Sir Mervyn E. Macartney FSA FRIBA was a British architect and Surveyor of the Fabric of St Paul's Cathedral between 1906 and 1931. Macartney was a leading figure in the Arts and Craft movement, being a founder of the Art Workers' Guild and the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society, and an influential voice as the editor of The Architectural Review and via his publications The Practical Exemplar of Architecture and Later Renaissance Architecture in England with John Belcher.
Newbury Town War Memorial by Sir Mervyn E. Macartney
Desk designed by Mervyn Macartney, built by W. Hall for Kenton and Co. now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Memorial plaque to Macartney in the crypt of St. Paul's Cathedral
The Art Workers' Guild is an organisation established in 1884 by a group of British painters, sculptors, architects, and designers associated with the ideas of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement. The guild promoted the 'unity of all the arts', denying the distinction between fine and applied art. It opposed the professionalisation of architecture – which was promoted by the Royal Institute of British Architects at this time – in the belief that this would inhibit design. In his 1998 book, Introduction to Victorian Style, University of Brighton's David Crowley stated the guild was "the conscientious core of the Arts and Crafts Movement".
Art Workers' Guild
The exterior of the Art Workers' Guild