating from the gymnasium, Shukhov entered the Imperial Moscow Technical School, in which his teachers included Pafnuty Chebyshev, Aleksey Letnikov, in the beginning of the year 1876 Shukhov graduated from school with distinction and a Gold Medal. Chebyshev offered him a job as a lecturer in mathematics at the Imperial Moscow Technical School, during his stay in the US, Shukhov came to know a Russian-American entrepreneur, Alexander Veniaminovich Bari who also worked on the organization of the Fair. In 1877 Shukhov returned to Russia and joined the office of the Warsaw–Vienna railroad. Within several months, Shukhovs frustration with standard and routine engineering made him abandon the office, on his coming to Russia in 1877, Bari persuaded Shukhov to give up his medical education and to assume the office of Chief Engineer in a new company specializing in innovative engineering. Shukhov worked with Bari at this company until the October Revolution and their works revolutionized many areas of civil engineering, ship engineering, and oil industry. The thermal cracking method, the Shukhov cracking process, was patented by Vladimir Shukhov in 1891, Shukhov always found time for a passionate hobby – photography. The photographic works of Shukhov opened new trends ahead of their flourishing of Fine art photography and he made photos in various genres, reporting, city landscape, portrait, constructivism. About two thousand photos and negatives made by Shukhov have survived until this day, after the October Revolution Shukhov decided to stay in the Soviet Union despite having received alluring job offers from around the world. Many signal Soviet engineering projects of the 1920s were associated with his name, in 1919 he framed his slogan, We should work independently from politics. The buildings, boilers, beams would be needed and so would we, in the later 1930s during the Great Purge he retired from engineering work but was not arrested or persecuted. Shukov died on 2 February 1939 in Moscow and was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery and his many honours included the Lenin Prize and the title of Hero of Labour
6.
Centre Block
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It is also the location of several ceremonial spaces, such as the Hall of Honour, the Memorial Chamber, and Confederation Hall. Built in the Gothic Revival style, the present Centre Block is the second iteration. The first was destroyed by fire in 1916, all remains of the original building is the Library of Parliament. Though construction began immediately after the blaze, sculpting work on the interior continued through the 1970s, one of the most recognizable buildings in Canada, the Centre Block is depicted on the Canadian $10 bill, $20 bill, and the $50 bill. Designed by Jean Omer Marchand and John A. Pearson, the Centre Block is a 144 m long by 75 m deep, and six storey high, symmetrical structure built in the modern Gothic Revival style. As such, it displays a multitude of stone carvings, including gargoyles, grotesques, the roof is of reinforced concrete covered with copper, and dotted with dormer windows. These surfaces are augmented by sculptural decoration done in Indiana limestone, further, there are numerous parliamentary committee rooms and the Parliamentary Press Gallery. The Centre Block is arranged symmetrically around Confederation Hall, located immediately inside the main entrance and it is an octagonal chamber, the perimeter of which is divided by limestone clustered columns into eight bays of two different sizes, themselves subdivided by dark green syenite pillars. Behind these runs a vaulted ambulatory that supports the upper gallery and this column is borne on a stone carved with an image of Neptune amongst sea lions and fish in a mythical sea. The overall pattern represents the element of water, alluding to Canadas motto. Still, the carving, the designs for which had been finalised by Cléophas Soucy in 1941, remained incomplete until 1953. The remaining territorial coats of arms are located in the southeast and southwest corners, the gable springers all display the coats of arms of the provincial and territorial capitals, while the gable ramparts bear symbols of Canadas fauna. It is a long, rib vaulted space of Tyndall limestone divided into five bays by superimposed double arcades of lancet arches atop clustered columns on pedestals. The north end of the hall is crossed on both levels by the Centre Blocks north corridor, with an overlooking gallery lined by iron railings by Paul Beau. The Hall of Honour was intended to be a gallery where statues of notable Canadians would be arranged in the niches along each side. That plan was abandoned in favour of a more general purpose of commemorating the 1916 fire. The sculptures remain incomplete, only the end, closest to the Library of Parliament, has completed carvings. Two other pieces mark the efforts of early nation-building, such as donated by Canadians living in the United States
7.
Parliament of Canada
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The Parliament of Canada is the federal legislative branch of Canada, seated at Parliament Hill in the national capital, Ottawa, Ontario. The body consists of the Canadian monarch, represented by a viceroy, the general, an upper house, the Senate, and a lower house. Each element has its own officers and organization, by constitutional convention, the House of Commons is the dominant branch of parliament, the Senate and Crown rarely opposing its will. The Senate reviews legislation from a less partisan standpoint and the monarch or viceroy provides the necessary Royal Assent to make bills into law. The governor general also summons parliament, while either the viceroy or monarch can prorogue or dissolve parliament, either will read the Throne Speech. The most recent parliament, summoned by Governor General David Johnston in 2015, is the 42nd since Confederation in 1867, the Parliament of Canada is composed of three parts, the monarch, the Senate, and the House of Commons. Each has a role, but work in conjunction within the legislative process. Only those who sit in the House of Commons are called members of parliament, though legislatively less powerful, senators take higher positions in the national order of precedence. No individual may serve in more than one chamber of parliament at the same time, the sovereigns place in the legislature, formally called the Queen-in-Parliament, is defined by the Constitution Act,1867, and various conventions. All federal bills begin with the phrase Now, therefore, Her Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate and House of Commons of Canada. And, as such, the Crown is immune from acts of parliament unless expressed otherwise in the act itself. As both the monarch and his or her representatives are traditionally barred from the House of Commons, any parliamentary ceremonies in which they are involved take place in the Senate chamber. The upper and lower houses do, however, each contain a mace, which indicate the authority of the Queen-in-Parliament, following the burning of the Centre Block on 3 February 1916, the City of London, England, donated a replacement, which is still used today. The temporary mace, made of wood, and used until the new one arrived from the United Kingdom in 1917, is carried into the Senate each 3 February. The Senates 1. 6-metre-long mace comprises brass and gold, senators served for life until 1965, when a constitutional amendment imposed a mandatory retirement age of 75. Senators may, however, resign their seats prior to that mark, the Senate is divided equally amongst four geographic regions,24 for Ontario,24 for Quebec,24 for the Maritimes, and 24 for the Western provinces. Newfoundland and Labrador, which became a Canadian province in 1949, is represented by six senators, further, Canadas three territories—the Northwest Territories, Yukon, and Nunavut—are allocated one senator each. The elected component of the Canadian parliament is the House of Commons, with each member chosen by a plurality of voters in each of the countrys federal electoral districts
8.
Parliament Hill
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Parliament Hill, colloquially known as The Hill, is an area of Crown land on the southern banks of the Ottawa River in downtown Ottawa, Ontario. Its Gothic revival suite of buildings is the home of the Parliament of Canada and has elements of national symbolic importance. Parliament Hill attracts approximately 3 million visitors each year, law enforcement on parliament hill and in the parliamentary precinct is the responsibility of the Parliamentary Protective Service. Since 2002, an extensive $1 billion renovation and rehabilitation project has been underway throughout all of the precincts buildings, Parliament Hill is a limestone outcrop with a gently sloping top that was originally covered in primeval forest of beech and hemlock. After Ottawa—then called Bytown—was founded, the builders of the Rideau Canal used the hill as a location for a military base, a large fortress was planned for the site, but was never built, and by the mid 19th century the hill had lost its strategic importance. On 7 May, the Department of Public Works issued a call for proposals for the new parliament buildings to be erected on Barrack Hill. After the entries were narrowed down to three, Governor General Sir Edmund Walker Head was approached to break the stalemate, and the winners were announced on 29 August 1859. The team of Thomas Stent and Augustus Laver, under the pseudonym of Stat nomen in umbra, won the prize for the second category, $300,000 was allocated for the main building, and $120,000 for each of the departmental buildings. Ground was broken on 20 December 1859, and the first stones laid on 16 April of the following year, the construction of Parliament Hill became the largest project undertaken in North America to that date. By early 1861, Public Works reported that $1,424,882, two years later, the unfinished site hosted a celebration of Queen Victorias birthday, further cementing the areas position as the central place for national outpouring. The site was still incomplete when three of the British North American colonies entered Confederation in 1867, with Ottawa remaining the capital of the new country, thus, the offices of parliament spread to buildings beyond Parliament Hill even at that early date. The British military gave a nine-pound naval cannon to the British army garrison stationed in Ottawa in 1854 and it was purchased by the Canadian government in 1869 and fired on Parliament Hill for many years as the Noonday Gun. By 1876, the structures of Parliament Hill were finished, along with the surrounding fence, fire destroyed the Centre Block on 3 February 1916. Eleven years later, the new tower was completed and dedicated as the Peace Tower, the Queen was back on Parliament Hill on 17 April 1982, to issue a royal proclamation of the enactment of the Constitution Act that year. In April 1989, a Greyhound Lines bus with 11 passengers on board travelling to New York City from Montreal was hijacked by an armed man, a standoff with police ensued and lasted eight hours, though three shots were fired, there were no injuries. The following year, Queen Elizabeth IIs Golden Jubilee was marked on 13 October, on 22 October 2014, several shooting incidents occurred around Parliament Hill. A gunman, after shooting a Canadian Army soldier mounting the ceremonial guard at the National War Memorial. There, he was killed in a shootout with RCMP officers, the gunman also injured one House of Commons constable, who was shot in the foot
9.
John A. Pearson
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John Andrew Pearson was an early 20th-century Canadian architect and partner to the Toronto-based firm of Pearson and Darling. Pearson was born in Chesterfield, UK, and emigrated to Canada in 1888 as a young man, Pearson worked for Henry Sproatt beginning in 1890, and joined Darling, Curry, Sproatt, & Pearson in 1892, with fellow partners Frank Darling and S. George Curry. Curry departed, and from 1893 through 1896 that office was known as Darling, in 1896 Sproatt left the partnership, and the firm was renamed Pearson and Darling. This partnership lasted from 1897 through Pearsons death in 1940, Pearson was the first Vice-President of Ontario Association of Architects. The previous Centre Block burned in 1916, entirely destroyed except for the Library of Parliament, by 1920 the Centre Block was rebuilt with a design by Pearson and collaborator Jean Omer Marchand of Montreal. The Peace Tower commemorating the end of the First World War was completed in 1927, in 1928 Pearson was commissioned to design a building to house the head office of the Canadian Bank of Commerce in Toronto. The 34-story building was completed in 1931 in spite of the onset of the Great Depression, Pearson died in Toronto in 1940, aged 72. He is buried at Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Henry Sproatt - partnered with Pearson from 1890 to 1896 JA Pearson John A Pearson at The Canadian Encyclopedia Pearson and Darling Historic Places in Canada
10.
Edinburgh Castle
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Edinburgh Castle is a historic fortress which dominates the skyline of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, from its position on the Castle Rock. Archaeologists have established human occupation of the rock since at least the Iron Age, there has been a royal castle on the rock since at least the reign of David I in the 12th century, and the site continued to be a royal residence until 1633. From the 15th century the residential role declined, and by the 17th century it was principally used as military barracks with a large garrison. Research undertaken in 2014 identified 26 sieges in its 1100-year-old history, giving it a claim to having been the most besieged place in Great Britain, few of the present buildings pre-date the Lang Siege of the 16th century, when the medieval defences were largely destroyed by artillery bombardment. The castle also houses the Scottish regalia, known as the Honours of Scotland and is the site of the Scottish National War Memorial, the British Army is still responsible for some parts of the castle, although its presence is now largely ceremonial and administrative. Some of the buildings house regimental museums which contribute to its presentation as a tourist attraction. The castle, in the care of Historic Scotland, is Scotlands most-visited paid tourist attraction, the castle stands upon the plug of an extinct volcano, which is estimated to have risen about 350 million years ago during the lower Carboniferous period. The Castle Rock is the remains of a pipe, which cut through the surrounding sedimentary rock before cooling to form very hard dolerite. Subsequent glacial erosion was resisted by the dolerite, which protected the softer rock to the east, leaving a crag and tail formation. The summit of the Castle Rock is 130 metres above sea level, with rocky cliffs to the south, west and north and this means that the only readily accessible route to the castle lies to the east, where the ridge slopes more gently. The defensive advantage of such a site is self-evident, but the geology of the rock also presents difficulties, archaeological investigation has yet to establish when the Castle Rock was first used as a place of human habitation. There is no record of any Roman interest in the location during General Agricolas invasion of northern Britain near the end of the 1st century AD. Ptolemys map of the 2nd century AD shows a settlement in the territory of the Votadini named Alauna, meaning rock place and this could, however, refer to another of the tribes hill forts in the area. The Orygynale Cronykil of Andrew of Wyntoun, a source for Scottish history, names Ebrawce. According to the chronicler, Geoffrey of Monmouth, Ebraucus had fifty children by his twenty wives, and was the founder of Kaerebrauc, Alclud. The 16th-century English writer John Stow, credited Ebraucus with building the Castell of Maidens called Edenbrough in 989 BC, the name Maidens Castle occurs frequently up until the 16th century. It appears in charters of David I and his successors, although the reason for it is not known. According to the 17th-century antiquarian Father Richard Hay, the maidens were a group of nuns, however, this story was considered apocryphal by the 19th-century antiquarian Daniel Wilson and has been ignored by historians since
11.
Robert Lorimer
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Lorimer was born in Edinburgh, the son of James Lorimer, who was Regius Professor of Public Law at Edinburgh University from 1862 to 1890. In his youth the family lived at 21 Hill Street, a Georgian house in Edinburghs South Side, very close to Old College and he was educated at Edinburgh Academy and later at Edinburgh University. He was part of a family, being the younger brother of painter John Henry Lorimer. In 1878 the Lorimer family acquired the lease of Kellie Castle in Fife and he was influenced by Scottish domestic architecture of the 16th and 17th centuries and the Scots Baronial style of Kellie Castle where he had spent much time as a young man. From his time in Bodleys office, Lorimer was influenced by the ideas of William Morris, in 1896 he was elected to the Art Workers Guild. Lorimer designed a series of cottages in the Arts and Crafts style in the Colinton area of Edinburgh, constructed using traditional methods and materials, each cottage included a garden layout and interior design, including furniture, in keeping with the Arts and Crafts concept. By 1900, eight cottages had been built and four others were under construction, of these, Ardkinglas, on Loch Fyne was the only one built as originally designed and, Lorimer having been given carte blanche, represents his masterpiece. His important restorations at this time include Lennoxlove House, Haddington and probably his most evocative, at Dunderave, a good representative of this sort of work is Hunterston Castle in Ayrshire. The World War I restricted the demand for new houses and his attention shifted to smaller scale projects, war memorials. Although much of his work, and reputation, was in the sphere of domestic architecture, principal amongst these include his design for the new chapel for the Knights of the Thistle in St Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh in 1911. One of his last works was Knightswood St Margarets Parish Church, Glasgow, Lorimer was a fellow of the North British Academy of Arts. He lived here for 26 years and died here in 1929 and he was cremated at the newly opened Warriston Crematorium and his ashes were thereafter buried with his parents at Newburn in rural south-east Fife, close to the family home of Kellie Castle. The grave lies in the extreme south-west corner of this tiny and very remote churchyard, the Work of Sir Robert Lorimer. Lorimer and the Edinburgh craft designers, a Comment on Tradition, Robert S. Lorimers Furniture Design. ISBN 0-9520345-0-6 Richardson, Harriet and Lord, Gay, Lorimer and his craftsmen, A National Trust for Scotland Exhibition, Summer 1986
12.
Menin Gate
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The memorial is located at the eastern exit of the town and marks the starting point for one of the main roads out of the town that led Allied soldiers to the front line. Designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield and built and maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, in medieval times, the original narrow gateway on the eastern side of the city of Ypres was called the Hangoartpoort, poort being the Dutch word for gate. In order to prosper and maintain its wealth, the city of Ypres had to be fortified, during the 17th and 18th centuries, while under the occupation of the Habsburgs and the French, the city was increasingly fortified. Major works were completed at the end of the 17th century by the French military engineer Sebastien Le Prestre, at the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, the eastern exit simply cut through the remains of the ramparts and crossed a moat. The gateway was by this time known as the Menenpoort, or Menin Gate in English, because the road leading through the gateway led to the small town of Menen. Ypres occupied a position during the First World War because it stood in the path of Germanys planned sweep across the rest of Belgium. By October 1914, the much battered Belgian Army broke the dykes on the Yser River to the north of the City to keep the tip of Belgium out of German hands. For the Allies, Ypres was also important because it became the last major Belgian town that was not under German control. The importance of the town is reflected in the five major battles that occurred around it during the war, during the First Battle of Ypres the Allies halted the German Armys advance to the east of the city. The German army eventually surrounded the city on three sides, bombarding it throughout much of the war, the Second Battle of Ypres marked a second German attempt to take the city in April 1915. The third battle is more commonly referred to as Passchendaele, the fourth and fifth battles occurred during 1918. British and Commonwealth soldiers often passed through the Menenpoort on their way to the front lines with some 300,000 of them being killed in the Ypres Salient,90,000 of these soldiers have no known graves. From September to November 1915, the British 177th Tunnelling Company built tunnelled dugouts in the city ramparts near the Menin Gate and these were the first British tunnelled dugouts in the Ypres Salient. The carved limestone lions adorning the original gate were damaged by shellfire and they were restored in 1987, and currently reside at the entrance to that Memorial, so that all visitors to the Memorial pass between them. Reginald Blomfields triumphal arch, designed in 1921, is the entry to the passage for traffic through the mausoleum that honours the Missing. The patient lion on the top is the lion of Britain and it was chosen to be a memorial as it was the closest gate of the town to the fighting, and so Allied Troops would have marched past it on their way to fight. Actually, most troops passed out of the gates of Ypres. Its large Hall of Memory contains names on stone panels of 54,395 Commonwealth soldiers who died in the Salient, on completion of the memorial, it was discovered to be too small to contain all the names as originally planned
