Anketell and Kingsley Henderson

Anketell and Kingsley Henderson was a Melbourne-based architecture practice that is best known, in Wellington, for the design of two Lambton Quay buildings, the former Australian Temperance and General Mutual Life Assurance Society Building (aka Harcourts) (1926-1928) and the former DIC Department Store (1928-1929). Both were designed in collaboration with local architects Atkins and Mitchell.

Anketell Matthew Henderson (1852-1922) was born in Ireland but moved to Australia with his family as a 10 year old boy. He studied engineering at the University of Melbourne and was articled to local firm Reed and Barnes where he was later made a partner. His son Kingsley Anketell Henderson (1883-1942) was articled to his father from 1901 and studied architecture, both at Melbourne University and Melbourne Technical College.  He joined his father as a partner in 1906 and the firm became known variously as Anketell and K. Henderson or A & K Henderson.

Working mainly in the Classical idiom in the design of hospital and office buildings, the firm became a significant force in Melbourne and Australasian architecture in the period after Anketell Henderson’s death in 1922.  The firm took on several competent architects, including Rodney Alsop and M. W. Martin and later John Freeman and Jack Wilson. It won architectural competitions during the 1920s and a number of awards, including a competition run in 1930 by The Herald to find Melbourne’s most beautiful buildings.  Two of the winners were the firm’s Bank of Australasia’s head office, completed in 1927 and the T & G Building (see below).   Lyric House (1930), in Melbourne  won R.V.I.A. Victorian Street Architecture medal in 1931, as did Shell Corner (1933, now demolished) in 1935. 
A & K Henderson’s skill in designing commercial office work brought the firm many significant commissions from banks and insurance companies, perhaps none more lucrative than their work for the Temperance and General (T & G) Mutual Life Assurance Society.  The organisation began a major programme of rebuilding during the late 1910s and the practice designed new buildings all over Australasia.  A house style was established, with variations in height, detailing and embellishments providing a stylistic difference between each office.  Some of the offices built during this period were Geelong (1920), Brisbane (1923), Adelaide (1924-25), head office, Melbourne (1928-29, 1939 and 1959), Wellington (1927-28), Sydney (1932), Newcastle (1935), Albury (1935, 1940), Hobart (1938), Palmerston North (1938).  

Other work included the Alcaston House, (1930) and National Trustees Executors Agency Co. Building in Melbourne (1939), both in Melbourne, Alfred Hospital and several buildings for the Commercial Bank of Australia.

Kingsley Henderson was president of Royal Australian Institute of Architects 1924-25 and 1930-31 and president of the council of the Royal Victorian Institute of Architects 1921-24.  He was president of the Architects' Registration Board in 1937.  He was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1938.  From 1917 to 1922 he was a member of the Malvern City Council.  He was the member of several Melbourne gentlemen’s clubs, a successful businessman and was the director of a number of companies. 
Henderson died suddenly on 6 April 1942 but the practice carried on until the early 1960s under Cedric Staughton with associates W.H. Lacey and L.C. Pillar. 

 

Sources:
‘Death of Mr Kingsley Henderson’, The Argus, 7 April 1942
Balderstone, Susan M., 'Henderson, Kingsley Anketell (1883–1942)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/henderson-kingsley-anketell-6634/text11405, viewed  3 November 2011
http://www.onmydoorstep.com.au/heritage-listing/2729/former-national-bank-of-australasia-head-office [viewed 3 November 2011]
Kelly, Michael, ‘T & G Building – A Significance Assessment’ prepared for the WCC, 11 November 2011