Arthur John Hope

Arthur John Hope, known as "AJ" was a British architect and president of the Manchester Society of Architects.
A. J. Hope was born on 2 October 1875 Atherton in the Historic [counties of England|historic county] of Lancashire. He attended Wigan Grammar School and studied civil engineering at the Bolton School of Science and Art. Hope entered the office of Bradshaw & Gass as a pupil in 1892 and was made a partner ten years later creating Bradshaw, Gass & Hope. Hope was admitted to the Royal Institute of British Architects as a licentiate in July 1911 after being proposed by his partner John Bradshaw Gass and Paul Ogden.
Hope was respected as a building planner but was a poor draftsman and required a large number of assistants to interpret his ideas. By the 1930s, he was an intimidating figure dominating an office in which there was a strict hierarchy of professions. One of his interpreters was George Grenfell Baines whose work so impressed Hope he considered making him a partner. Hope was a traditionalist, favouring a severe classical style derived from the later Georgian architects, with a strong dislike of Modernism; under his direction Bradshaw Gass & Hope continued to produce neo-Georgian designs until the 1960s.