CORE, FREDERICK CHARLES

Architect, of Belfast, Dublin and London. Fred Core was born in Belfast in 1881 or 1882, the son of 'Dr Core of Belfast, an enthusiastic lover of architecture and a great authority on almost every cathedral and important church in England'. He studied at the Belfast School of Art, where he gained several prizes, and worked in the office of WILLIAM JOHN FENNELL WILLIAM JOHN FENNELL . He then moved to Dublin, where he was apprenticed to WALTER GLYNN DOOLIN  WALTER GLYNN DOOLIN for three years.(1) He was 'by far and away the most brilliant student of his time in the Architectural Association of Ireland' and in 1899 won, among other prizes, the Association's travelling scholarship with a set of measured drawings of Powerscourt House, Dublin.(2) After his period in Doolin's office, he worked in the office of Arnold Mitchell in London, where he soon became principal assistant. The 1901 census of England shows him living as a 'visitor' at 37 Redcliffe Road, Kensington, along with a young English architect, H.W. Hobbiss.

In about 1906 Core began to show symptoms of consumption of the throat and was ordered to a milder climate. He moved to California, where he remained until shortly before his death, which took place in Belfast in the summer of 1908 when he was aged only twenty-six.

Corr was an enthusiastic and talented draughtsman. He drew the new headings for the Irish Builder and its 'Building News' and 'Engineering News' sections, which first appeared at the end of 1899.(3) Several of his sketches of buildings in England and Ireland were reproduced in that journal during the two years after his death.(4) He also did illustrative work for the Irish Homestead. Two of his architectural designs were reproduced in the Irish Builder, a perspective view of a technical school, which won the prize awarded by the RIAI to members of the AAI in 1901(5) and another of a house for Henry Taylor at Knock, Belfast, the only design by Core which is recorded as having been built.(6) This is presumably the 'House near Belfast' which was exhibited by Core at the Royal Academy in 1906 (no. 1509).(7)

AAI: see above.
RIBA: passed preliminary examination to qualify for registration as probationer, June 1904.(8)

Address: Abbotsford Place, York Street, Belfast, 1900;(9) 37 Redcliffe Road, Kensington, 1901; 48 Northumberland Place, Bayswater, 1904;(10) 3 Shrewsbury Road, Bayswater, 1906.(11)

See

All information in this entry not otherwise accounted for is from the obituary of Core in IB 50, 11 Jul 1908, 428.

(1) His perspectives of designs from Doolin's office include: Christian Brothers School, Clonmel (IB 42, 1 Mar 1900, 293); glebe house, Kilgarvan, Co. Kerry (ibid, 15 Aug 1900, 448); Church of SS. Michael & Mary, New Ross (IB 44, 9 Oct 1902, supplement); St Gabriel's Church, Dublin (ibid, 4 Dec 1902, supplement); St Gabriel's Presbytery (IB 45, 15 Jan 1903, 1554).
(2) IB 41, 1 Oct,1 Nov 1899, 144,175; 9 drawings, with 2 letters from Core to Lord Powerscourt, are in the IAA, Powerscourt Albums (89/62) 2/A/1-2/I/1, and some of them were reproduced in Georgian Society Records Vol 1 (1909), Pls. 43-46, and IB 51, 9 Jan 1909, 14,18.
(3) IB 41, 1 Nov 1899, 166.
(4) 18th century Dublin, IB 51, 6 Feb 1909, 73; St Doulough's Church, Dublin, IB 51, 2 Oct 1909, 612; St Thomas's Church, Salisbury, IB 51, 16 Oct 1909, 645; Church of St Nicholas, King's Lynn, IB 51, 30 Oct 1909, 688; Custom House, King's Lynn amd entrance lodge, Rathfarnham Castle, IB 51, 11 Dec 1909, 769,780; sketches in Aylesbury, IB 52, 8 Jan,24 Dec 1910, 18, 777; St Cross Hospital, Winchester, IB 52, 5 Feb 1910, 80; Seaton Church, IB 52, 29 Oct 1910, 657.
(5) IB 44, 2 Jan 1902, 990(illus. in supplement).
(6) IB 43, 20 Nov 1902, 1481, & Supplement; this may be the same as the 'House at Knock' which was illustrated in AJ 20 (1904), 250, and the 'House near Belfast' which Core exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1906 (no. 1509).
(7) Royal Academy Exhibitors 1905-1970 (1985), I, 82.
(8) RIBAJ 11 (1903-4), 477.
(9) Address on letters from Core to Viscount Powerscourt, 28 Jan and 18 Feb 1900 in Powerscourt Album 2.
(10) See note 8, above.
(11) See note 7, above.

1 work entries listed in chronological order for CORE, FREDERICK CHARLES

Sort by date | Sort alphabetically