Name

Edward Salomons

Designation
Architect
Born
1828
Place of Birth
London
Location
Manchester
Died
1906

  • Born:     1828 at London
  • Married (I) : October 1873 Charlotte of Carlotta Marian Montgarry at Liverpool. Divorced 1870
  • Married (II) : 29 September 1877 Gertrude Bruce Roberts at Strand Registry Office, London
  • Died:     12 May 1906
  • Funeral : Manchester Crematorium

Edward Salomons was born in London in 1828, the youngest son of Henry Moses Salomons, a German Jewish cotton merchant and his English wife Priscilla Lucas. The family moved to Manchester when he was nine. He was educated by tutors and was for a time in his father’s warehouse. Edward Salomons was bought up in the Jewish faith, his father a leading member of the Reform Jewish Congregation. Nonetheless, and probably from as early as 1846 Salomons was employed as a draughtsman in the office of the church architects Henry Bowman and Joseph Stretch Crowther and worked on the drawings for 'Churches of the Middle Ages', which appeared in two-monthly intervals from May 1849 until July 1852 and was published in book form in 1853. In 1850-51 or 1851-52 Salomons spent one year in the office of the Scottish architect John Edgar Gregan in Manchester. By 1850 he was also enrolled at the Manchester School of Design and on 28 April 1851 he was admitted ARIBA. As his nomination paper is missing, the circumstances of this very early election are not known. He was already an exceptionally fine draughtsman and colourist. Following the visit of Queen Victoria to Manchester in 1851, Salomons published a print of the royal procession in Piccadilly.

In 1852 Salomons commenced independent practice, working from his parents’ home in Plymouth Grove.  In 1863 he moved to an office in King Street, Manchester. He was first employed by the Committee for the New Free Trade Hall and early in 1853 details of his provisional scheme for the new building were published in the Manchester Guardian. Concerned that the design of so important a building should be entrusted to so inexperienced an architect, the committee organised a competition, won by Edward Walters with Salomons awarded the second premium (by way of reward?).  Three years later, in 1856, he won the competition for the masonry shell of Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition Building of 1857. He was admitted FRIBA on 19 March 1860.

Although Salomons was primarily based in Manchester. He had an unusually complex series of professional relationships in both Manchester and London where his business was at least partly related to his friends and clients, the Manchester art dealers Thomas and William Agnew who had opened a London gallery in 1860. In 1863 he designed the Bayswater synagogue in association with the newly established London architect Nathan Solomon Joseph. In 1870 he merged his practice with that of the London architect John Philpot Jones who had commenced business in 1857. Both the Manchester and London offices continued to operate. From 1871 the two men were associated with William Henry Crossland in the competition for and subsequent building of Royal Holloway Sanatorium at Virginia Water, mainly the work of Crossland;

John Philpot Jones died in 1873, aged 43, Ralph Selden Wornum becoming chief assistant in charge of the London office.  in the same year John Ely became chief assistant in the Manchester office and in 1875 Manchester partner, the practice title becoming Salomons & Ely. In London Wornum was taken into partnership in 1877 and continued running the London practice as Salomons & Wornum in parallel with that in Manchester. The partnership with Ely ended in 1886 and that with Wornum in 1888, both practising in their own names thereafter. The parting with Ely must have been amicable as Ely appears to have been in the office fairly frequently in 1890-91, Salomons’s assistant Stanley Davenport Adshead remembering Salomons and Ely as ‘delightful people’. By that date Salomons had entered into a final partnership with the Stuttgart-trained architect Alfred Steinthal who had joined him from William Young’s office in 1888. By the late 1890s Salomons had all but retired, his practice in Manchester being continued by Steinthal.

Salomons had a very large practice which extended beyond the German and Jewish communities through the family’s business connections and numerous club memberships which ranged from theatre to bridge. Although one of the most original architects of the mid to late Victorian times, he had no great success in competitions, his one major win being the Manchester Reform Club in 1869. But in his earlier years he designed several synagogues and theatres and throughout the 1860s and early 1870s, he had a great many commissions in Manchester for warehouses and commercial buildings, mostly in a free early Italian Renaissance or Romanesque manner, his later buildings for Agnew’s in London (1876) and Liverpool (1877) being reputedly Queen Anne and a very distinctive free classic. Although his commercial practice declined in the 1880s, his domestic practice grew, extending as far as Amsterdam, Brussels and Biarritz. Much of it followed ‘Old English’ patterns in half-timber and tile.

Salomons was as much artist as architect, exhibiting pictures as well as buildings at the Royal Academy, while others were illustrated in the Builder. In London he was a member of Lord Leighton’s circle, and of the Savage Club. He was twice President of the Manchester Society of Architects (1871-3 and 1892-4). A prominent member of the Royal Institution and for twenty years its Honorary Secretary.  Member of the City Art Gallery Committee and for many years on the Committee of the School of Art.

In October 1863 at the registry office in Liverpool Edward Salomons married Charlotte of Carlotta Marian Montgarry, of whom little is known. The union produced three children, two of whom pre-deceased their father, while the eldest (whose birth appears to pre-date the marriage) emigrated to Australia. However, after 1867 the marriage became increasingly strained. Taking advantage of new legislation, Edward Salomons divorced Charlotte on the grounds of adultery in February 1870.  He next married Gertrude Bruce Roberts on 29 September 1877 at Strand Registry Office. The birth of Ernest followed in 1878, Dorothy Netta in 1880 and Gerald in 1882. Gertrude was not Jewish, and by this time Salomons faith had also lapsed.

Edward Salomons died at Ireton Bank, Platt Lane, Rusholme, Manchester on 12 May 1906, and was cremated at the Manchester Crematorium which he and Steinthal had designed in 1891-92.

Following his death his widow, Netta and Gerald took the unusual step of changing their surname, adopting Gerald’s second fore-name, Sanville. In September 1906, four months after his father’s death, Gerald wrote "I have now changed my name of Salomons; so my proper name is now Gerald Sanville, and not Gerald Sanville Salomons” [Building News 21 September 1906 Page 399]. Reasons for this decision are unclear but strongly suggest a skeleton in Salomons cupboard – possibly his divorce – sufficient for the family to effectively disown him.

Address
1851-2    Plymouth Grove Manchester
1853    63 King Street Manchester- (Manchester Guardian. not listed in Whelan Directory under architects)
1856    61 King Street Manchester (advert M G)
1863    63 King Street Manchester
1866    63 King Street Manchester
1876    Salomons & Ely, MSA 31 South King Street
1877    Edward Salomons MSA (Salomons & Ely) 31 South King Street
1879    Edward Salomons MSA (Salomons & Ely) 31 South King Street
1880    Salomons & Ely, 31 South King Street. (BA Directory of Architects 2 July 1880)
1883    Edward Salomons FRIBA MSA (Salomons & Ely) 31 South King Street
1886    Edward Salomons FRIBA MSA (Salomons & Ely) 31 South King Street
1895    Edward Salomons FRIBA FMSA (Salomons & Steinthal) 31 South King Street
1903    Edward Salomons FRIBA FMSA (Salomons & Steinthal) Prudential Buildings 78 King Street

London offices   
1870        21 Whitehall Place
1883        Bond Street
1884-6        39a Old Bond Street London.

Residence
1863        64 Plymouth Grove
1870        “Woodville,” 170 Wilmslow Road, Fallowfield
1876        “Woodville,” 170 Wilmslow Road, Fallowfield
1879        “Woodville” 170 Wilmslow Road, Fallowfield
1881        “Woodville” 170 Wilmslow Road, Fallowfield (Census return)
1881        The Cottage, 68, Daisy Bank Road, Victoria Park rate book
1883        The Cottage, 68, Daisy Bank Road, Victoria Park
1885        The Gables, Hope Road, Victoria Park Rusholme
1906        Ireton Bank, Platt Lane Rusholme

1889        8 Buckingham Street St Martin in the Fields London (Westminster Rate Book)

Buildings and Designs

Building Name District Town/City County Country
Provisional Scheme Free Trade Hall Peter Street Manchester Central  Manchester  GMCA  England
Second Free Trade Hall - Demolition Central  Manchester  GMCA  England
Third Manchester Free Trade Hall (Architectural Competition) Central  Manchester  GMCA  England
Customs House and Warehouse Payta Peru   Payta    Peru
St Mary's Hospital, Quay Street, Manchester, (Architectural Competition) Central  Manchester  GMCA  England
Art Treasures Building Old Trafford Old Trafford  Manchester  GMCA  England
Art Treasures Exhibition: Temporary Railway Station Old Trafford Old Trafford  Manchester  GMCA  England
David Lee and Company Warehouse Fountain Street Manchester Central  Manchester  GMCA  England
Reform Synagogue Park Place Cheetham Manchester Cheetham  Manchester  GMCA  England
Alterations: Reform Synagogue Park Place Cheetham Manchester Cheetham  Manchester  GMCA  England
Manchester Schiller Festival; Free Trade Hall Central  Manchester  GMCA  England
Interior Decoration and Reredos: St Peter’s Church St Peter’s Square Manchester   Manchester  GMCA  England
Old Bayswater Synagogue Chichester Place Harrow Road Bayswater Bayswater  London  Greater London  England
New Exchange Liverpool (Architectural Competition)       England
Prince’s Theatre Oxford Street Manchester   Manchester  GMCA  England
Wesleyan Chapel Guide Lane Hooley Hill Ashton-under-Lyne Hooley Hill  Ashton-under-Lyne  GMCA  England
Warehouse 16 John Dalton Street   Manchester  GMCA  England
Prince of Wales Theatre Rochdale   Rochdale  GMCA  England
Clinical Hospital and Dispensary for Children Park Place Cheetham Cheetham  Manchester  GMCA  England
Alexandra Theatre and Opera House Lime Street Liverpool Central  Liverpool  Merseyside  England
Proposed Opera House Leicester Square London   London  Greater London  England
Warehouse for Edward Brooke   Manchester  GMCA  England
Strauss Warehouse Peter Street Central  Manchester  GMCA  England
Nathan Warehouse Portland Street Central  Manchester  GMCA  England
Jeffryes (J R Jaffray?) Warehouse, Portland Street, Manchester Central  Manchester  GMCA  England
Swann Warehouse (Peter Street?) Central  Manchester  GMCA  England
Stratton Warehouse Peter Street Central  Manchester  GMCA  England
Marshall Warehouse Peter Street Central  Manchester  GMCA  England
Warehouse Turner Street Central  Manchester  GMCA  England
Shops Oldham Street Central  Manchester  GMCA  England
Shops and Offices Market Street Central  Manchester  GMCA  England
Competition Entry: Manchester Town Hall   Manchester  GMCA  England
"Sunniside" Alderley Edge   Aldeley Edge  Cheshire  England
Warehouses and Offices Portland Street / Princess Street Manchester Central  Manchester  GMCA  England
Manchester Jews School, Derby Street, Cheetham Cheetham  Manchester  GMCA  England
Abattoirs and Carcase Market Water Street (Architectural Competition) Central  Manchester    England
Queen’s Theatre Bridge Street Manchester Central  Manchester  GMCA  England
Massey Chambers 6 Booth Street Manchester Central  Manchester  GMCA  England
Manchester and Salford Savings Bank 8-10 Booth Street Manchester Central  Manchester  GMCA  England
Case for Electric Clock St Ann’s Square Manchester Central  Manchester  GMCA  England
Synagogue Liverpool (Select Architectural Competition)   Liverpool  Merseyside  England
Competition entry: Manchester Conservative Club, St. Ann's Street, Manchester Central  Manchester  GMCA  England
“Woodlands” Bonville Road Dunham Massey Dunham Massey  Altrincham  GMCA  England
“Duke of Edinburgh Hotel” Alexandra Road and Greame Street Moss Side Moss Side  Manchester  GMCA  England
Grosvenor Hotel, Deansgate and Victoria Bridge Street, Manchester Central  Manchester  GMCA  England
House for Captain H A Bennett JP 66 Nelson Street Chorlton-on-Medlock Chorlton-on-Medlock  Manchester  GMCA  England
Library, Captain Bennet’s House, 66 Nelson Street Manchester Chorlton-on-Medlock  Manchester  GMCA  England
Jessiefield House and Nab Farm Offerton near Stockport Offerton  Stockport  GMCA  England
Interior Decoration and Reredos: St Peter’s Church St Peter’s Square Manchester Central  Manchester  GMCA  England
Alterations to Gentlemen's Concert Hall Central  Manchester  GMCA  England
Memorial to William Hull: Grasmere Church   Grasmere  Cumbria  England
The Cottage” 68 Daisy Bank Road Victoria Park Manchester Victoria Park  Manchester  GMCA  England
“The Gables” Hope Road Victoria Park Rusholme. Victoria Park  Manchester  GMCA  England
Organ Case Royal College of Music Ducie Street Chorlton-on-Medlock  Manchester  GMCA  England
"Netherby", Barlow Moor Road, Didsbury Didsbury  Manchester  GMCA  England
1875 Redecoration and Improvement: Theatre Royal, Peter Street, Manchester Central  Manchester  GMCA  England

Partnerships

Name Designation Formed Dissolved Location
Salomons and Ely Architectural practice 1875 1886 Manchester
Salomons and Jones Architectural practice 1870 1873 Manchester London
Salomons and Steinthal Architectural practice 1888 1897 Manchester
Salomons and Wornum Architectural practice 1877 1888 London