Alfred Waterhouse - Manchester Practice

Manchester Practice

Waterhouse continued to practise in Manchester for 12 years, until moving his practice to London in 1865. His earliest commissions were for domestic buildings. In executing the commission for the cemetery buildings at Warrington Road, Lower Ince, Wigan, (1855–56) he began his move towards designing public buildings in his developing Neo-Gothic style, building a lodge for the registrar, and two chapels, one Church of England, and one Non-conformist. His success as a designer of public buildings was assured in 1859 when he won the open competition for the Manchester Assize Courts (now demolished). This work not only showed his ability to plan a complicated building on a large scale, but also marked him out as a champion of the Gothic cause.

In 1860, he married Elizabeth Hodgkin (1834–1918), daughter of John Hodgkin and sister of the historian Thomas Hodgkin.

Waterhouse had connections with wealthy Quaker industrialist through schooling, marriage and religious affiliation. Many of these Quaker connections commissioned him to design and build country houses, especially in the areas near Darlington. Several of these were built for members of the Backhouse family, founders of Backhouse's Bank, a forerunner of Barclays Bank. For Alfred Backhouse, Waterhouse built Pilmore Hall (1863), now known as Rockliffe Hall, in Hurworth-on-Tees. In the same village he built The Grange (1875), now known as Hurworth Grange Community Centre, which Alfred Backhouse had commissioned as a wedding gift for his nephew, James. E. Backhouse. Another Backhouse family mansion designed and built by Waterhouse was Dryderdale Hall (1872), near Hamsterley, which many might recognise as the home of Cyril Kinnear in the movie Get Carter.