Basic Biographical Details | Name: | Arthur John Hope | | Designation: | | | Born: | 2 October 1875 | | Died: | 1960 | | Bio Notes: | Arthur John Hope was born on 2 October 1875. He ad been brought up in modest circumstances in Atherton and educated at Wigan Grammar School where his aptitude for mechanics induced him to study civil engineering at the Bolton Schools of Science and Art. He was articled to Bradshaw & Gass in 1892 but thereafter he neither sought London experience not attempted the qualifying exam. He was strong on structural engineering and quick to see imaginative solutions in the planning of buildings but had no patience with drawing them out. His assistant Ernest Wall Winks described him as one of those who ‘not only wrack their own brains but utilise those of everyone else with whom they came in contact’. Presentation drawings were entrusted to Roger Oldham. Hope was taken into partnership in 1902. The practice title then became Bradshaw, Gass & Hope. He was not admitted to the RIBA until 20 July 1911, and then only as a licentiate, his proposers being Bradshaw, Gass and Paul Ogden.
Bradshaw died at Greenmount, Heaton on 28 April 1912, the practice title being amended to Bradshaw Gass & Hope by omitting the comma. It is unlikely that Bradshaw had designed much for the previous quarter century, but with the practice that now extended to Portugal, an increase in design staff was required, even though the London office had been closed. In 1913 Gass & Hope recruited James Robert Adamson. Born in 1883 and educated at Galashiels and George Watson’s College, Edinburgh, Adamson had been articled to John Burnet & Son in Glasgow 1901-05, and had studied at Glasgow School of Art and the Royal Technical College, remaining with Burnet as an assistant before moving to Newcastle as chief assistant to Graham & Hill.
In January 1914 Bradshaw Gass & Hope won the competition for the reconstruction of the Manchester Royal Exchange, their most ambitious project. At that date Gass gave the total value of the work executed since the Bradshaw & Gass partnership was formed in 1881 as being ‘upwards of four million pounds sterling’.
Hope died in 1960. | Private and Business Addresses| The following private or business addresses are associated with this : | | | Address | Type | Date from | Date to | Notes |  | 19, Silverwell Street, Bolton, Lancashire, England | Business | Before 1929 | After 1943 | |
Employment and TrainingEmployers| The following individuals or organisations employed or trained this (click on an item to view details): | | | Name | Date from | Date to | Position | Notes | | Bradshaw Gass & Hope | 1903 * | After 1943 | Partner | |
* earliest date known from documented sources.
RIBARIBA Proposers| The following individuals proposed this for RIBA membership (click on an item to view details): | | | Name | Date proposed | Notes | | Jonas James Bradshaw | 20 July 1911 | for Licentiateship | | John Bradshaw Gass | 20 July 1911 | for Licentiateship | | Paul Ogden | 20 July 1911 | for Licentiateship |
RIBA Proposals
ReferencesBibliographic References| The following books contain references to this : | | | Author(s) | Date | Title | Part | Publisher | Notes | | British Architectural Library, RIBA | 2001 | Directory of British Architects 1834-1914 | | | | | Gray, A Stuart | 1985 | Edwardian Architecture: A Biographical Dictionary | | | p185 (under Gass) | | Lingard, Jane and Timothy | 2007 | Bradshaw Gass & Hope: the Story of an Architectural Practice | | London, Gallery Lingard | | | Redman, Austen | 2007 | Bolton Civic Centre and the Classical Revival Style of Bradshaw Gass & Hope | | From Clara Hartwell and Terry Wyke (eds): Making Manchester: essays in honour of H G Archer | |
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