The diary of Paul Hoffmann, an architect living and working in London. He was born, probably in Vienna about 1869 and was active as an architect in London from the early 1890s. His diaries cover the years 1896-1899, 1901-1911 and 1913-1938. There are no volumes for 1900 and 1912. The volumes are generally of uniform size apart from 1918, which is a small wartime economy size.

This is by no means a mere appointments diary. Each volume contains an entry for almost every day, except Sunday, giving details of the diarist’s professional life and work as an architect, with the names of colleagues and clients, and details of the properties which he designed and of which he supervised the building and construction. Meetings, decisions and inspections are all described in great detail.

He was particularly active in the design of mansion blocks in Queen’s Gate, the Phillimore Estate and in Earls Court in London in the early 1900s. Details of individual projects can be traced over years and these will be particularly interesting to historians of London Architecture.

There is a certain amount of personal information amongst the professional entries and he notes great events such as the outbreak of the First World War.

Reference books which mention Hoffmann’s work tend to spell his surname ‘Hoffman’ but the correct spelling is clear from various items slipped in the pages of the diary. He was awarded the Austrian Order of Franz Joseph in 1907 and appears from reports in The Times to have been very active in showing horses at events and agricultural shows throughout his life. He died at Richmond on 19th August 1938 aged 69.