Vincent Esch
Vincent Jerome Esch, was a British architect who worked in India. He is regarded as a pioneer of the Indo-Saracenic architectural style, which developed during the British rule in the Indian subcontinent.
Born in London, he moved to India in 1898, and was appointed assistant engineer on the Bengal Nagpur Railway before setting himself up as an architect in Calcutta.
In 1914, he was invited to Hyderabad by the Nizam, to design some major public buildings. He designed the Kacheguda railway station, the High Court, the City College, and the Osmania General Hospital in Hyderabad. He was in Hyderabad until 1921, then returned to Calcutta. He later returned to England, and died in 1950.
Early life and background
He was born the son of C.A. Bernard Esch, a merchant banker of Blackheath, London and educated at Mount St Mary's College. He then trained as an architect in London.Career
Early career
Esch moved to India in 1898 and was appointed assistant engineer on the Bengal Nagpur Railway and also established a private practise in Calcutta . During this period he designed some of the important building in the city such as the Allahabad Bank, the Temple ChamberVis, the Royal Calcutta Turf Club and Bengal Club. After designing the temporary exhibition building for the Delhi Durbar of 1903, he was employed as an assistant architect to Sir William Emerson, who had been chosen to design the monumental Victoria Memorial Hall in Calcutta. Esch was given the role of Superintending Architect and made major contributions to the design of the building. He had also won a competition to design the Bengal-Nagpur Railway head office building at Garden Reach.Buildings designed by Esch in Calcutta respected the inherent architectural vocabulary of Calcutta and followed an architectural style of restrained classicism, he preferred the use of iconic order. However, while designing of Bengal-Nagpur Railway head office he included regional architectural elements like bengal roofs and jharokha. Similar concept is applied to Victoria Memorial Kolkata by Esch by introducing small domes in the four corners and around the central dome. Esch describes this addition in his paper in the following words:
"The style of design is purist classic with a refined suggestion of Indian character in the beautiful carved brackets to maintain cornice, some of the floral decoration and the shape of the smaller dome"
Another important contribution of Esch to widely use concrete in the buildings for structural purposes. In Victoria Memorial he replaced the intended deep foundation with concrete and in Allahabad precast concrete is used for superstructure as well.
Career in Hyderabad - Vincent Esch and Indo-Saracenic">Indo-Saracenic architecture">Indo-Saracenic Movement
After the Great Musi Floods of 1908 in Hyderabad a city improvement board was set up for the development and beautification of Hyderabad. By this time Esch was a well established architect in calcutta with prominent works under his name, further he was employed by Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan in Hyderabad as an architect on the board. Most prominent works of Esch are from Hyderabad and here he took forward the concept of Indo-Saracenic architecture in Hyderabad which was already popular in other cities of the country like Baroda and AllahabadFour prominent works of Esch in Hyderabad are the Kachiguda railway station, the High Court, the City College, and the large Osmania General Hospital. The latter is now threatened with demolition.