Background
Shaw was born on May 7, 1831 in Edinburgh, Scotland, the son of an Irish father and a Scots mother.
Shaw was born on May 7, 1831 in Edinburgh, Scotland, the son of an Irish father and a Scots mother.
At the age of sixteen Shaw went to London and became a pupil of William Burn. He also attended the architectural schools of the Royal Academy, and devoted careful study both to ancient and to the best contemporary buildings. In 1854, having finished his term of apprenticeship with Burn, he gained the gold medal and travelling studentship of the Royal Academy, and until 1856 travelled on the continent, studying and drawing old work.
Shaw joined Salvin's office in 1856 before accepting (1858) a position with Street in succession to Philip Webb.
He was influenced by A. W. N. Pugin's writings, but most of all by Street: he acknowledged the latter as his mentor.
In 1862 he set up in practice on his own, and then in 1863 with Eden Nesfield, specializing in domestic and commercial work, each influencing, but working independently of the other.
Shaw's early work included the Church of Holy Trinity, Bingley, Yorks. He was most successful in refining and applying elements derived from traditional houses of the Sussex Weald (including tall brick chimneys, much tile-hanging, and mullioned windows with leaded lights) to large country-houses.
Around 1870-1884 Shaw published Sketches of Cottages and Other Buildings (1878). Between 1879 and 1889 Shaw was assisted by Lethaby, and the character of his work began to change, as in the huge Albert Hall Mansions, Kensington Gore, London (1879-1886), the first block of flats in the new red-brick free style that was to be so influential for this type of development.
At the Alliance Assurance Offices, St James's Street, London (1881-1888), he introduced a hybrid style incorporating Renaissance scrolled gables, mullioned and transomed windows, and brick façades with bands of stone. Similar themes occur at the offices for the White Star Line, Liverpool (1895-1888 - with J. F. Doyle). 1890s: the Alliance Assurance Office, St James's (1901-1905), and the huge Piccadilly Hotel, Piccadilly, London (early 1900s).
Two other churches by him deserve mention: All Saints', Compton, Leek, Staffs.
1885-1887 - a wide, broad, church incorporating much personal interpretation of Second Pointed and Perpendicular detail, nave-arcades similar to those of the Bedford Park church, and some furnishings by Lethaby, and All Saints', Batchcott, Richard's Castle, Salop.
1890-1893 - again interpreting Second Pointed and Perpendicular detail, some of which was derived from local examples (e. g. the ball-flowers), the whole composed to give the impression of having been established and altered over a period.
In 1892 Shaw co-edited (with T. J. Jackson) Architecture: A Profession or an Art, in which the proposals to make the registration of architects compulsory were denounced. His last works were Portland House, London (1907-1908 - one of the first buildings with a reinforced-concrete frame in England), and studies for the new elevations for the Quadrant, Regent Street, London (1905-1908 - most unrealized, but finally built to designs by Blomfield and others).
Member of the Royal Academy (1877)