Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Belfast-born architect, who practised from Colwyn Bay, Manchester and London. Charles Ernest Elcock was born into a Quaker family in Belfast in 1878.(1) He attended Bootham School, York, and was a student at the Belfast Technical College from 1895-96 before serving a pupilage with J.J.PHILLIPS & PHILLIPS & amp; SON of Belfast from 1896-1901. During his pupilage he attended classes at the Belfast School of Art and in 1900 won the School's Lanyon Travelling Studentship; he was also awarded a South Kensington scholarship.

Elcock left Ireland in 1901 to work as an assistant to Sir JOHN JAMES BURNET  JOHN JAMES BURNET in Glasgow, where he remained until 1905, after which he spent a year as chief assistant to Matear & Simon in Liverpool. From 1906 until 1912 he was in practice in Colwyn Bay in in partnership with J.M. Porter, and from 1912 to 1914 in Manchester, in partnership with John Brooke. From Manchester he moved to London, where he spent the rest of his career.(2)

In 1923 Elcock took his former pupil FREDERICK SUTCLIFFE  FREDERICK SUTCLIFFE into partnership. Elcock & Sutcliffe established a flourishing practice in the inter-war years, specializing in hospital design. In Ireland they were consultant architects for DONNELLY MOORE & DONNELLY MOORE & amp; KEATINGE' KEATINGE' s additions to Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital, Dublin, in 1932,(3) and in 1939 Elcock, and JOHN HAMILTON STEVENSON JOHN HAMILTON STEVENSON , designed the unit for paying patients at the Belfast Hospital for Sick Children.(4) On 19 November 1935 Elcock lectured to the AAI on hospital design and construction,(5) and the following year he gave a talk on architecture in Ulster for the Northern Ireland station of the BBC.(6) He died in 1944. He was married twice: first, in Glasgow, to Agnes Broome, by whom he had two daughters, and from whom he was divorced circa1934; second to an American named Esther.(7)

RIBA: elected licenciate, 20 March 1911 (proposed by J.J. Burnet, H.A. Matear and J.B. Gass); elected fellow, 2 December 1912 (proposed by J.J. Burnet, H.A. Matear, and J. Brooke).

See WORK, BIBLIOGRAPHY. BIBLIOGRAPHY.



References

All information in this entry not otherwise accounted for is from F.W. Chatterton, ed. Who's Who in Architecture (1923), 83, and Directory of British Architects 1834-1914 (RIBA 2001), I, 598. An obituary of Elcock (not seen) is in B 166, 28 Apr 1944, 345.

(1) www.familysearch.org, citing 'National Register of Quakers…Ireland'.
(2) According to Who's Who in Architecture (1923), he also had a branch office in York in that year.
(3) IB 74, 13 Feb 1932, 137; see also letter from Elcock and related correspondence, 18-25 Sep 1930, which may relate to this contract in PRONI,  D2403/R/1/3/5 (see PRONI e-catalogue).
(4) IB 81, 18 Mar 1939, 220; 82, 3 Aug 1940, 490.
(5) IB 77, 16,30 Nov 1935, 1049,1097.
(6) IB 78, 30 May,11 Jul 1936, 456,591.
(7) Information kindly supplied by Charles Elcock's granddaughter Diana Madeiros (née Pitt) Bermuda, Jan 2016.


2 work entries listed in chronological order for ELCOCK, CHARLES ERNEST


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Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, GRAND CANAL STREET LOWER, SIR PATRICK DUN'S HOSPITAL
Date: 1929-1934
Nature: New wing, extensive additions to designs by Donnelly, Moore & Keatinge. Consulting architects: Elcock & Sutcliffe.
Refs: IAA, PKS 0434 (includes drawings); IB 71, 30 Mar,28 Sep 1929, 280,884; 73, 26 Sep 1931, 830; 74, 13 Feb,2 Jul,17 Dec 1932, 137,611,1136; 75, 6 May 1933, 386

Building: CO. ANTRIM, BELFAST, FALLS ROAD, HOSPITAL FOR SICK CHILDREN
Date: 1939-1940
Nature: Paying patients' unit. With J.H. Stevenson. Contractor: H. & J. Martin
Refs: IB 81, 18 Feb,18 Mar 1939, 153,220; 82, 3 Aug 1940, 490

Author Title Date Details
Elcock, Charles Ernest 'Art[? or architecture] in Ulster' 1936 IB 78, 30 11 Jul 1936, 591. (Text, summary or note of talk for Belfast studio of BBC, but see also IB 78, 30 May 1936, 456.)