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 believed his father Grainger’s recently retrieved birth Bridge in . 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 Collections, Issue 1, November 2007 Opposite: Bartletto Studio, John Grainger aged 46, photographed in , , 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 . 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. In a letter to his and the New Masonic Hall, also on municipal offices (now the art father, Grainger states that he over- Collins Street. gallery). This substantial building was speculated in mining shares and lost Grainger’s professional life was

University of Melbourne Collections, Issue 1, November 2007 41 steady but it is conceivable that his John Grainger wrote to his father: in England—possibly with intentions family life had soured. He drank of reconciliation. He may not have heavily at this stage and John Bird At present he draws well, achieved this outcome as he bought a writes of Rose’s use of a horse-whip immensely well in fact, and it is a return passage to Australia on the to keep his behaviour in check.14 Rose frightful thing to keep him from same vessel. Deck life appears to have over-bonded with her son Percy being always at it, and his mother agreed with him as his health almost from birth—their relationship is most anxious he should be an returned to normal. Grainger has been depicted in Percy’s own artist. I am afraid if he becomes returned to Melbourne but stayed memoirs as being abnormally close. one that he will be dangerous.16 briefly and travelled to Adelaide Conversely, Grainger’s relationship where he had maintained ties with his with his son may have been curtailed Much of what is known about wife’s family. Without a business by his increasingly estranged wife. Grainger’s movements over the next partnership or close family to give One significant area in which decade is sourced from him direction he lived a transient life Grainger senior influenced his son correspondence between Grainger in the first half of the 1890s. was the visual arts. Grainger was a and a young woman, Miss Amy Professionally it was also a lean very competent watercolour painter Black, the sister of one of Grainger’s period. In 1892 he is recorded as and had an extensive knowledge of junior staff members originally winning a prize for the design for the western art history. In his articled to the firm of Grainger and Hamley Buildings in Adelaide. But recollections of his father Percy wrote: D’Ebro. Black lived with her family the following year he was working at in Brighton near the Grainger Hill River Cattle Station near Clare Indeed he was on fire for beauty household and became John in South Australia, remodelling everywhere and all his life he Grainger’s confidante. woolsheds. By 1896 he was living in collected photos of lovely In 1890, Grainger experienced rough conditions in Kalgoorlie buildings, pictures, statues, some sort of breakdown. Percy supervising the construction of bridges and pasted them into believed he suffered from delirium processing plants for gold mining. He albums, himself adding tremens from alcoholism as well as does not seem to have benefitted information about the origin and nicotine poisoning. Writing to Amy financially by the Western Australian history of the works of art Black, Grainger spoke of being gold rush as many did. depicted. This was known as disturbed in mind and body. Finding mining town life hard to ‘Graingerising’.15 Following his doctor’s orders he tolerate, Grainger left for Perth and ceased working and set out for applied for a position with the From a very young age, Percy England on the S.S. Oruba. This Western Australian Government. On spent hours drawing and the virtually put an end to an already 1 March 1897 he commenced Grainger Museum Collection moribund marriage and kept him working as Chief Architect in the includes hundreds of examples of permanently separated from his child. Western Australian Public Works sophisticated juvenilia. In 1890, Grainger visited family members Department on a salary of £600 per

42 University of Melbourne Collections, Issue 1, November 2007 John H. Grainger, S.S. Oruba leaving Plymouth for Australia, Nov 12, 1890, 1891, watercolour on paper, 16.0 x 28.0 cm. Grainger Museum Collection, University of Melbourne.

annum—a position that was to bring Guildford, East Fremantle and space above, and was ‘slightly Indian stability back into his life. Boulder, the Albany Quarantine in feeling’.17 Grainger’s role was to design Station and an asylum at Whitby. During his time with the Public public buildings or to sign off on the Grainger had little time for Works Department he was engaged work of other architects in his private commissions in his new role, in two projects that gave him department. The mining boom meant yet in 1898 he was persuaded to significant kudos and, he claimed, that substantial building activity was design a large commercial building professional satisfaction. The first, being undertaken—particularly in for a Mr Davies in Colombo, Ceylon started in 1897, was extensions to regional areas. Buildings possessing (now Sri Lanka). Called the Western Australia’s Government Grainger’s imprimatur included the Australian Building, the design was a House which included the design of a Warden’s Court in Coolgardie, public two-storey arcaded structure, housing new ballroom which featured rolling buildings in Kalgoorlie, post offices at ten shops at street level with office Romanesque arches. Percy Grainger

University of Melbourne Collections, Issue 1, November 2007 43 visited Perth in 1904 during a concert resigned his post as Government secure significant projects. Its tour and wrote to his mother that he Architect due to ill health. He commissions included the State saw the ballroom and that it was of suffered severe cramps in his fingers, Savings Bank and Collins House ‘outerordinary [sic] beauty … pure making drawing and writing difficult. (both now demolished). effect in great sheets of white and red Grainger and Winifred Falconer set Grainger became increasingly brown. (jarrah)’.18 off for an extended journey to Europe troubled by rheumatic symptoms and The second project, which also where Falconer writes he made a his health deteriorated dramatically had a considerable impact on his son, detailed study of the architecture of by the outbreak of World War 1. His was his designs for the Western Spain, Italy, France and Belgium and last building design was for an Australian court at the Paris visited many important European extension to Coombe Cottage, Nellie International Exhibition of 1900. public galleries. The couple also Melba’s house at Coldstream in Amply showcasing the riches of visited Harrogate in England where country . Melba’s father Western Australia’s natural resources Grainger sought ‘the cure’ for his David Mitchell was the building and designed to highlight native ailments in the town’s sulphurous contractor for a number of Grainger’s timbers, it led to Grainger becoming baths. Melbourne projects and the two men a member of the Société Centrale des Again the experience of travel were lifelong friends. Architectes Français. This is the only seemed to restore Grainger’s health By 1915 Grainger was an invalid professional body of which Grainger and energy. He moved with Falconer and was suffering the last stages of was known to be a member during his back to Melbourne where he entered tertiary syphilis, while his companion working life. into partnership with Phillip Winifred Falconer nursed him. Back in Perth at the end of 1901 Kennedy and John Little. Grainger, Entirely crippled and barely able to Grainger was responsible for lavish Kennedy and Little practised as hold cigarettes, to which he was street decorations to mark the visit of architects and civil engineers and had highly addicted, he spent many hours the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall an office at 123 Queen Street in pumping a player piano for and York for Federation celebrations. central Melbourne.19 entertainment. His son, Percy, wired During this period his health began This last period of his professional him £30 a month from New York as to fluctuate. In 1903 he took three life began with a quite prestigious neither he nor Falconer had any months’ leave of absence to seek the success. Shortly after his arrival in income. He died on 13 April 1917 at curative powers of natural hot baths Melbourne he won first prize in a 71 Stevenson Street, Kew. at Rotorua in New Zealand. He was competition to design a northern Grainger died a pauper and was experiencing symptoms he referred to wing to Melbourne’s Town Hall. His buried in an unmarked grave at as rheumatism. firm was also responsible for the Melbourne’s Box Hill Cemetery. It In 1905 he wrote of being design of St Michael’s Catholic wasn’t until the 1930s that Percy engaged in music again, helping to Church in North Melbourne. By Grainger became interested in his organise the Perth Orchestral Society 1910 the firm was reduced to father’s story, coinciding with Percy’s in his spare time. In the same year he Grainger and Little but continued to development of his autobiographical

44 University of Melbourne Collections, Issue 1, November 2007 museum at the University of Notes 13 John H. Grainger, letter to his father [ John Grainger], 14 January 1890, GMC. Melbourne. He began to correspond 1 Winifred Falconer, ‘The life and works of John 14 Bird, Percy Grainger, p. 8. with his father’s surviving friends and H. Grainger, architect and civil engineer’, 15 Percy Grainger, ‘John H. Grainger’, p. 15. colleagues, asking for recollections of unpublished manuscript, c.1934, Grainger 16 John H. Grainger, letter to his father, 14 January 1890. John Grainger to be written down— Museum Collection (GMC), p. 1. 2 Percy Grainger, ‘John H. Grainger’, Museum 17 John H. Grainger, letter to Mr Davies, the manuscripts upon which much of Legend, 15 March 1956, published in 19 September 1998, GMC. this essay is based. He also negotiated Malcolm Gillies, David Pear and Mark Carroll 18 Percy Grainger, letter to Rose Grainger, 16 January 1904, in Kay Dreyfus (ed.), The the donation to the Grainger (eds), Self-portrait of Percy Grainger, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006, p. 15. farthest north of humanness: Letters of Percy Museum of the Amy Black 3 Grainger met Winifred Falconer in Adelaide Grainger 1901–14, South Melbourne: correspondence. in 1895. Macmillan, 1985, p. 34. 19 Pitt Morison, ‘John Harry Grainger, architect Grainger’s name lived on after his 4 Falconer, ‘The life and works of John H. Grainger’, p. 1. and civil engineer’, p. 9. death in the name of his architectural 5 Herman Schrader, ‘Reminiscences of J.H. practice. Grainger and Little became Grainger and the Adelaide String Quartet’, Grainger, Little and Barlow and unpublished manuscript, n.d., GMC, p. 8. 6 Falconer, ‘The life and works of John H. finally Grainger, Little, Barlow and Grainger’, p. 1. Hawkins—the latter existed until 7 John Bird, Percy Grainger, 3rd edition, Sydney: 1924. Posthumous use of his name is Currency Press, 1999, p. 4. 8 Percy Grainger, ‘My father in my childhood’, perhaps an indication of how this 12 May 1954, from ‘Grainger’s anecdotes’, highly accomplished architect and typescript and manuscript, 1949–1954, in engineer was viewed by his Gillies, Pear and Carroll (eds), Self-portrait of Percy Grainger, p. 25. professional fraternity. 9 Amy Chalk, ‘John Grainger’, unpublished manuscript, 1934, GMC, p. 1. Brian Allison is Curator of Exhibitions and 10 Schrader, ‘Reminiscences of J.H. Grainger and Public Programs at the Grainger Museum at the the Adelaide String Quartet’, p. 8 University of Melbourne. He has held the position 11 Margaret Pitt Morison, ‘John Harry Grainger, of Director of the Horsham Regional Art Gallery architect and civil engineer’, unpublished and curatorial roles with the Port Arthur Historic manuscript, n.d., GMC, p. 1. Site and Museum Victoria’s Immigration Museum. 12 Grainger, ‘My father in my childhood’, p. 25.

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