George Porter (architect)

George Porter (died 1856) was an English architect, based in Bermondsey, then part of Surrey, in the early- to mid-nineteenth-century.

Life and career

Porter was appointed district surveyor to the parishes of St. Mary Magdalen, Bermondsey, and St. Mary, Rotherhithe, Surrey, in 1824. He still held the posts in 1832, when he gave his address as Fort Place, Bermondsey.^[1]

He exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1815 and between 1834 and 1837. Works he showed there included "Design for a Museum" (1815), "Villa in Surrey" (1834), "Villa on Brighton road" (1835) and "London Leather warehouse" (1837).^[2]

He died in 1856.^[3] At the time of his death he was described as district surveyor of Newington and the central division of Lambeth.^[3]

Works

The Free Watermen and Lightermen’s Almshouses, Beckenham Road, Penge.

• Porter was responsible for the alterations to the west end and tower of the parish church of St Mary Magdalen, Bermondsey, carried out in 1830, which gave them their present "Gothick" appearance. He also restored the medieval west window.^[4][5]
• The Free Watermen and Lightermen’s Almshouses (generally known as the "Royal Watermen's Almshouses") on Beckenham Road, Penge, Kent, were built in "Tudor" style to Porter's designs in 1840-1^[6] by the Company of Watermen and Lightermen of the City of London for retired company Freemen and their widows. It is the most prominent and oldest of the Victorian almshouses in Penge.^[7] In 1973, the almspeople were moved to a new site in Hastings, and the original buildings converted into private homes.^[6]

References

1. Accounts and Papers, Eighteen Volumes, 17, Relating to Assessed Taxes, Poor, &c. XIV. 1832. p. 35.
2. Graves, Algernon (1905). The Royal Academy: A Complete Dictionary of Contributors from its Foundations in 1769 to 1904 6. London: Henry Graves. p. 185. His address is given as "At Mr. Chawner's, 82, Guildford Street" in 1815, and Fort Place, Bermondsey during the 1830s.
3. "Obituaries". The Civil Engineer and Architect's Journal 19: 358. 1856.
4. Philips, G.W. (1841). The History and Antiquities of the Parish of Bermondsey. London: J. Unwin. p. 54.
5. Cherry, Bridget; Pevsner, Nikolaus (1990) [1983]. London 2: South. The Buildings of England. London: Penguin Books. p. 600.
6. Newman, John (1969). West Kent and the Weald. The Buildings of England (first ed.). London: Penguin. p. 433.
7. "Royal Watermans". ideal-homes.org.uk.