Sydney Perks FRIBA, FSA, was born on 2 January 1864 in Westminster, one of the eight children of Charles Perks (1807-1871) and Emily Marian Perks née Warner (1827-1919). On 22 January 1864 he was baptised at St Martin-in-the-Fields Church, 5 St Martin's Place, Westminster, where the baptismal register shows the family living at 110 St Martin's Lane, Westminster and records his father as a stationer.
The 1871 census shows him living at 'Soho Lodge', All Farthing Lane, Wandsworth, with his parents, five siblings: Emily Perks (1853-1922), Frank Perks (1855-1924), Annie Perks (1858-1932), Walter Perks (b.1861) and Marian Perks (b.1865), together with two female general domestic servants.
In the 1881 census he is described as a scholar still residing at 'Soho Lodge', All Farthing Lane, Wandsworth, with his widowed mother, four siblings: Frank (who was a surveyor), Annie, Walter (who was a solicitor's clerk) and Marian, together with a cook and a housemaid. He was still living there at the time of the 1891 census in which he is listed as an architect. Also at the address was his widowed mother, three siblings: Frank (now shown as an auctioneer), Annie and Walter (a solicitor), together with two female general domestic servants.
The 1901 census lists his address as 'Soho Lodge', 40 Allfarthing Lane, Wandsworth, where he was living with his mother and the same siblings as in the 1891 census, together with a cook and a parlour-maid.
He was appointed as Surveyor to the City of London in 1905, a post he held until 1931. On 20 February 1906 he was made a Freemason by being the first initiate of the newly consecrated The Guildhall Lodge No.3116 that met at De Keyser’s Royal Hotel, Victoria Embankment, London and freemasonry records show his occupation to have been the City Surveyor and his address was given as The Guildhall.
The 1911 census shows him as the architect and surveyor of the Corporation of the City of London, residing at Claridge House, High Street, Sevenoaks, Kent, with his mother, three siblings: Frank, Annie and Walter, together with a cook, a parlour-maid, a housemaid and an under-housemaid.
In addition to designing the 1926 Snow Hill police station he was also the architect of the 1929 London Fruit Exchange and London Wool Exchange at Spitalfields and that was demolished in 2015. The 1939 England and Wales Register shows him as an architect living at 4 High Street, Sevenoaks, with his retired brother Walter, a cook, a parlour-maid and a housemaid.
Probate records confirm that he died, aged 80 years, on 2 November 1944, at Claridge House, 4 High Street, Sevenoaks and that probate was granted on 26 March 1945 to solicitor Anthony Clive Knocker and to Dorothy Bertha Stack (wife of Charles Maurice Stack). His effects totalled £43,500-14s-10d.
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.
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