Henry Roberts (architect)

Henry Roberts ( born April 16, 1803 in Philadelphia, USA, † March 9, 1876 in Florence) was a British architect, known for his development of model homes for industrial workers in the nascent industrialization in England.

Life and work

Henry Roberts was born in 1803 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of an Anglo- American trade man. Shortly after his birth, his family returned to the UK. 1818 Roberts began a seven-year apprenticeship with Charles Fowler. He then attended the Royal Academy and worked for Robert Smirke. He also took part in various competitions.

In 1828 he went on a trip to Italy. He was particularly impressed from the Ospedale L' Albergo Reale dei Poveri, a poor house in Naples,. Than philanthropic project of Charles III Was given in 1751 in order. In 1830 he returned to London and opened his own office. In 1832 he won the competition for the Fishmongers Hall. At this time he also built a number of country houses of the English aristocracy and took George Gilbert Scott as an apprentice on which Roberts should be described as independent, polite, religious, precise and quiet man later. 1844 Roberts was appointed architect of Brighton, Croydon, Dover and Greenwich Railway.

Since 1825, Roberts worked with the design for residential buildings and settlements for industrial workers. In the advent of industrialization, housing for industrial workers was a pressing issue, among other things resulted in the poor sanitary conditions of the slums to recurrent epidemics. At that time, formed in England a number of philanthropic societies who wanted to accept this problem. From 1844 Roberts is in close contact with the Society for Improving the Condition of the Labouring Classes. For this organization, and later also for the Metropolitan Association for Improving the Dwellings of the Industrious Classes Roberts designed a series of innovative housing estates, such as the model settlement on the Streatham Street, Bloomsbury. For the World Exhibition of 1851 he was commissioned by Prince Albert of a prototype of a two-storey worker's house with four apartments, which are arranged in pairs around a common staircase. This type of model had a great influence on the further planning of workers' houses for the rest of the century.

Roberts was out next to his architectural work, numerous translated into various languages ​​writings to the reform movement.

His last years were spent Roberts in Italy. He died in 1876 in Florence.

Publications

• The Dwellings of the Labouring Classes, 1850.
• The Improvement of the Dwellings of the Labouring Classes through the operation of Government Measures, 1859.
• The Essentials of a Healthy Dwelling and the extension of its benefits to the Labouring Population, 1862.
• The Physical Condition of the Labouring Classes Resulting from the State of Their Dwellings, 1866.
• Efforts on the Continent for Improving the Dwellings of the Labouring Classes, 1874.