With my eye attuned to the work of Norman Shaw, I realised that the large red brick building at the bottom of St. James’s Street is by him, with its charateristically elaborate corner tower and high Dutch gables.   Indeed, it is.   It was designed in 1882 for the Alliance Insurance Company at the same time that he was doing work for the Royal Academy.

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In waiting for someone last week, I was able to catch up with our Norman Shaw exhibition in the Tennant Gallery, which has been open for a while.   But I missed the opening.   It shows the quality of his work and his commitment to drawing as a means of expression (I liked the comment which he added to a bad drawing done by someone in his office, ‘What hideous drawings !  Did anyone ever see such Vulgar looking things – I am quite ashamed of them’).

There is no mention of the fact that Shaw trained as an architect in the Royal Academy Schools under C.R.Cockerell, winning the silver medal in 1852 and the gold medal the year after.   His first commission was to design a house for an RA, John Callcott Horsley, in Kent, and he designed studio houses for Luke Fildes and Marcus Stone, in Melbury Road.   In 1872, he became an ARA and a full RA in 1877.   Continue reading →