Leonard Shuffrey
Leonard Shuffrey (31 March 1852 – 27 December 1926) was a British architect and architectural designer of the late Victorian and Edwardian period.
He was a leading figure of the aesthetic movement that had a significant impact on the development of buildings and their interiors and their settings, both across London and the South of England.
[1] Noted for his wallpaper, fireplaces and ornate plasterwork, Shuffrey was thought the equal of William Morris in his creativity and skill as a craftsman.
[11] Leonard Shuffrey worked briefly for Carron's ironworks, before becoming articled to the architect Banister Fletcher (senior) in London.
Early in his career he developed an intense interest in decorative design, and appears to have focused on, and made a name for himself in, this area of work.
In 1882, the firm had a stand at the Fine Art & Industrial Exhibition at St James' Hall in Manchester, where their display included mantels, fireplaces, paperhangings and door furniture.
Shuffrey could always demonstrate to the wood carver or modeller in clay, with his own hand the effect he wanted, and everything that came from his studio reflected his own skill as a craftsman and designer.
[25][19] In addition, in 1909, Shuffrey and his siblings donated a pulpit and chancel screen dedicated to their parents in Holy Trinity Church, Wood Green.
It was praised for its creativity and affordability by ordinary home owners: "Shuffrey appear to have met a want in producing inexpensive wall-papers of good design suitable for houses of the middle-classes, and the prices they quote are sufficiently low to enable a tenant to paper his room throughout with patterns that will form a quiet background, and be free from artistic objections.
"[24] The Builder Magazine wrote: "The 'Daisy' pattern, in red, blue, and green, is pleasingly arranged, well covering the ground with leaves and flowers, and the price is 3s.
[2] Fireplaces provided a central occupation of Shuffrey's lifetime, and his showrooms were filled with interesting examples in wood and metal, "amongst which he moved like a curator in museum, loving to explain memorable facts about them".
[35] The work entailed the addition of a 55-foot 'Jacobean' library; a two-story Edwardian living hall with a sprung floor for ballroom dancing, a cabin and music gallery with a secret staircase 'carried up in the fireplace recess'.
Here his work complements heraldic stained glass by Herbert Bryans and Christopher Webb, and the Library by his old collaborator Edward Ould.
[3] In 1926, the final year of Shuffrey's life, he designed a plaster barrel roof for the 'new' War Memorial Library at Trinity College, Oxford.
The east wall around the reredos was further beautified in 1928 with highly accomplished painted angels by another Ealing-based artist, Henry Charles Brewer.
[42][43] In 1896 a visit was paid to the newly-completed St Peter's by the members of the Architectural Association, who afterwards received tea at Thorncote, Shuffrey's new House a short distance away.
The medal had had only three previous recipients – the distinguished architects and designers William Blake Richmond, John Dibblee Crace and Metford Warner.
[43] Shuffrey's decorated plaster barrel roof in the 'new' War Memorial Library at Trinity College, Oxford was still under construction when he died.
Nothing came from his studio that did not bear the impress of his own faculty for design, and looking back over the wide range of wall papers, fireplace, paster work, hand painted tiles, woodwork, ecclesiastical decoration, and stained glass, it is hard to believe that the life of one man could comprise so much invention.
This was partly because Paul Shuffrey was not a trained architect and lacked his father's skill as a craftsman, compounded by a substantial reduction in demand following the War.
Paul Shuffrey continued to live in a flat at the firm's former premises on New Cavendish Street, from where he edited the Church Quarterly Review.
His will made provision to endow a fellowship at Lincoln College, Oxford in his father's memory, since when there have been numerous notable Shuffrey Fellows.
