Architect, England and South Africa
Herbert Baker’s prolific practice produced a wide variety of work in England and
abroad. His work ranged from country houses to ecclesiastical work and public buildings
and most notably includes the government Houses in both South Africa and India.
Indeed, Baker is credited with the creation of a South African architecture by giving
expression to the dreams of his great patron, Cecil Rhodes, who wished to create a
distinguished and permanent culture.
As a contemporary of Edwin Lutyens, Baker’s particular distinction lay in his ability
to range from Arts and Crafts in his domestic work, to a dignified monumental style,
sensitively modified to accommodate technology, and different national and climatic
conditions.
Baker was born in Kent, and attended the Royal Academy School, London, from 1879
until 1881, when he was apprenticed to his cousin, Arthur Baker. Between 1882 and
1887, he served as lead assistant in the office of celebrated domestic architects, George
and Peto, where he claimed to have gained invaluable experience. Emphasis was placed
on the importance of working drawings, sketching tours, and above all, respect for high
levels of craftsmanship. It was there that he met Lutyens, who was an apprentice with the
firm from 1887.
In 1892 Baker began his own practice in Cape Town, South Africa, where he met
Rhodes, who commissioned the restoration of his home, Groote Schuur. It was originally
completed in 1895 but destroyed by fire and rebuilt by Baker. The final design was an
adaptation of the old Cape Dutch style and alerted South Africans to the supremacy of
their 17th- and 18th-century buildings over recent 19th-century work. The interiors are
indebted to George and Peto, in Baker’s elaborate amalgamation of English Tudor and
Cape Dutch and in his employment of a consistent group of craftsmen.
Baker was appointed diocesan architect for Cape Town, and was responsible for
building many churches, including St. George’s Cathedral (1898, Cape Town), all of
which were characterized by a round-arched style that combined rough-hewn stone and
white plaster. A flow of both domestic and commercial buildings followed.
Baker designed many houses in Johannesburg built in response to the short-lived
mining boom. His style provided a synthesis of indigenous sources, including
Mediterranean vernacular, and English Arts and Crafts, which were emulated in
numerous suburbs.
In 1900 Baker retraced Rhodes’s steps while on a tour of Egypt, Greece, and Italy.
Rhodes’s tour had inspired him to a series of classical architectural dreams that sadly
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were to materialize only in his memorial, which was built by Baker at Mowbray, Cape
Town. Baker also designed memorials to the Shangani tribe for the Matabele War of
1897 and a monument, the Honored Dead (1905), at Kimberley, Cape Province, that was inspired by
Rome and Agrigentum. Following Rhodes’s death in 1902, Lord Milner assumed
responsibility for reconstruction in the Transvaal and Orange River Colony after the Boer
War.
Baker and his partner, Francis E.Masey, produced government buildings, churches,
houses, and agricultural and mining settlements. Pretoria Cathedral was begun in 1905,
but was only partially completed. Government House (1907, Pretoria) and Pretoria
Railway Station (1909) heralded the Union Buildings style. The work was commissioned
by General Botha, South Africa’s first prime minister, and came as a result of the
legislature remaining in Cape Town; the Pretoria Union Buildings (1912) represent
Baker’s most important work in South Africa, and lend expression to his belief that a
nation should demonstrate pride by the creation of noble monuments. In this work,
traditional European Neoclassical forms were combined with a serious concern to adapt
to local materials and technology. Twin cupola towers, evoking Wren’s Greenwich
Hospital, were linked by a concave hemicycle to prevent them from dominating the low
ground that they crowned.
Lutyens recommended that Baker share with him in the building of the
new government buildings in New Delhi. Unfortunately a disagreement
over the leveling of the central King’s Way leading to Lutyen’s Viceregal
Lodge led to a long estrangement. Whereas Baker’s designs were
sympathetic to the Mogul tradition, those by Lutyens were rather more
dispassionate and individual. In 1913 Baker returned to England and, with
his subsequent partner, Francis Fleming, designed the twin-domed
Secretariat Building and the circular Legislature Building.
In 1917 the War Graves Commission invited Baker to make recommendations about
cemeteries and monuments that were designed to give expression to inarticulated grief.
Compared with Lutyens, who strove for abstract monumentality, Baker favored a more
literal symbolism, reveling in the intricacies of heraldry and literary quotation. His
designs included the Indian Memorial at Neuve Chapelle and the South African
Memorial at Deville Wood. He produced a formidable number of buildings in England
following World War I, culminating in South Africa House (1935) in London.
Following a distinguished career, Baker was knighted in 1926.
Biography
Born in Cobham, Kent, England, 9 June 1862. Studied at the Royal Academy School of
Architecture, London 1879–81; apprenticed to cousin Arthur Baker, architect 1879–82.
Married Florence Edmeades 1904:4 children. Worked for Ernest George and Harold
Peto, London 1882–87. Opened office in Gravesend, Kent 1890; moved to Cape Town,
South Africa and was appointed architect to Cecil Rhodes 1892; opened office in
Johannesburg, South Africa 1902; formed partnership first with Willmott Sloper, then
Francis Flemming; returned to London in 1913 and continued practice until 1946; worked
with Edwin Lutyens in New Delhi, India 1913–31; principal architect to Imperial War
Graves Commission 1918–28; architect to the Bank of England from 1921. Fellow, Royal
Institute of British Architects 1900; founder and member, South African Society of
Architects 1901; associate, Royal Academy 1922; member, Royal Academy 1932.
Knighted 1926; Gold Medal, Royal Institute of British Architects 1927. Died in Cobham,
Kent, England, 4 February 1946.
Selected Works
Groote Schuur (Cecil Rhodes House), Rondesbosch, South Africa, 1895; rebuilt after
fire, 1897
St. George’s Cathedral, Cape Town, 1898
Kimberley Siege Memorial, Cape Province, 1905
Pretoria Cathedral (incomplete), Pretoria, 1905
Government House, Pretoria, 1907
Cecil Rhodes Memorial, Mowbray, 1908
Railway Station, Pretoria, 1909
Union Buildings, Pretoria, 1912
Numerous war cemeteries and memorials, Belgium, France, England, 1918–28
India House, Aldwych, London, 1925
Secretariat Building, New Delhi, 1927
Legislative Assembly Building, New Delhi, 1928
South Africa House, Trafalgar Square, London, 1935
