Harry Redfern

Who was Harry Redfern?

Henry 'Harry' Redfern was a British architect.

Redfern designed work in Oxford, Cambridge, Abingdon and Carlisle. At the University of Cambridge he was architect of the chemical, metallurgical, physical and biological laboratories, and restored portions of Christ's College, Cambridge and Magdalene College, Cambridge. At Oxford he carried out additions and restoration work at Oriel College, Oxford and St John's College, Oxford; and was architect of the bio-chemistry laboratories.

At Abingdon he completed work at St Michael's church, the Malthouse, designed the lodge at Abingdon School and restored the Roysse Room. He was responsible for designing, in an imaginative and varied manner, a number of notable public houses in the Carlisle district under the auspices, as chief architect, of the Home Office State Management Scheme. The SMS built fourteen New Model Inns to Redfern's designs, with a strong theme of the Arts and Crafts movement.

He was commemorated towards the end of his work for the SMS by the naming of the Redfern Inn, one of the distinctive New Model Inn designs, in Etterby, a district of Carlisle. The Redfern was designed by his assistant architect, Joseph Seddon, FRIBA. It was a tribute to a man who had dedicated his talents to the quest for an improved public house style.