City of London master stonemason

Written for an American Blog, to be part of a series on European Craftspeople.

 

Stephen Critchley was born in the Royal Free Hospital, Islington, London in 1965 and in 1968 his family moved to St. Luke's, an area on the border of The City of London. His family have been part of the City's history since at least 1330 when Roger de Mortimer the son of his 29 times Great grandfather was hanged at Tyburn after being held in the Tower of London, on a happier note his 19 & 17 times great grandfathers Geoffrey Boleyn & Thomas Kytson were masters of the Worshipful Company of Mercers in 1454 & 1534 respectively with Geoffrey going on to be  Lord Mayor in 1457. His family have been freemen of many of the livery companies over the years, up to now when his father and uncle are both freemen through working for the Worshipful Company of Carpenters.

From 1946 to 1972 his grandfather George Critchley worked for the Ministry of works (later the Department of the Environment, then English Heritage) at the Tower of London, Stephen says it was visiting him at work and going for walks with him in the near deserted weekend street of the City that gave him an interest in architecture and sculpture.

He trained with Ashby and Horner who had their origins in 1690's Aldgate, a stones throw away from where, around 60 years later the Liberty Bell would be struck in 1752 at the Whitechapel bell foundry where they still produce and restore bells at their original premises to this day.

        

From top left to  bottom right, St. Bartholomew the Great, Raglan Castle, Heythrop House, Lancing College chapel

While with Ashby and Horner he was involved in the working of the new Seven Dial's Monument, Covent Garden. Upon finishing his apprenticeship and becoming a journeyman, Stephen cut his teeth on the restoration of Somerset House designed by William Chambers; St Paul's Church, Covent Garden and The Queen's House, Greenwich designed by Inigo Jones; St. Martin's in the Field's designed by James Gibbs and The Egyptian Avenue, Highgate Cemetery. As he gained experience he had the opportunity to work on the Sultan of Brunei's Palace in Knightsbridge; Grand Buildings, Trafalgar Square; The Savoy Hotel, The Strand; The Canadian Pacific Building, Cockspur Street and The Aga Khan's Palace at Newmarket overlooking the gallops.

In the early 1990's he had advanced to foreman for J.Bysouth at Woburn Abbey and was in charge of the dismantling and rebuilding of Chambers Bridge and while working on the South Stable Block he was involved in the Consolidation of Clunch trials carried out by John Ashurst and published in the Practical Building Conservation, English Heritage Technical Handbook Volume 1 Stone Masonry.

Chambers Bridge, Woburn Abbey

As Master Mason he ran projects in and around Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire including Heythrop House, Wheatley Park, The YMCA Cheltenham , Painswick House and a variety of Regency Houses in Cheltenham and Bath.

While working at Stoneleigh Abbey in 1999 he supervised the masonry and conservation packages of both phase I and phase II to their successful completion. The work consisted of the conservation and restoration of the 14th century Gate House, Garden Balustrade, Charlesworthy Bridge and Victorian conservatory. Different degrees of intervention were used for each of the works packages, recognising the individual historic properties of each structure.

13th Century Gtaehouse, Stoneleigh Abbey

Whilst working for a number of specialist conservation companies as a freelance Master Mason and contracts manager in the early 2000's, he ran projects such as the Conservation of the Peers Cloakroom and Westminster Hall at The Palace of Westminster, Windsor Castle, Lancing College Chapel and worked on the Great Court project at The British Museum.

Bertholey House was built by George Maddox a pupil of John Soane. In the early 1900's it was razed to the ground over a family dispute and stood completely ruined and with no front elevation until 2000. Stephen was asked to form and lead a small team of craftsmen and with only two drawings and a few very early photographs rebuild it to its former glory. To comply with the clients wishes all replacement stone was worked on site, including the entire front elevation cornice, portico columns and Ionic capitals.

Bertholey House before and after

For the majority of his career Stephen has carried out specialist projects or produced particular pieces for larger contracts. Over a 32 year career he has worked on many projects 85 of which he considers notable.

96-8 - Roman Paving of Colonia Nervia Glevensium, Friends Meeting House, Gloucester

700 - Evesham Abbey, Warwickshire

1097 - Westminster Hall, London SW1

1100's - Windsor Castle, Berkshire

1123 - St. Bartholomew the Great, London

1340 - St John the Baptist Church, Kingscote, Gloucestershire

1346 - Stoneleigh Abbey Gate House, Warwickshire

1360 - St Mary the Virgin Hawkesbury Upton, Gloucestershire

1377- St Clements church, Hastings, Sussex

1400's - Raglan Castle, Monmouthshire

1440's - Sudeley Castle, Gloucestershire

1610's - Audley End House, Essex

1616 - Dulwich burial ground, London

1617 - Queen's House, Greenwich, Inigo Jones

1626 - York watergate, London, WC2, Sir Balthasar Gerbier

1633 - St Paul's Covent Garden, London, WC2, Inigo Jones

1670 - St Edmund, King and Martyr, City of London, Christopher Wren

1677 - St Peter upon Cornhill, City of London, Christopher Wren

1690 - Heythrop Foley, Oxfordshire

1700's - Stoneleigh balustrade, Warwickshire

1706 - Heythrop Park, Oxfordshire,Thomas Archer

1712 - Royal Naval Hospital, Greenwich, Christopher Wren & Nicholas Hawkesmoor

1716 – St. Mary Woolnoth, Nicholas Hawksmoor

1726 - St Martins in The fields,St. Martin's Lane, London WC2, James Gibbs

1730's - Painswick House, Gloucestershire

1730's - Southam Manor, Gloucestershire

1733 – St. Luke's Church, London, EC1, John James & Nicholas Hawksmoor

1744 - Woburn Abbey, Bedfordshire, Henry Flitcroft & Henry Holland

1750 - Woburn Abbey South Stable Block, Bedfordshire, Henry Flitcroft,

1750's – South Audley Street, london, W1

1770 - Stoneleigh Abbey Conservatory, Warwickshire

1790's - Prestbury Table Top Tombs, Gloucestershire

1804 - Russell Square, London, WC2

1810 - Dulwich Picture Gallery, Sir John Soane

1813 - Tobacco Dock, London, E1

1814 - Charlesworthy Bridge, John Rennie

1815 - Wheatley Park School, Oxfordshire

1819 - Somerset House, William Chambers

1820's - Chambers Bridge, William Chambers

1824 - YMCA, Cheltenham;

1830 - St. Philips and St. James’s parish Church, Cheltenham  

1836 - Pittville Lawn, Cheltenham

1839 - Highgate Cemetery chapel and Egyptian Avenue, London, N6

1840 - Bertholey House, Llantrisant, South Wales,George Maddox pupil of Soane

1840 - Nelson Museum, Monmouth, South Wales

1840's – Dover light house, Kent

1844 - Usk Prison, South Wales

1847- Palace of Westminster, Piers Cloak room, Charles Barry & Augustus Pugin

1848 - Palm House, Royal Botanical Gardens,  Kew, Decimus Burton

1850 - Suffolk Square, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

1855 - Public Records Office, Sir James Pennethorne

1862 - Cornhall, Cirencester

1865 - Old Lloyds Building, Billiter Street, London

1879 - Bristol Grammar School, Bristol

1886 - Cadogan Square, Harold Ainsworth Peto & Sir Ernest George

1887 - All Saints Church, Gloucester, George Gilbert Scott

1889 - Savoy Hotel, London

1894 - Sir Francis of Assisi, Wormwood Scrubs, Anglican Chapel, London W12

1895 - King Edward's Buildings, St. Martin Le Grand , London, EC2, Sir Henry Tanner

1900 - Empire Hotel, Bath

1909 - Victoria & Albert museum , Aston Webb

1909 - Selfridges store, Oxford Street, London, W1

1910 - Durban City Hall, South Africa,

1911 - Whiteleys store, John Belcher & John James Joass

1911 - Lancing College chapel, R H Carpenter & William Slater

1920's - Prestbury Campanile, Gloucestershire

1920's - Lewisham War Grave

1920's - Kensal Green War Grave

1920's - Coleford War Memorial, Gloucestershire

1925 - Adelaide House, London Bridge, EC4;

1936 - Church House, Westminster, SW1, Sir Herbert Baker &  A T Scott

1948 - Polish War Memorial, Northolt

1953 - Runnymede Memorial

1960 - Carlton Towers Hotel, Sloane Street, London;

1987 - Garden House, Henley upon Thames

1987 - Rutland Gate, Kensington

1987 - Royal Court, Sloane Street

1988 - Richmond House, Whitehall, London, SW1

1988 - Carnaby Street, Roof Garden;

1989 - Seven Dials monument, London, WC2

1989 - Grand Buildings, Trafalgar Square

1991 - Elle, Wigmore Street

1992 - Aga Khans Palace, Newmarket;

1996 - Garden House, Henley Upon Thames;

2000 - The Great Court, British Museum

Years of working so closely with such high quality design and craftsmanship has lead to Stephen gaining a deep understanding of the design of this period and he is now one of very few craftsmen worldwide who still works with the techniques and visual proportions used at the time, many of which, closely linked in the Baroque with the explosion of baroque music through harmonicproportion.

Over the past 10 years Stephen has worked at the head of a select team of craftspeople hand carving marble and stone fire surround, ornament and statuary for high end design and heritage projects. Although his team work with all design and architectural periods his own speciality is the carving from English Palladianism through Baroque to Neoclassicism.  He supplies items worldwide to dealers, architects, designers, developers, galleries and the public, with his main markets outside the UK being the USA and Asia.

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Selection of carved pieces from our workshop

Stephen travels to continental Europe several times a year to choose his own marble direct from quarries in Italy, France and Spain so as to get the best quality and freshest marbles. Marble when first quarried is full of moisture drawn directly from the bed rock known as quarry sap, as this moisture dries the marble becomes harder and more brittle and less receptive to intricate carving.

Web site

Selecting Marble

Our clients have come to expect  a high standard of marble carving from us and the only way we can achieve the highest quality and crispness is to get the marble at exactly the right length of time it has been out of the ground and work it before it dries and a calcareous layer is formed. This drying process is essential for exterior pieces especially in cold climates and for such pieces we allow them to dry before going out to the client.

When bought from UK suppliers or just ordering on the phone we can get marble that has possibly been quarried years ago, this is fine for flooring, cladding, table tops etc. but not for intricate carving, the longer the marble is out of the ground the more brittle it becomes as the natural moisture drawn up from the bed rock, what we call quarry sap, dries. When choosing limestone, sandstone and slate the need for really fresh material is virtually unimportant in most cases.

I make at least 4 visits a year to France Italy and Spain to purchase the marble for our more intricate pieces, going to the quarry to choose the marble in block form, then depending on block size either we cut the block down our self or if over 2 metres high we have the block cut down by the quarry.
When choosing I am looking for blocks with no flaws, a close grain and the correct hardness, colour and /or veining for the projects I have in mind.
Although obviously travelling around the continent is an enjoyable experience there is always the nagging fear that the blocks chosen are not suitable and this is only proven one way or other when the block is cut, possibly a month after being purchased. Thanks the bitter experience of making wrong choices in my younger days we are now as successful as can be expected when choosing a  natural material formed under intense heat and pressure over huge stretches of time.
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Luxury items hand carved by a City of London master stonemason

My team of craftspeople and I hand carve marble, limestone, sandstone and slate fire surrounds, architectural dressed stone, garden & interior ornament and statuary in our two workshops in the UK, producing pieces for the heritage and design sectors through architcets, designers and direct to the public.

Although our work encompasses all architectural and design types including Gothic, Edwardian, Victorian, contemporary and modern, I am especially experienced in the period from the English Renaissance through English Baroque to Regency sometimes in design circles loosely named the English country house style.

In addition to training with a City of London company whose origins date back to 1690′s Aldgate, I have over 30 years experience working in and around The City of London, also working extensively in Georgian Bath and Cheltenham Spa. I gained experience and expertise whilst conserving and carving new architectural stone and interior pieces for some of the great palaces, stately homes, country house and churches in Britain, such as Queen’s House Greenwich, Woburn Abbey, Somerset House, St. Martin’s in the Fields, St. Paul’s Covent Garden, and Heythrop House.

This gave me an insight and a greater understanding when interpreting and carving fire surrounds and ornamentation from designs by the likes of Inigo Jones, James Gibbs, William Chambers, Henry Flitcroft and from the contemporary pattern books by Batty Langley and William Halfpenny.

More recently, as well as the minimal contemporary ornament we have been making for interior designers for town houses and apartments, we have been producing many more classically inspired pieces used as a juxtaposition to the decoration in a modern setting . Fire surrounds, urns and pedestals, finials, columns, water features, panels, busts and statuary are all regularly produced.

A large proportion of our design work involves carving fire surrounds to the design of an antique piece for architects and designers, the advantage of this for the client is, the antique although beautiful was made to suit a specific space, as such, much of the design and thinking that went in to the piece is now lost when placed in a new setting.

 A new piece of the same quality and in many cases exactly the same material as the original can be produced allowing for the proportional changes to its surroundings and for ocular rectification to allow for light fall etc. These pieces are by no means just copies, they are new original pieces in the same way the piece we are working from are an original in the style of a classical design or which ever style it may be. There is no need make do when it comes to dimension or material.

Although all our fireplaces and ornamentation are still hand carved using techniques, tools and materials virtually unchanged since the 17th century, we do use technology to give a better service to the client. For example via web cam my clients can see their item on the bench in one of our UK workshops and talk to us in real time to discuss materials, design dimensions etc.

We supply items worldwide to dealers, architects, designers, developers, galleries and the public, with our main markets outside the UK being the USA and Asia.

http://sjcritchley.com