Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo

Who was Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo?

Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo was a progressive English architect and designer, who influenced the Arts and Crafts Movement, notably through the Century Guild of Artists, which he set up in partnership with Selwyn Image in 1882.

Mackmurdo was the son of a wealthy chemical manufacturer. He was educated at Felsted School, and was first trained under the architect T. Chatfield Clarke, from whom he claimed to have learnt nothing. Then, in 1869, he became an assistant to the Gothic Revival architect James Brooks. In 1873, he visited John Ruskin's School of Drawing, and accompanied Ruskin to Italy in 1874. He stayed on to study in Florence for a while; despite the influence of Ruskin, the Italian architecture he was most impressed by was that of the Renaissance. That same year, Mackmurdo opened his own architectural practice at 28, Southampton Street, in London.

In 1882, Mackmurdo founded the Century Guild of Artists. Other members included Selwyn Image, Herbert Horne, Clement Heaton and Ruskin's protegee, the sculptor Benjamin Creswick. It was one of the more successful craft guilds of its time.