ONCASTER 1 S A R C H I T E C T S
N 0 4 HERBERT ATHRON
The practice of Lindley, Woodhead and Hurst had dominated Doncaster 1 s architect ural scene in the early decades of the 19th century and its buildings had given the town a distinctive architectural character.. By the end of the century the identity of the town was changing rapidly, The arrival of the railways and the railway workshops had provided the town with a firm industrial base and the pros pect of several large collieries being opened up in the district gave rise to the idea that Doncaster was about to become a boom town. The number of architectural practices in the town grew to the most it has ever been - some flourished but others .failed, The most successful practice of that time was that of Herbert Athron.
Herbert had the advantage of being the son of a well knovm local figure - Alderman .John Athron, a master mason and building contractor, who had been responsible for the erecti.on of some of Doncaster 1 s finest buildings, including the Corn Exchange and the Grammar School, John Athron had taken his brother Thomas and his general foreman, Dennis Gill, into partnership and the firm was known as Athron Bros, & Gill. The partnership was dissolved by mutual consent in 1882 and John Athron, at the age of 50, devoted himself to public life, and the business was carried on•by Thomas Athron, Dennis Gill and Herbert Athron. Herbert was then 21 years of. age, That year the firm built Robinson,& Hanley 1 s new mill in Fishergate and the new slaughter house in Friendly Street and two years later it built the Holmes church (St, Mary's), Herbert had been educated at the British School and the Grammar School and had w.on a prize in Building Construction from the Science and Art Department, South Kensington, but nothing is known of his early training, He appears to have remained with the family business for some years but by 1889, the year in which his father was Mayor, he had set up in private practice as an architect and auctioneer, In the same year he had married Louisa Braithwaite, the daughter of
. a retired farmer of Balby,
Housing formed much of Herbert's early output - substantial houses on Thorne Road, opposite Christ Church, and in St. Harry 1 s Road, with solid bay windows and entrances ·with pointed arches, in the Gothic style, and also numerous houses in.many of the streets of terrace housing that were being erected in Doncaster t s suburbs. In 1890 he designed the Trinity Presbyterian Church in Waterdale, It was built;..ii;i accordance with his design but the tower was omitted on gTounds of economy. In the same year he executed the first of many commissions that he was to receive from the Co-operative movement - it was for a stores in Carr House Road, In 1891 part of the Reindeer Hotel was demolished to allow for the widening of Cleveland Street and the Corporation invited designs from local architects fo:i:: ,a new building to be erected on the narrow plot that remained. The ·corporation.ls· steward would have been happy to see a rebuilding of the Georgian inn 1 s facade but the Corporation chose Herbert Athron 1 s design in red brick and terra·cotta with large round headed windows on the first floor, It was occupied by Mark Dowson as a gentlemen1 s outfitters for many years, In 1892 Herbert Athron rece,ived two major commissions. He was chosen brLord Grimthorpe to be' the executant architect for the new church at Hexthorpe, known initially as St, James I the Less but changed to st. Jude Is. The design was in Lord Grimthorpe 1 s own version of Decorated Gothic. Herbert Atbron also was responsible for the new stores and head-Quarters of the Doncaster Co-operative Society in John Street. It was described, at the time, as the town's largest and most handsome business establishment; it was also one of the first buildings in.Doncaster to be illuminated by electricity. The imposing building, in a Free Classical style, could have been more readily appreciated if the surrounding streets had not been so narrow ..
Herbert Athron at first practised from Nether Hall Road, near.his home in Christ Church Road, but in 1892 established his office in the Market Place in the Dolphin Chambers, with his ·auction rooms cum assembly rooms at t.he rear. In 1894 he took a partner, Henry Beck, who was 12 years his senior and had worked in a number of offices, in this country and abroad, and claimed to have studied design under E.W. Godwin (the architect of Whistler's White House), He appears to have been a versatile designer, The firm flourished in the building boom that took place arou_nd the turn of the century. In 1897 the practice designed the stores of the Doncaster Co-operative Society in Station Road. A sign of ])onoaster1s growing commercial importance it was the firm Is grandest design. The building had a frontage of 210 1, a tower and three ornamental gables, one of which was 801 high. It was in a Dutch Renaissance style and the design was based upon a building nee1r Antwerp belonging to the nld Dutch Adventurers who had formed a kind of co-operative guild in their time, Beck had sketched the Tiu±lding 15 years previously, The Co-op. building was in marked contrast to the Wheatley Board Schools (opposite St, Mary's Church), opened in the same month, Athron & Beck avoided the institutional atmosphere of some board schools and gave the buildings a friendly, almost domestic quality. In 1896 the practice prepared plans for a. extensive stores building for the York Co-operative Society. The practice did not evolve a distinctive architectural style of its own, Architecture, at this time, was in a state of flux, and. the correct copying of past architectural styles was being abandoned for a more free use of historical motifs combined with a search for new architectural forms. The Art Nouveau style, with its sinuous decoration based on natural forms, held a brief sway among architects about 1900. Its influence can be seen in the Central Hall building, of 1904, in Printing Office Street, for which Beck was probably the designer. Both men took an active part in the social life of the tmm, Henry Beck was in demand as a lecturer on many subjects, especially by local improvement· societ:L,3s, Many of his lantern slid c ·,rsre mc1dc fror,1 photographs taken by himself and. he also made and coloured the slides. Herbert Athron was prominent in the musical life of Doncaster and was president of the Excelsior Silver Band and of the D9ncaster Harmonic Society$
In 1910 Henry Beck left the practice to set up on his own, In the same year Herbert Athron was elected to the 'Town Council. Beck was involved with the rebuilding schemes following the widening cf St. Sepulchre Gate and designed the building on the curving corner at the junction with High Street, the Three Legs Hotel, the King Is Arms Hotel and the building now occupied by Dunn Is, Herbert Athron architectural output, after the break-up of the practice, was relatively small, possibly because of his indifferent health, He died, at the age of 51, on Easter Sunday morning, 1912, as he was making an early morning call at his office. His death caused considerable sadness in the town. Both Herbert Athron and Henry Beck had sons who became architects, Beck practised with his son for a short while, in Doncaster, but they appear to have left the town during the first World War, Herbert's son, Sidney, became a well known local architect, practising from Dolphin Chambers until the 1930s. Athron and Beck had been in practice when the country had been in a prosperous and optimistic state. Architects were not unduly restrained by the need for economy and were able to experiment with a variety of architectural forms, Whether the buildings they produced rank highly as works of architecture is a matter of some doubt but to the guestion "Did Athron & Beck enliven and enrich the townscape cf Doncaster?" the answer must certainly be Yes.
