Robert Kerr (architect)

Together with the only 18 year old Charles Gray, in 1847 Kerr was a founder of the Architectural Association (AA), becoming its first President, 1847–48.

Kerr had been elected a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) in 1857, where he served as an examiner and as a council member.

Between 1860–1902, Kerr was District Surveyor for the parish of St James's, Westminster, and 1861–90 Professor of the Arts of Construction at King's College London.

Nikolaus Pevsner describes it as "the climax [of country mansions], and in its brazen way one of the major Victorian monuments of England"[1]: 45  and "as far as scale is concerned, and the disregard for what we pygmies would call domestic comfort, Bear Wood is indeed nearer to Blenheim than to our poky villas"[1]: 79 Kerr's principal commercial building was the headquarters of the National Provident Institution (48 Gracechurch Street, City of London, 1862; destroyed) built in an Italianate style.

[2] Kerr was also the editor of the third edition of James Fergusson's History of the modern styles of architecture (London 1891) which he expanded.