Walter Bagot (architect)

Bonython Hall

Bonython Hall

Bagot was born in North Adelaide, the son of pastoralist John Bagot MHA, and Lucy Josephine Ayers; his grandfathers were Charles Hervey Bagot and Sir Henry Ayers[1][2] He was educated at the Collegiate School of St Peter.[1]

After serving an apprenticeship with the architect Edward John Woods in Adelaide for four years, in 1902 Bagot went to England where he studied architecture at King's College London. He won the silver medal of the Worshipful Company of Carpenters, and in 1904 was admitted as an associate member of the Royal Institute of British Architects.[1]

Bagot returned to Adelaide in 1905, and was taken into partnership with Woods, forming Woods & Bagot.[1] The practice grew to include other prominent architects as members over time, including Louis Laybourne-Smith in 1917, Herbert Jory[3] in 1915, and James Campbell Irwin in 1932.[4]

Bagot preferred classical architecture and despised Modernism. He was appointed architect for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Adelaide in 1905, and architect in charge of St Peter's Cathedral in 1907, remaining in that position until 1945. He was architect for the University of Adelaide from 1910 until 1945.[1]

Woods bought the McMinn-designed Waterhouse House on North Terrace in 1906, selling it in 1926.

On 18 November 1908 at St Peter's Cathedral, Adelaide, he married Josephine Margaret Barritt (1889-1946), a granddaughter of Joseph Barritt. They lived at "Forest Lodge", a house near Aldgate built by Bagot's father, John Bagot. The couple had three children,[8] one being John Hervey Bagot (1910–2008), a prominent lawyer.[9]