A. H. Mackmurdo

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Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo (December 12, 1851 – March 15, 1942) was a progressive English architect and designer, who influenced the Arts and Crafts Movement, notably through the Century Guild of Artists, which he set up in partnership with Selwyn Image in 1882.

Mackmurdo started his apprenticeship with Gothic Revival architect James Brooks in 1869. In 1873, he visited John Ruskin's School of Drawing, and accompagnied Ruskin to Italy in 1874. That same year, Mackmurdo opened his own architectural practice at 28, Southampton Street, in London.

The Century Guild of Artists was one of the more successful craft guilds set up in the 1880s. It offered complete furnishing of homes and buildings, and its artists were encouraged to participate in production as well as design; Mackmurdo himself mastered several crafts, including metalworking and cabinet making.

Mackmurdo's architecturally significant houses include 8 Private Road, Enfield, London (1887), and 25 Cadogan Gardens, London (1893-1894).The latter is a lusty, bay-windowed, white-trimmed, red-brick studio house for the painter, Mortimer Menpes.

[edit] References

• Victorian Web: A.H. Mackmurdo, an Overview ("Arthur Heygote Mackmurdo" throughout)
• Pamela Todd, The Arts and Crafts Companion: Introduction: Philosophy & Background
• L.Lambourne. 1980. "Utopian Craftsmen: The Arts and Crafts Movement from the Cotswold to Chicago"