John Samuel Alder


John Samuel Alder FRIBA was a British architect known for his church buildings.

Life

Alder was born in Birmingham to Peter Alder and Eliza Pitt.
On 15 April 1884 he was married to Dorset-born Kate Beatrice Bater. They had three children: John Gordon ; Leonard Stanley Bates. The family eventually settled in the Hornsey area of north London,, living for a time at a house called Hillside on Muswell Road, off Colney Hatch Lane, London N10.
John Samuel Alder is buried in All Saints Carshalton.

Career

He began his professional life articled to the sibling architects George Cowley Haddon and Henry Rockliffe Haddon in Malvern and Hereford. At the end of his articles he became chief assistant to Frederick Preedy in London, where Alder later established his own practice. From 1914 until his death his business address was Effingham House, 1 Arundel Street, Strand. In 1916 he was made a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects.
From 1898 he worked in partnership with John Turrill who maintained the practice under Alder's name until at least 1924.
Apart from his work on churches, during and after his time in Preedy's office he designed and extended several country houses.

Works

Churches

Alder's many churches are to be found mostly in the then rapidly spreading north–London suburbs. His church buildings are notable for being not only economical to build but also spacious, in an unfussy late–gothic style; conservative for the end of the C19. He also designed church fittings.
Apart from his work on churches, during and after his time in Preedy's office he designed and extended several country houses, often undertaking dramatic reconstructions.