Alexander North

(b Huddersfield, 2 Oct 1858; d Rowella, Tasmania, 28 May 1945). Australian architect of English birth. He studied at the Kendal School of Art, Cumberland, and the Lambeth School of Art, London; he was articled in Kendal and he worked for the church architect James Cubitt, whose writings influenced him. He travelled widely in Europe, and in a national competition (1883) for art schools he won the gold medal for his cathedral drawings. In 1883 he emigrated to Tasmania and first worked for the Tasmanian Government in Hobart; he was later in partnership in Launceston successively with L. G. Corrie, W. H. Dunning, A. H. Masters, R. F. Ricards, F. J. Heyward and, in Melbourne, with Louis R. Williams from 1913 to 1920. North's early work shows the influence of R. Norman Shaw and William Burges in the adoption of massive forms, Queen Anne style and French detailing; the Anglo-Dutch idiom of the Launceston Post Office (c. 1885-9), and the unfinished designs for the YMCA Building (1889), Launceston, and the Palace Hotel (1890), Burnie, demonstrate Shaw's influence. North's French Gothic style, influenced by Burges and others, can be seen in St Michael's (1889), Bothwell, as well as in the completion of the church of the Apostles (1888) and the chancel and transepts of Holy Trinity Church (1898-1902), both in Launceston. He later became more innovative in design and construction, developing a personal style with a recurrent vocabulary of details using banded brickwork, stone, timber and reinforced concrete, of which he was an early exponent. He also became Australia's leading church designer in the Arts and Crafts style, with work in three Australian states, New Zealand and Fiji. In the early 20th century North developed a more personal and free synthesis of the Gothic style, best exemplified at St John's (1901-11), Launceston, and Trinity College Chapel (1914-15), University of Melbourne, which are both notable for their unusual proportions and use of flanking turrets, fl?ches, carving and traceried windows. An important patron of the local Arts and Crafts Movement, he incorporated Australian flora and fauna in ornamental details and involved many craftsmen in the execution of his designs.

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