Herbert Baker – Wikipedia

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Sir Herbert Baker RA (born June 9, 1862 in Cobham (Kent), England, † February 4, 1946 in Cobham) was a British architect and urban planner, he is referred to as the “architect of South Africa”. His final resting place is located in the Westminster Abbey.

The Rhodes Memorial in Cape Town

Union Buildings in Pretoria
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He started his training as an architect in the office of his cousin Arthur Baker. Then he began studying at the Royal Academy School for architecture and at the same time entered the architectural office of Sir Ernest George and worked as an assistant for several years. During this time he met Edwin Lutyens, who also practiced as a student with Ernest Georg. He later became a member of the Royal Institute for British Architecture (R.I.B.A.) and won prizes and recognition there in 1890.

In 1892 he traveled to South Africa. However, his brother, whom he wanted to visit, was busy building his own farm at that time and so Baker took the opportunity to travel through the country. He studied the Dutch -shaped building style, which prevailed through the former colonial men, and began to be interested in building with sandstone. He took over some renovation orders for colonial houses in order to gain experience in dealing with the types of sandstone.

With his friend and patron Cecil John Rhodes, he started the renaissance of the old colonial traditions in architecture and craftsmanship. On behalf of Rhodes, he built the new official seat of the President of South Africa in Pretoria. On the Devil’s Peak in Cape Town, that was created after 1912 after Baker’s designs Rhodes Memorial , a monument ensemble with sculptures by George Frederic Watts and John Macallan Swan. With the financial support of Rhodes, Baker was able to carry out several study trips to Egypt and Southern Europe.

He left South Africa in 1912 and moved to India. In 1913 the offer was given to design the building of the legislative assembly in Neu-Delhi. He followed this call and became one of the co-workers and architects of Neu-Delhi, here he worked with the architect Sir Edwin Lutyens, which he had known in the meantime, whom he already knew from his studies. After completing his work in Neu-Delhi, Baker returned to London and was raised to the personal nobility as a Knight Bachelor (“Sir”) in 1926.

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At the invitation of Edward Grigg, the then British governor of Kenya, Baker was in the crown colony and protectorate Kenya in 1925. As a result of this meeting, some public buildings were created here according to his designs.

After the First World War, Baker was called by the then “Royal War Graves Commission” (now Commonwealth was Graves Commission) as a senior architect for the construction of war graves in Flanders and England. The use of the sandstone he had learned in South Africa is always reflected in his explanations of the war graves and the sandstone became the striking feature of the soldier’s cemeteries.

As a further honor, he received the gold medal for architecture in 1927 from the Royal Academy for Architecture and was appointed honorary doctor of the universities of Witwatersrand and Oxford. In 1930 he was admitted to the Order of the Indian Empire (Kcie) as Knight Commander.

Under his leadership and on the basis of his designs, several architecturally outstanding buildings were built in South Africa as well as in British-East Africa, England, Belgium and India. For his work in South Africa, the attribute “Architect of South Africa” ​​was assigned to him. In Transvaal alone, over 300 buildings were built according to Herbert Baker’s designs. [first]

Buildings in British East Africa (Kenya) [ Edit | Edit the source text ]

  • Government House Nairobi , later that State House , the presidential seat in Nairobi (together with Jan Hoogterp) [2]
  • Kenya Railways Headquarters in Nairobi (1924–1927) [3]
  • Nairobi European School on the Nairobi Hill in Nairobi (opened in 1928) [4]
  • Indian High School in Nairobi (together with Jan Hoogterp, 1929) [5] [6]
  • Prince of Wales School , also Kabete Boys Secondary School , in Kabete (1929–1931) [7] [8] [9]

Working in South Africa [ Edit | Edit the source text ]

Baker’s house in Johannesburg

Buildings in southern Godesia (Zimbabwe) [ Edit | Edit the source text ]

Working in England [ Edit | Edit the source text ]

Buildings in Neu-Delhi (India) [ Edit | Edit the source text ]

War graves [ Edit | Edit the source text ]

The largest and best known, built by Baker, the CWGC war grave site is “Tyne Cot” it was built in 1927 in a soldier’s cemetery from the battles before Ypres (Belgium). His successor as a senior architect for the construction of war graves in Europe was Sir Philip Dalton Hepworth, who also took over the architectural style of Baker and also preferred the sandkalk stone as a building material.

  • Gebäude der Bank of England

    Building of the Bank of England

  • Regierungsgebäude in Neu-Delhi

    Government building in Neu-Delhi

  • Präsidentenpalast in Neu-Delhi (vormals Sitz des englischen Vizekönigs in Indien)

    Presidential Palace in Neu-Delhi (formerly the seat of the English vice king in India)

  • Cross of Sacrifice der Kriegsgräberstätte Tyne Cot bei Ypern. (Das Kreuz selbst wurde von Reginald Blomfield gestaltet.)

    Cross of Sacrifice the war grave stall Tyne Cot at yellow. (The cross itself was designed by Reginald Blomfield.)

  • John Stewart: Sir Herbert Baker: Architect to the British Empire . McFarland, Jefferson, NC 2021, ISBN 9781476684345.
  1. ↑ Désirée Picton -seymour, Janek Szymanowski: Historical Buildings in South Africa . Struikhof, Cape Town 1989, S. 172, ISBN 0-947458-01-8
  2. ↑ Jesse Kamwaro: Nairobi fact file: Things you did not know about State House and other landmark buildings in Nairobi . Posting of December 2, 2015 at www.sde.co.ke (English)
  3. ↑ Daily Nation: 8 Kenya Railways Headquarters Moi Avenue . At www.nation.co.ke (English)
  4. ↑ Old Cambrian Society: Captain B.W.L. Nicholson RN, CBE, DSO. First Headmaster of the Prince of Wales School, 1931-1937 . On www.oldcambrians.com
  5. ↑ Old Cambrian Society: Indian School, Nairobi (the Duke of Gloucester School) . At www.oldcambrians.com (English)
  6. ↑ Muriel Emanuel: Contemporary Architects . Springer, p. 66, ISBN 9781349041848, online at www.books.google.de
  7. ↑ National Public Library: Prince of Wales School . Article of the World Heritage Encyclopedia, online at www.nationalpubliclicliBrary.info (English)
  8. ↑ Nairobi School: History ( Memento of the Originals from July 9, 2016 in Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been used automatically and not yet checked. Please check original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. @first @2 Template: Webachiv/Iabot/www.nairobischool.ac.ke . At www.nairobischool.ac.ke (English)
  9. ↑ Old Cambrian Society: Sir Herbert Baker and the Prince of Wales School . At www.oldcambrians.com (English)
  10. ↑ University of the Witwatersrand: Wits Reproductive Health & HIV Institute: The Past ( Memento of the Originals from July 9, 2016 in Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been used automatically and not yet checked. Please check original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. @first @2 Template: Webachiv/Iabot/www.wrhi.ac.za . At www.wrhi.ac.za (English)
  11. ↑ The Heritage Portal: Living Amongst the Stars at the Johannesburg Observatory . At www.theheritaPortal.co.za (English)
  12. ↑ Kimberley City Info: Monuments and Memorials . At www.kimberley.org.za (English)
  13. ↑ Stonehouse (House Baker) . At www.artefacts.co.za (English)
  14. ↑ Rhodesia Remembered: Cathedral’s Historic Site . Posting of April 20, 2012 at www.rhodesianheritage.blogspot.de (english)

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