John Harry Grainger Architect and civil engineer Brian Allison John Harry Grainger, the Australian of much of his life prior to travelling architect and engineer, is now almost to Australia in 1877. A clipping from forgotten by history. He receives a the Argus newspaper of 4 August brief mention in the much examined 1879 states: life story of his genius son, the Australian composer and concert Granger [sic] of Jenkins and pianist, Percy Aldridge Grainger. In Granger [sic] has been in the the various biographical and colony about 3 years. He came autobiographical narratives of Percy’s from London where he worked life, Grainger senior appears as an with Mr Wilson, the well-known estranged husband and a proud but engineer of the Metro. District ineffectual father. At worst he is Railways, and with him made presented as a syphilitic drunkard, special study of iron bridge horse-whipped by his wife. Brief making. mention is made of his prolific output as an architect. The notoriously close Marshall’s biographical dictionary of relationship between Percy and his railway engineers lists a William mother Rose, combined with the Wilson (1822–1898) who acted for likelihood that John infected Rose contractors on the Metropolitan and with syphilis, distanced father from District Railway. Grainger may have son and meant that the father’s story been apprenticed to Wilson or may was not woven into that of his famous have been a junior in Wilson’s convenient as this explanation of offspring. company; either way he received a J.H. Grainger’s origins would be, J.H. Grainger was a gifted and solid grounding in civil engineering unfortunately no direct connections creative man. By the age of 25 he had practices. Where he received his have been discovered between him amassed the skills and experience to architectural training is more obscure. and his influential namesake. design the much celebrated Princes Percy Grainger believed his father Grainger’s recently retrieved birth Bridge in Melbourne. This complex was born into ‘a Northumbrian family certificate lists his date and place of project would have been demanding of builders, architects and engineers’, birth as being 30 November 1854, at for a seasoned practitioner twice his and that one of the family members 1 New Street, Westminster. His age. He allegedly lied about his age to was responsible for the development parents are recorded as being a John inspire confidence in the Public of Newcastle-on-Tyne.2 The city was Grainger, Master Tailor, and a Mary Works Department officials to whom developed in the 1830s by a Richard Ann Grainger, née Parsons. he submitted the original design.1 Grainger (1797–1861) who Winifred Falconer, J.H. Grainger’s Where he gained his initial effectively transformed a medieval companion in the latter part of his training is still unclear, as is the story town into a modern city. As life,3 wrote in an unpublished 38 University of Melbourne Collections, Issue 1, November 2007 Opposite: Bartletto Studio, John Grainger aged 46, photographed in Perth, Western Australia, c.1890, silver gelatin print, 20.5 x 14.0 cm. Grainger Museum Collection, University of Melbourne. Below: H.W. De Mole, Princes Bridge over the Yarra River, c.1888, heliotype, 33.0 x 42.5 cm. Grainger Museum Collection, University of Melbourne. manuscript in the 1930s that South Australian musician Herman J.H. Grainger claimed to have been in Grainger had lived with an uncle who Schrader. He states that the uncle Paris during the siege near the end of was an important influence on him took Grainger to the Monday Pops the Franco-Prussian War (in 1870– during his childhood. The gentleman Concerts at the Queens Hall.5 1871).7 This begs the question: what was a personal friend of the great It is not known why Grainger was was the son of a Westminster tailor theologian Cardinal Newman and the brought up in his uncle’s home. His doing at school in France? One young Grainger ‘derived great parents were not deceased—they are possible explanation is that Grainger’s pleasure as well as knowledge from listed as still living in Westminster in uncle—his guardian—may have had listening to their discussions of the the 1881 census. Percy believed that business interests on the continent. world’s affairs’.4 His uncle was also his father received much of his The experience of French culture interested in music and took Grainger education at a monastery school in in his formative years left Grainger to his personal box at the opera. France at Yvetot (between Le Havre with a lifetime love of French Reference to the uncle also appears in and Paris). This detail is confirmed by architecture. At some juncture, early the unpublished recollections of Winifred Falconer.6 John Bird, Percy in his career, he made a very detailed Grainger by another close friend, Grainger’s biographer, states that study of French revival styles— University of Melbourne Collections, Issue 1, November 2007 39 particularly Renaissance revival He is also said to have had a strong Gippsland. The late architectural architecture—a style in which he tenor singing voice.9 Herman historian Margaret Pitt Morison proved to be very proficient as a Schrader wrote of him that his ‘love described it as an ‘elegant trussed designer. If, as he claimed, he was in for music was very great and structure in wrought iron with a Paris at age 16, conceivably he may absolutely cosmopolitan, embracing balanced wing span of 45 metres have had an association with an all styles, opera, oratorium [sic], supported centrally by eight pivot architectural atelier where he could orchestral, chamber and solo music cylinders resting on bedrock’.11 It is have received some training. enjoying all according to their believed that Grainger’s bridge was At age 22 John Harry Grainger different merits’.10 the first to use this technology in successfully applied for a position in Grainger’s social circle included a Australia. the South Australian Government as Mr George Aldridge who owned the Grainger maintained a strong an assistant architect and engineer. It Prince Alfred Hotel next door to the connection with South Australia and is unclear why he chose to emigrate. government offices where Grainger in 1881 was contracted to design two In his 1954 memoir ‘My father in my worked. He became a frequent visitor mansions for the wealthy Barr Smith childhood’, Percy refers to his father to the Aldridge family home and in family—Auchendarroch at Mount leaving a girl in England who was 1880 married 22-year-old Rosa Barker and Torrens Park at Mitcham. pregnant to him.8 Falconer says that (Rose) Aldridge. In the same year he designed a his decision to move abroad followed In the year of their marriage Church of England church in gothic a quarrel with his uncle. Whatever his Grainger won the competition to style at Walkerville on the outskirts of motivation, his career decision proved design Princes Bridge over the Yarra Adelaide. to be well made. In addition to his River in association with surveyor and On 8 July 1882, Rose gave birth government position he developed a architect, J.S. Jenkins, with whom he to a son, George Percy Grainger. The thriving private practice in Adelaide. had entered into a partnership family was living in a brick house in Less than 18 months later in 1878 he (though the design is considered to be North Brighton, where they resigned his government position to Grainger’s). Grainger and his wife employed staff. John Grainger’s pursue private commissions. moved to Melbourne where he business was on a firm footing and Grainger developed a strong social completed the finished drawings and their future would have seemed very network in South Australia. He hoped to oversee the construction of positive, yet during their residence in became very active within the musical the bridge. Actual building work did Brighton, Grainger contracted fraternity and organised the first not start until 1885 and the bridge syphilis.12 And, as so often happened, string quartet in Adelaide. The took another three years to be he passed the then almost incurable ensemble rehearsed in his private formally opened. disease on to his wife. rooms. Though not an instrumentalist In the same year that Grainger In 1882, Grainger entered into a Grainger was musically literate and won the Princes Bridge competition partnership with architect and civil collected a library of musical scores he designed a swinging bridge over engineer Charles D’Ebro, and now held in the Grainger Museum. the La Trobe River at Sale in established an office in Collins Street 40 University of Melbourne Collections, Issue 1, November 2007 Interior of Ball Room, Government House, Perth, c.1938, silver gelatin print, 15.5 x 21.0 cm. Grainger Museum Collection, University of Melbourne. in central Melbourne. In the same designed in the French Renaissance money.13 This may explain the year they successfully submitted a revival style. In the same year the Graingers’ sudden change in living design in a competition for a town partnership won a commission to circumstances. His business hall in Fremantle. Later that year they design Brisbane Town Hall, though partnership was also dissolved at this won first prize for the Masonic Hall the design was never implemented stage. His professional status, Company’s building in Lonsdale and a government architect’s design however, does not seem to have been Street in Melbourne. chosen instead. affected by either event—in 1886 he In 1884 the partnership won first In 1885 the Graingers moved was responsible for the design of the prize in a competition to design from Brighton to the New England Georges Building in Collins Street Auckland’s public library and Hotel in Heidelberg.