Alfred William Stephens Cross

• Birth date            8 March 1858 at Blackheath, London
• Marriage              April 1889 to Emily Thursfield (1861-) at St Michael’s Church, Worcester
• Death date          27 December 1932 at London
• Probate               26 April 1933

 

Alfred William Stephens Cross was born on 8 March 1858 at Blackheath, Lewisham, the son of the architect Arthur Cross (1830-1882) and his wife, Mary Ann or Mariam. After attending boarding school in Richmond, he studied at King's College, London; Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he was awarded BA and MA Cantab in 1903;* and the Royal College of Art in Kensington.

In 1875 he was articled to his father’s practice, Alfred Cross (1830-1882) and Arthur Wells in Hastings, Sussex in and remained with them as an assistant until 1880. He also worked in the offices of his uncle, William Stephens Cross (1823?-1897). After travelling in France, in 1880 he entered into partnership with his father, Arthur Cross, at 70 Chancery Lane, London.

He passed qualifying examination of the RIBA in 1883 and was elected ARIBA on 11 June 1883: proposed by W S Cross, R A Hill, R Walker; Fellow of RIBA on 7 March 1892: proposed by C Barry, H H Bridgman, and H S Legg. Served on the Council and on various Committees of the Royal Institute of British Architect, and was Vice President 1912-1915, and 1919-1923. He was also Vice President of The Incorporated Association of Architects and Surveyors

Following the death of his father on 4 December 1882 AWS Cross returned to Hastings and in 1885 or 1886 joined the practice of E H Lingden Barker and Chambers in Weston-Super-Mare, Somerset, where he designed the vicarages at Easton-in-Gordano, 1885 and Glendale, Clevedon in 1887. The partnership was short-lived.  He returned to London, where from 1889 to 1899 he was in partnership with Henry Spalding as Spalding and Cross, taking part in many competitions for building design.

In a short-lived partnership with Charles Edward Mallows (1864-1915) as Cross & Mallows in the mid-1900s he produced designs for St Pancras Library, the Wesleyan Methodist Hall, Westminster (1904) and Birmingham Art Galley extension (1907) in architectural competitions. In addition he submitted design for the Peace Palace at the Hague (1906),  and was a finalist in the London County Hall Competition (1908).

In April 1889 he married Emily, the second daughter of the Rev Richard Thursfield, Rector of St Michael’s Church at Worcester. They had two sons, namely Kenneth Mervyn Baskerville Cross (8 December 1890-16 January 1968) and Ivor Malcolm Cross 1897-1966.  Kenneth Mervyn Baskerville Cross commenced practice as an architect in 1919 and joined his father in partnership in 1922. Kenneth Cross was President of the RIBA in 1956-1958. The two became specialists in designs for public baths.

Alfred William Stephens Cross died on 27 December 1932 at his residence in New Cavendish Street, London.

*According to Venn (Venn, II. 525) A W S Cross was admitted to  Caius College, Cambridge on 1 October 1892 at the age of 34, and received his BA in 1895. Given his partnership with Henry Spalding etc. these dates must be treated with some caution.  Did he if fact, receive his university education 1882-1885, when supposedly in Hastings?

Works as recorde in Who's Who in Arcitecture

Municipal School of Technology, Manchester; Memorial Laboratories, Aberystwyth University; public baths at Haggerston and Hoxton; the Merchant venturers' Technical College, Bristol; almshouses at Wood Green; Shoreditch Town Hall; the Municipal Dye-House, Manchester ; labourers' dwellings at Oldham Road and Pollard Street, Manchester. Has acted as professional adviser and assessor in many competitions. [Who's Who in Architecture 1914]

Municipal School of Technology, Manchester; Memorial Laboratories, Aberystwyth University: public baths at Haggerston, Hoxton, Finchley, Hampstead, etc.; additions to St. John's College, Cambridge ; schools at Finchley, Poplar, Gospel Oak, Hampstead, etc.; Congregational churches and schools at Harlesden and West Hampstead, etc.; working men's clubs at Hampstead, Walworth and Croydon; houses at Bexhill, Wakeswood, St. Mary Bourne, Cheam, Abingdon, Byfleet, Boxmoor, etc.; almshouses at Wood Green; the Town Hall, Shoreditch; the Municipal Dye House, Manchester; labourers' dwellings at Oldham Road and Pollard Street, Manchester; the Merchant Venturers' Technical College, Bristol; Gosport Technical Institute. [Who's Who in Architecture 1923]

Publications by A W S Cross:
1906    Public baths and wash-houses a treatise on their planning, design, arrangement, and fitting, having special regard to the acts arranging for their provision, with chapters on Turkish, Russian, and other special baths, public laundries, engineering, heating, water supply, etc, Batsford
1907-08    Practical notes for architectural draughtsmen (1907-8)
1910    The crowning quality of architecture
1914    A history of architecture (1914)
1930    Modern baths and wash-houses. Cross, Alfred W S; Cross, Kenneth M B

Address:
c1880            70 Chancery Lane, London, England
1881             50 Torrington Square, London
1883             Memorial Buildings, Cambridge Road, Hastings, East Sussex
1886-1887    81 Regent Street, Weston-Super-Mare, Avon
1891-1896    (Spalding and Cross), 15 Queen Street, London EC
1899-1903    58 Conduit Street, London
1903-            53 Maddox Street, London (1903)
1904             46 New Bond Street, London W (RIBA Kalendar)
1907             45-46 New Bond Street and 53A Maddox Street London W
1911-1924    46 New Bond Street, London W (RIBA Kalendar)

Residence
1861             Loampit Hill, Lewisham
1871             Richmond (boarding school)
1891-1892    71 Parliament Hill Road Hampstead (voter registers)
1893-1896    15 Lyndhurst Road Hampstead (voter registers)
1901             Marlborough Place, Hampstead, London
1907             2 Palace Mansions, Linden Gardens, London SW
1932             New Cavendish Street London W1 (death notice)

Death Notice    Times 29 December 1932 page 1 – death notice
Obituary          The Builder vol. 144, 6 January 1933 pp. 5, 21
Obituary          The Builder vol. 144, 13 January 1933 p. 56

Reference        Worcester Journal 27 April 1889 page 5 - marriage
Reference        Hastings and St Leonards Observer 27 April 1889 - marriage
Reference        Weston-Super-Mare Observer 4 May 1889 page 2-3 -marriage
Reference        Directory of British Architects 1834-1914. Compiled by Antonia Brodie, et al. 2001
Reference        Gray, A. Stuart. Edwardian architecture: a biographical dictionary.  London: 1985
Reference        Who's Who in Architecture 1914. London: Technical Journals, Ltd.
Reference        Who's Who in Architecture 1923. Edited by Frederick Chatterton:
Reference        Venn Cambridge University Alumni, 1261-1900 see note