Philip J. Marvin Proposed Arts & Crafts House, Isle of Wight

Philip J. Marvin (1849–1931): Victorian Architect

This picture forms part of a fascinating group of varied works from the life of talented late-Victorian architect Philip J. Marvin (fl.1875–1926). Spanning the period from 1871 to 1905, they show the architect's early influences and his development into a mature style that encompasses Victorian Gothic Revival and Art and Crafts.

Philip J. Marvin was born to James and Eliza Marvin at 25 Union-street, Ryde, on the Isle of Wight, in 1849. One of nine children, his father was an ironmonger on Portsea. James Marvin was highly respected in the local area, as his 1886 obituary attests: 'Sound principles, a kind heart, and a love of truth and justice, were prominent characteristics of our departed townsman… there were few men in Ryde more genuinely respected'.

By 1871 Philip Marvin is listed as an architecture student, staying with family at Edmonton, Middlesex (now North London), and in 1874 he was awarded the Pugin Travelling Studentship of the Royal Academy for his magnificent neo-Gothic 'Design for a Public Library for a large provincial town'. Subsequent sketches in our collection dated 1875 and 1876 evidence Marvin's Continental travels, in Italy, Switzerland, France and Germany, where he meticulously documents details of Medieval, Gothic and Renaissance ornament, architecture and art. Then further sketches from the late 1870s show Marvin drawing architectural details at grand Tudor residences, Haddon Hall in Derbyshire and Bramhall Hall in Cheshire.

In the 1880s Marvin had numerous architectural drawings and designs published in architecture journals, such as the Architectural Association Sketchbook, The Builder and The Architect, including his Competition Design for the New Admiralty and War Offices in 1885. He appears to have had a preference for municipal and ecclesiastical buildings: in 1911 he is listed as Architect for the Admiralty, residing back in Ryde, and in 1915 he published a Royal Academy Exhibition design for a church in Malta. Many of Marvin's designs are in the RIBA archive at the V&A, including naval designs such as a 'Design for St Nicholas Church, Royal Naval Barracks, Devonport, Devon', 1924, and 'Design for the Church of the Royal Marine Depot, Deal, Kent', 1926. In some cases he appears to have been working with the ecclesiastical architectural practice Goldie, Child & Goldie.

Whilst much of Marvin's work is in the Victorian Gothic Revival style, there is also an interesting Arts and Crafts house design in the collection that seems to exemplify the close link between the two movements. Marvin's design shows a large seafront property, likely proposed for the Isle of Wight, perhaps suggesting a link to the Victorian cultural life of the island—which included Alfred Tennyson at Farringford, the Prinsep family, photographer Julia Margaret Cameron, and the artist George Frederic Watts. Julia Margaret Cameron had her large property on the island modified in a Gothic style, and the pioneering Victorian architect Philip Webb built a house for Watts at Freshwater in the Arts and Crafts style. The focus on crafted detail and historical reference were evidently central to Philip J. Marvin's practice, qualities shared with his innovative Ruskinian contemporaries.