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Knight & Kerr

British architectural firm based in Melbourne1

Knight & Kerr was a business partnership established in the 1850s between John George Knight and Peter Kerr. Their practice was important in the development of Melbourne as a city during the boom period led by the gold rush, providing the rapidly expanding state capital with many works of cultural and political significance. They were architects appointed with the responsibility for the design of noted public buildings in Melbourne, Australia; their most well known design being the Parliament House of Victoria.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

  • HeadquartersMelbourne1

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Knight & Kerr was a business partnership established in the 1850s between John George Knight and Peter Kerr. Their practice was important in the development of Melbourne as a city during the boom period led by the gold rush, providing the rapidly expanding state capital with many works of cultural and political significance. They were architects appointed with the responsibility for the design of noted public buildings in Melbourne, Australia; their most well known design being the Parliament House of Victoria. John Knight and Peter Kerr were also both members of The Royal British Institute of Architects.2

How it started

History

John George Knight was born in London in 1826. He studied as an architect but worked for and was trained by his father, engineer John Knight.

Peter Kerr, born in Aberdeen (Scotland) in 1820, worked with several architects such as Sir Charles Barry, known for his work on the Houses of Parliament at Westminster, before migrating to Australia.

Knight and Kerr both migrated to Australia in 1852. Knight first worked in the Public Works Department and soon after, along with Kerr, joined Thomas Kemp's private practice until 1855, when Kemp returned to England. However, Knight & Kerr still continued their working relationship as partners and continued to design buildings such as Parliament House, D’Estaville and the Hebrew Congregational School.

The partnership was continued until around 1860 where Knight ventured out of architecture and Kerr went back to working in the Public Works Department. Knight took part in assisting the Victorian Exhibition in 1861 until 1866 where he became secretary for the Victorian division. In between, around 1865, Knight was selected as a lecturer in civil engineering at the University of Melbourne before migrating to the goldfields in the Northern Territory in the 1870s. From there he worked his way up from Chief Warden of the Goldfields, to Stipendiary Magistrate and then becoming Government Resident of Palmerston in 1890. He died there two years after.

Peter Kerr continued with the design of public buildings in Melbourne, such as the Law Courts, Government House, Post Office and Customs House. Shortly before his death in South Melbourne in 1912, Kerr also designed the extension of parliamentary buildings, Queen's Hall and the Vestibule which opened in 1879.

From Wikipedia’s article on Knight & Kerr, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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