George Gilbert Scott
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Image:StJohnsCambChapel02.jpg Sir George Gilbert Scott (July 13, 1811 – March 27, 1878) was an English architect of the Victorian Age, chiefly associated with the design, building and renovation of churches, cathedrals and workhouses.
Born in Gawcott, Buckinghamshire, Scott was the son of a clergyman. He studied architecture as a pupil of James Edmeston and from 1832 to 1834, worked as an assistant to Henry Roberts. He also worked as an assistant for his friend Sampson Kempthorne.[1]
In about 1835, Scott took on William Bonython Moffatt as his assistant and later (1838-1845) as partner. Over the next 10 years Scott and Moffatt designed over 40 workhouses.
Meanwhile, he was inspired by August Pugin to join the Gothic revival of the Victorian era, his first notable work in this style being the Martyrs' Memorial on St Giles in Oxford (1841). Later, Scott went beyond copying mediaeval English gothic for his Victorian Gothic or Gothic Revival buildings, and began to introduce features from other styles and European countries as evidenced in his glorious Midland red-brick constriction, the 'Midland Grand Hotel' at London's St Pancras Station, from which approach Scott believed a new style might emerge.
Designs
Image:StPancrasMidlandHotel.jpg His projects include:
- workhouses in Brackley, Kettering, Northampton, Oundle and Towcester (all in Northamptonshire), Billericay and Dunmow (Essex), Windsor (Berkshire), Boston (Lincolnshire), Amersham and Buckingham (Buckinghamshire), Guildford (Surrey), Penzance and Redruth, (Cornwall).
- The Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in St. John's, Newfoundland (1847)
- Brighton College, Sussex (1848-1866)
- two lodge houses at Great Barr Hall, near Birmingham (pre-1863)
- Sandbach School, Sandbach, Cheshire.
- St John the Baptist's Church, Eastnor, Herefordshire (1852)
- St Peter's Church, Elworth, Cheshire.
- St George's Minster, Doncaster (1858). One of the country's best examples of Victorian Gothic architecture
- formal gardens at Lanhydrock House, near Bodmin, Cornwall (1857, assisted by Richard Coad)
- Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Whitehall, London (1861-1868)
- the Albert Memorial, London (1862)
- St Pancras Station, London (1865)
- the main building of the new campus of the University of Glasgow (1870), often called the "Gilbert Scott Building" in his honour.
- The Clarkson Memorial in Wisbech. Scott first put forward designs in 1875, but work did not start until 1880. The eventual design was a slightly altered version of Scott's original design.
One of Scott's major interests was medieval church architecture. He was involved in the restoration of several cathedrals (including those at Chichester, Gloucester, Exeter, St Albans, and Wakefield), plus Pershore Abbey, Great Malvern Priory, St Margaret's, Westminster, St Mary's of Charity in Faversham, which was restored (and transformed, with an unusual spire and unexpected interior) by Scott in 1874, and Dundee Parish Church (St Mary's), and designed the chapels of Exeter College, Oxford and St John's College, Cambridge. He also designed St Paul’s Cathedral, Dundee. Image:Lichwestfrontdetail.jpg Lichfield Cathedral's ornate West Front was extensively renovated by Scott from 1855 - 1878. He restored the Cathedral to the form he believed it took in the Middle Ages, working with original materials where possible and creating imitations when the originals were not available. It is recognised as some of his finest work.
Scott was awarded the RIBA Royal Gold Medal in 1859. Knighted in 1872, he died in 1878 and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
His sons George Gilbert Scott Junior and John Oldrid Scott and grandson, Giles Gilbert Scott, were also prominent architects. Template:Commonsde:George Gilbert Scott