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CURTIS was articled to Henry Wilson in London in 1896, an architect specialising in the Arts and Crafts and who later became president of the Art Workers Guild. CURTIS qualified in 1904, although his retirement by 1926 indicates that he was a more mature student. Records have shown that CURTIS had had a good training. He interrupted his articles to volunteer for the South African War and completed them in 1904, so he was part qualified while he was in South Africa. Curtis was in South Africa between 1899 and 1902 in the 24th Middlesex Volunteers (Army Post Office Corps) and saw active service. CURTIS designed at least two houses in England in the Cape Dutch Revival, there called Cape Colonial Style, one for Spenser Jackson who was also in the South African War, the other Good Hope House in Wimbledon, built for a South African client, P C van den P Hiddingh. There seems to be a tenuous connection with Rhodes. CURTIS married in South Africa, while he was still in the army, Edith Mabel Eaton daughter of TJ Eaton of Malmesbury, Cape Colony whose elder daughter, Emily Anna D'Urban Musgrave Eaton was married to Sir Edmond Sinclair Stevenson (1850- 1927) who is described in the Dictionary of South African Biography as physician and friend of Rhodes as well as physician to Milner and Sir Gordon Sprigg (he participated in Rhodes' autopsy). Thus Curtis' brother-in-law was Rhodes' doctor and he had married into the then South African elite. According to Curtis' daughter, (a fit 94 in 2002), her mother was a painter and painted depictions of Groote Schuur, so Curtis probably knew the place himself. His client for the house "Good Hope", Cornelius van der Poel Hiddingh was, presumably, from a similar (but Afrikaner) background and Curtis presumably met him in Cape Town. 'Good Hope' is clearly modeled on the house 'Groote Schuur', designed by Herbert BAKER for Cecil Rhodes in Westbrook, Cape Town in 1900, even with a plan reduced to about a third of Groote Schuur's, the ground floor arranged with much the same relationships and disposition. Originally it was a subtle combination symmetrical in plan and form, with two bold coped Dutch gables projecting both towards the street and the garden. Although the windows of the gables were designed with matching Venetian windows on the ground floor, the disposition of those in between was allowed to follow the dictates of the plan. This freedom of expression is more evident in the diminution of the scale of the first floor windows, tucked under the overhanging eaves gutter. The sweeping green slate roofs, pierced by tall white chimneys, are prominent and uncomplicated forms. This gives more emphasis to the projecting gables, to which the roofs return. Externally, there is a columned "stoep", or stoop, to the rear and Baker’s striking Diocletian and circular windows were included here as prominent features by CURTIS. Two years after Good Hope was completed, a "motor house" was built on the eastern boundary to no. 4 Highbury Road in the same style of white painted stucco, the southern gables being brought above the ridge and curved at the apex in the same spirit as the main house. [Extracted and edited from electronic correspondence of Francis Plowden and draft document 'PLANNING APPLICATION NO. 02/P1168 All truncated references not fully cited in 'References' are those of Joanna Walker's original text and cited in full in the 'Bibliography' entry of the Lexicon. | ||