Arthur Stansfield Dixon

Who was Arthur Stansfield Dixon?

Arthur Stansfield Dixon was an English metal worker and architect.

Born in Edgbaston, Birmingham, he was the eldest son of education reformer and MP George Dixon. He founded the Birmingham Guild of Handicraft and designed their headquarters in Great Charles Street. The building is still extant, but converted to offices.

He also designed the Romanesque style, brick-built Church of St John & St Basil in Heath Mill lane in the city's Digbeth district. It was described by Nicholas Pevsner as "the finest example of his Arts and Crafts primitivism". A further church design was St Andrew’s Church, Barnt Green, Worcestershire.

In 1917 he was commissioned to design Seoul Anglican Cathedral in Korea; construction began in 1922 but was only completed in 1996 after the original plans were rediscovered.

His son James, serving in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment during World War I, was killed aged 22.

Pevsner described Dixon as "an Anglo-Catholic Socialist who associated Gothic with establishment conservatism and dreary Anglican piety".