George Raymond Johnson

George Raymond Johnson (7 February 1840 – 25 November 1898) was an architect who practiced in late 19th century Melbourne and Perth, Australia. He is known for designing numerous important buildings, especially town halls and theatres.

Biography
Johnson was born in Southgate, England and at age 13 began working with George Hall, Midland Railway architect. At 19 he moved to London, presumably to continue his architectural career. On 24 July 1862 he married Emma Louise Wood and, two days later, the couple embarked on a journey of emigration to Queensland. In 1867, Johnson moved to Melbourne, where he produced most of his major works. Following the bank crash in 1895 he moved to Perth, Western Australia, establishing a practice there. In 1898, while at sea returning to Melbourne, Johnson contracted sepsis, and died.

Architectural works
Johnson is known today for the design of a number of town halls across Victoria, notably the impressive Collingwood Town Hall, probably the most elaborate of the grand towered Second Empire style town halls that characterised the boom years of Melbourne in the 1880s, but he achieved contemporary renown for his theatres in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide (perhaps as many as fifteen ), now all demolished. Johnson's greatest contemporary acclaim came from his design for the extensive northern additions to Reed & Barnes's grand 1880 Exhibition Building for the Centennial Exhibition of 1888, removed soon after the Exhibition.

Johnson's major works, notably all the town halls and the theatres, were Renaissance Revival in style, and its variations including Free Classical, Italianate, Second Empire or Mannerist. Many were designed "with bold and rich character from Johnson's mannerist palette, an idiom in which he was a master." A few projects adopted different styles, such as the first building for the Hospital for Incurables, now the Austin Hospital, Heidelberg (1881, demolished), which was Venetian Gothic in character, in polychrome brick, while his bluestone cottages for the Old Colonists Home in North Fitzroy (1870) were Gothic.

A selection of Johnson's notable buildings are listed below. For a complete list of known works, see the database compiled by Johnson's descendant, architect Peter Johnson, included in Pride of Hotham (Hannan, 2006).