{{Short description|British architect (1862–1940)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}} [[File:RedfordCavalryBlock.jpg|thumb|350px|Redford Cavalry Barracks, Edinburgh]] '''Harry Bell Measures''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|CBE|MVO}} (1862–1940) was an English architect.
==Career== He had a varied career. In 1884 to 1892 he was in-house architect for William Willett, producing high-quality housing for the wealthy in London and South East England; these were normally in the ornate red-brick Queen Anne style popular at the time. The buildings designed included 69 – 79 The Drive, Hove, built in 1887.<ref>[https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1209800 69 The Drive, Hove]. Grade II listed. Historic England website.</ref>
He was also responsible for a number of English "improved" working class housing developments, such as the Rowton Houses in London and Birmingham. He designed the original station buildings for the Central London Railway (CLR), now the Central line of the London Underground, which opened on 30 July 1900.
He was later the Director of Barrack Construction for the British War Office and was responsible for buildings such as Redford Barracks in Edinburgh, the new cordite incorporating houses at the Waltham Abbey Royal Gunpowder Mills and New Building, Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.<ref>[https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1390374 New Building, Royal Military Academy]. Grade II listed. Historic England website.</ref> Measures was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1918 New Year Honours for his work on barrack design.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=30460 |date=7 January 1918 |page=370 |supp=y}}</ref>
Measures is the paternal great-grandfather of the author, Christopher Joll.
==Other works== * Houses for Willett & Sons at Lyndhurst Gardens (1886), Hampstead * Houses for Willett & Sons at Eaton Avenue (1890), Hampstead * Works for Artizans, Labourers & General Dwellings Company on Leigham Court Estate, Streatham. * Union Jack Club, London, 1907 King Edward VII opened the club and appointed Measures a Member 4th Class of the Royal Victorian Order (MVO) for the work.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=28037 |date=5 July 1907|page=4610}}</ref> The building was badly damaged in the Blitz and demolished in 1970.
==Central London Railway== [[File:Oxford Circus tube station - Central Line Entrance.jpg|thumb|Measures-designed entrance to Oxford Circus station.]] [[File:ShpBushCent.jpg|thumb|Measures' original 1900 Shepherd's Bush station building (demolished 2008)]] Measures was responsible for a number of buildings on the original section of the CLR, many of which survive today as London Underground stations. He favoured terracotta as a building material, constructing his station buildings using factory-made ceramic blocks. This allowed him to design stylistically consistent structures quite economically. His tunnel platforms were lined with glazed ceramic tiles. Measures' techniques influenced the work of another contemporary Underground station architect, Leslie Green.<ref>{{cite book |editor-last1=Burman |editor-first1=Peter |editor-last2=Stratton |editor-first2=Michael |last=Lawrence |first=David |chapter=Underground architecture |title=Conserving the railway heritage |date=1997 |isbn=978-1-136-74500-3 |page=199 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ISQBAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA199 }}</ref> His 1900 design for Oxford Circus station was a single-storey entrance on the corner of Argyll Street and Oxford Street, clad in pale pink terracotta and decorated in a Mannerist style. Today it is considered to be the best surviving example of Measures-designed station architecture and the entrance, and the building above it, is Grade-II listed.<ref name="eh_1400976">{{National Heritage List for England |num=1400976 |desc=Oxford Circus Underground Station at the north-east corner of Argyll Street and Oxford Street, including offices above |accessdate=24 February 2016}}</ref><ref name=metadyne>{{cite web |last=Mike |first=Horne |accessdate=24 February 2016 |url=http://www.metadyne.co.uk/pdf_files/Oxo.pdf |title=The Story of a Station – Oxford Circus |archivedate=12 July 2015 |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150712104950/http://www.metadyne.co.uk/pdf_files/Oxo.pdf}}</ref> The red ceramic building on the western corner is by Leslie Green.
Measures designed the following stations on the CLR: * Shepherd's Bush (Central line) – building demolished and rebuilt to a completely different design in 2008. * Holland Park – station building remains in use * Notting Hill Gate – building demolished; new sub-surface station constructed * Queensway – opened as ''Queens Road''. The building remains in use * Lancaster Gate – building demolished and rebuilt to a different design as part of a tower block development * Marble Arch – Oxford Street entrance remains, but unrecognisable as a work by Measures * Bond Street – station rebuilt in 1920s by Charles Holden * Oxford Circus – the Grade-II-listed CLR building to the east of Argyll Street is a well-preserved example * Tottenham Court Road – opened as ''Oxford Street''. Not recognisable as a work by Measures when demolished in 2009. * British Museum – station closed in 1933 when new Central line platforms opened at Holborn. Demolished in the 1990s. * Chancery Lane – High Holborn station building remains but no longer used for access to the station * St Paul's – opened as ''Post Office''. Demolished in the 1930s * Bank – no surface building
Measures designed the CLR's Wood Lane Power Station (now known as the Dimco Buildings), which is Grade II listed.<ref>{{NHLE |num=1079757 |desc=Dimco Machine Tools |grade=II |access-date=13 May 2020}}</ref> He also designed the original station building for the railway's Wood Lane station, which opened in 1908 for the Franco-British Exhibition, although this was later modified to a design by Stanley Heaps. The station was closed in 1947 and the building has been demolished.
==References== *''Underground Architecture'', D Lawrence, London, Capital Transport, 1994 *''Modern Housing in Town & Country'', James Cornes, London, Batsford, 1905 {{reflist}}
==External links== {{commons category}} Images of Harry Bell Measures designed Central London Railway stations from [https://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/collections/collections-online/photographs London Transport Museum Photographic Archive]: * {{LTM archive|1998-88849|Shepherd's Bush, 1935}} * {{LTM archive|1998-67737|Holland Park, 1914}} * {{LTM archive|2006-12787|Notting Hill Gate, 1914}} * {{LTM archive|2007-2650|Queensway, 1914}} * {{LTM archive|1998-68502|Lancaster Gate, 1935}} * {{LTM archive|1998-88538|Marble Arch, 1929}} * {{LTM archive|1999-20107|Bond Street, circa 1914}} * {{LTM archive|1998-89983|Oxford Circus, 1927}} * {{LTM archive|1998-75606|Tottenham Court Road, 1914}} * {{LTM archive|1998-78698|British Museum, 1930}} * {{LTM archive|1998-66848|Chancery Lane, 1914}} * {{LTM archive|1998-88677|St Paul's, 1914}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Measures, Harry Bell}} Measures, Hary Bell Measures, Hary Bell Measures, Hary Bell Category:People associated with transport in London Category:Transport design in London Category:British railway architects Category:History of the London Underground Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Category:Members of the Royal Victorian Order