George Gilbert Scott

Sir (George) Gilbert Scott RA (13 July 1811 – 27 March 1878), styled Sir Gilbert Scott, was a prolific English Gothic revival architect, chiefly associated with the design, building and renovation of churches and cathedrals, although he started his career as a leading designer of workhouses. Over 800 buildings were designed or altered by him.[1]

For other people named Gilbert Scott, see Gilbert Scott.

Sir (George) Gilbert Scott
Sir (George) Gilbert Scott
Born(1811-07-13)13 July 1811
Parsonage, Gawcott, Buckinghamshire, England
Died27 March 1878(1878-03-27) (aged 66)
39 Courtfield Gardens, South Kensington, London, England
OccupationArchitect
AwardsRoyal Gold Medal (1859)
BuildingsWakefield Cathedral
Albert Memorial
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Midland Grand Hotel
St Pancras railway station
Main building of the University of Glasgow
St Mary's Cathedral, Glasgow
St Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh (Episcopal)
King's College Chapel, London

Scott was the architect of many iconic buildings, including the Midland Grand Hotel at St Pancras Station, the Albert Memorial, and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, all in London, St Mary's Cathedral, Glasgow, the main building of the University of Glasgow, St Mary's Cathedral in Edinburgh and King's College Chapel, London.

Life and career

Born in Gawcott, Buckingham, Buckinghamshire, Scott was the son of the Reverend Thomas Scott (1780–1835) and grandson of the biblical commentator Thomas Scott. 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, who specialised in the design of workhouses,[2] a field in which Scott was to begin his independent career.[3]

Early work
Parish Church of St John in Wall, Staffordshire

Scott's first work was built in 1833; it was a vicarage for his father in the village of Wappenham, Northamptonshire. It replaced the previous vicarage occupied by other relatives of Scott. Scott went on to design several other buildings in the village.[4]

In about 1835, Scott took on William Bonython Moffatt as his assistant and later (1838–1845) as his partner. Over ten years or so, Scott and Moffatt designed more than forty workhouses in the wake of the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834.[5] Their first churches were St Mary Magdalene at Flaunden, Bucks (1838, for Samuel King, Scott's uncle);[6][7] St Nicholas, Newport, Lincoln (1839);[8][9] St John, Wall, Staffordshire (1839);[10] and the Neo-Norman church of St Peter at Norbiton, Surrey (1841).[11] They built Reading Gaol (1841–42) in a picturesque, castellated style.[12]

Gothic Revival
Nikolaikirche, Hamburg, Germany (1845–80), bombed during World War II and now a ruin

Meanwhile, he was inspired by Augustus Pugin to participate in the Gothic Revival.[3] While still in partnership with Moffat.[13] he designed the Martyrs' Memorial on St Giles', Oxford (1841),[14] and St Giles' Church, Camberwell (1844), both of which helped establish his reputation within the movement.

Commemorating three Protestants burnt during the reign of Queen Mary, the Martyrs' Memorial was intended as a rebuke to those very high church tendencies which had been instrumental in promoting the new authentic approach to Gothic architecture.[15] St Giles' was in plan, with its long chancel, of the type advocated by the Ecclesiological Society: Charles Locke Eastlake said that "in the neighbourhood of London no church of its time was considered in purer style or more orthodox in its arrangement".[16] It did, however, like many churches of the time, incorporate wooden galleries, not used in medieval churches[17] and highly disapproved of by the high church ecclesiological movement.

In 1844 he received the commission to rebuild the Nikolaikirche in Hamburg (completed 1863), following an international competition.[18] Scott's design had originally been placed third in the competition, the winner being one in a Florentine inspired style by Gottfried Semper, but the decision was overturned by a faction who favoured a Gothic design.[19] Scott's entry had been the only design in the Gothic style.[3]

In 1854 he remodelled the Camden Chapel in Camberwell, a project in which the critic John Ruskin took a close interest and made many suggestions. He added an apse, in a Byzantine style, integrating it to the existing plain structure by substituting a waggon roof for the existing flat ceiling.[20]

Scott was appointed architect to Westminster Abbey in 1849, and in 1853 he built a Gothic terraced block adjoining the abbey in Broad Sanctuary. In 1858 he designed ChristChurch Cathedral, Christchurch, New Zealand which now lies partly ruined following the earthquake in 2011 and subsequent attempts by the Anglican Church authorities to demolish it. Demolition was blocked after appeals by the people of Christchurch, and in September 2017 the Christchurch Diocesan Synod announced that the cathedral will be reinstated.[21]

The choir stalls at Lancing College in Sussex, which Scott designed with Walter Tower, were among many examples of his work that incorporated green men.[22]

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 Midland red-brick construction, the Midland Grand Hotel at London's St Pancras Station, from which approach Scott believed a new style might emerge.

Between 1864 and 1876, the Albert Memorial, designed by Scott, was constructed in Hyde Park. It was a commission on behalf of Queen Victoria in memory of her husband, Prince Albert.

Scott advocated the use of Gothic architecture for secular buildings, rejecting what he called "the absurd supposition that Gothic architecture is exclusively and intrinsically ecclesiastical."[17] He was the winner of a competition to design new buildings in Whitehall to house the Foreign Office and War Office. Before work began, however, the administration which had approved his plans went out of office. Palmerston, the new Prime Minister, objected to Scott's use of the Gothic, and the architect, after some resistance drew up new plans in a more acceptable style.[23]

Honours

Scott was awarded the RIBA's Royal Gold Medal in 1859. He was appointed an Honorary Liveryman of the Turners' Company and on 9 August 1872, he was knighted.[24] He died in 1878 and is buried in Westminster Abbey.

A London County Council blue plaque marks Scott's residence at the Admiral's House on Admiral's Walk in Hampstead.[25][26]

Family

Scott married Caroline Oldrid of Boston in 1838. Two of his sons George Gilbert Scott, Jr. (founder of Watts & Company] in 1874) and John Oldrid Scott, and his grandson Giles Gilbert Scott, were also prominent architects.[27] His third son, photographer, Albert Henry Scott (1844–65) died at the age of twenty-one; George Gilbert designed his funerary monument in St Peter's Church, Petersham, whilst he was living at The Manor House at Ham in Richmond.[28] His fifth and youngest son was the botanist Dukinfield Henry Scott.[29] He was also great-uncle of the architect Elisabeth Scott.[30]

Pupils

Scott's success attracted a large number of pupils, many would go on to have successful careers of their own, not always as architects. In the following list, the year next to the pupil's name denotes their time in Scott's office, some of the more famous were: Hubert Austin (1868), Joseph Maltby Bignell (1859–78), George Frederick Bodley (1845–56), Charles Buckeridge (1856–57), Somers Clarke (1865), William Henry Crossland (dates uncertain), C. Hodgson Fowler (1856–60), Thomas Garner (1856–61), Thomas Graham Jackson (1858–61), John T. Micklethwaite (1862–69), Benjamin Mountfort (1841–46), John Norton (1870–78), George Gilbert Scott, Jr. (1856–63), John Oldrid Scott (1858–78), J. J. Stevenson (1858–60), George Henry Stokes (1843–47), George Edmund Street (1844–49), William White (1845–47).

Books
  • Remarks on secular & domestic architecture, present & future. London: John Murray. 1857.
  • A Plea for the Faithful Restoration of our Ancient Churches. Oxford: James Parker. 1859.
  • Gleanings from Westminster Abbey / by George Gilbert Scott, with Appendices Supplying Further Particulars, and Completing the History of the Abbey Buildings, by W. Burges (2nd enlarged ed.). Oxford: John Henry and James Parker. 1863 [1861].
  • Personal and Professional Recollections. London: Sampson Low & Co. 1879.
  • Lectures on the Rise and Development of Medieval Architecture. I. London: John Murray. 1879.
  • Lectures on the Rise and Development of Medieval Architecture. II. London: John Murray. 1879. online texts for vols. I & II

Additionally he wrote over forty pamphlets and reports. As well as publishing articles, letters, lectures and reports in The Builder, The Ecclesiologist, The Building News, The British Architect, The Civil Engineer's and Architect's Journal, The Illustrated London News, The Times and Transactions of the Royal Institute of British Architects.

Architectural work
Although he is best known for his Gothic revival churches, Scott felt that the Midland Grand Hotel at St Pancras station was his most successful project.
Scott designed the Bombay University Convocation Hall (1870), working from London, and it is now part the UNESCO World Heritage Site.

His projects include:

Public buildings
Sandbach Literary Institution (1857) Grade II Listed Building
The University of Glasgow's main building (1870)

Domestic buildings

Church buildings
University of Cambridge, St John's College Chapel, by George Gilbert Scott, 1866–1869
The chapel of St John's College, Cambridge is characteristic of Scott's many church designs

Churches

Scott was involved in major restorations of medieval church architecture, all across England.

The West Front of Lichfield Cathedral

Cathedrals

Additionally Scott designed the Mason and Dixon monument in York Minster (1860), prepared plans for the restoration of Bristol Cathedral in 1859 and Norwich Cathedral in 1860 neither of which resulted in a commission, and designed a pulpit for Lincoln Cathedral in 1863.

Abbeys, priories and collegiate churches

Other restoration work

Scott restored the Inner Gateway (also known as the Abbey Gateway) of Reading Abbey in 1860–61 after its partial collapse.[77] 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, and designed the chapels of Exeter College, Oxford, St John's College, Cambridge and King's College, London. He also designed St Paul's Cathedral, Dundee.

Lichfield Cathedral's ornate West Front was extensively renovated by Scott from 1855 to 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.

  • Workhouse, Louth Lincolnshire (1839)
  • St Mary's Hanwell, Middlesex (1841)
  • East end, St Mary's Hanwell, Middlesex (1841)
  • Martyrs' Memorial, Oxford (1841–43)
  • St Giles Church, Camberwell (1842–44)
  • Reading Gaol, Berkshire (1842–44)
  • Holy Trinity Church, Halstead, Essex (1843–44)
  • St Martin's Zeal, Wiltshire (1845–46)
  • Nikolaikirche, Hamburg, Germany (1845–80), bombed during World War II and now a ruin
  • Cathedral of St.John's, Newfoundland, Canada (1847–1905)
  • Cathedral of St.John's, Newfoundland, Canada (1847–1905)
  • St Peter's Church, Croydon (1849–51)
  • St Anne's Alderney (c.1850)
  • St Barnabas's Church, Weeton, North Yorkshire (1852)
  • St George's Church, Doncaster, Yorkshire (1853–58)
  • St George's Church, Doncaster, Yorkshire (1853–58)
  • Lichfield Cathedral, as restored and with fittings by Scott (1855–61) & (1877–81)
  • All Souls', Haley Hill, Halifax (1856–59)
  • Interior looking east, All Souls', Haley Hill, Halifax, Yorkshire (1856–59)
  • Cottages, Ilam, Staffordshire (c.1871)
  • Chapel door, Exeter College, Oxford (1857–59)
  • East end, Chapel, Exeter College, Oxford (1857–59)
  • Kelham Hall, Nottinghamshire (1858–62)
  • Crimea War Memorial, Westminster School, Broad Sanctuary, Westminster (1858)
  • Walton Hall, Warwickshire (c.1858–62)
  • St Mary's, Edwin Loach, Herefordshire (c.1859)
  • The Chapel, Brighton College (1859)
  • All Saints, Nocton (1860–63)
  • SS. Peter and Paul Church, Buckingham, heavily restored (1860–67)
  • Nave Vault, Bath Abbey (1860–77) (copy of the medieval vault in the chancel)
  • The Chapel, King's College London (1861–62)
  • Christ Church, Southgate, London (1861–62)
  • Vaughan Library, Harrow School, London (1861–63)
  • Screen from Hereford Cathedral (1862) now in the Victoria and Albert Museum
  • All Saints' Church, Sherbourne, Warwickshire (1862–64)
  • Foreign and Commonwealth Office, London (1862–75)
  • Foreign and Commonwealth Office, London (1862–75)
  • Grand Staircase, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, London (1862–75)
  • Ceiling, Grand Staircase, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, London (1862–75)
  • Looking east, St John's College Chapel, Cambridge (1863–69)
  • Clifton Hampden Bridge, Oxfordshire (1864)
  • Leeds General Infirmary (1864–70)
  • St David's Cathedral, Pembrokeshire, showing Scott's west front (1864–76)
  • Albert Memorial, London (1864–76)
  • Central ciborium, Albert Memorial, London (1864–76)
  • ChristChurch Cathedral, Christchurch, New Zealand (1864–1904)
  • St Mary's Church, Norney, Shackleford, Surrey (1865)
  • Former Albert Institute Dundee (1865–69)
  • St Luke's church, Salford (1865)
  • Former Midland Grand Hotel, St Pancras Station (1866–76)
  • Roof scape, Former Midland Grand Hotel, St Pancras Station (1866–76)
  • Former Midland Grand Hotel, St Pancras Station (1866–76)
  • Detail of decoration in the Train Shed, St Pancras Station (1866–76)
  • Clock Tower, Former Midland Grand Hotel, St Pancras Station (1866–76)
  • Reredos high altar, Worcester Cathedral (1867–68)
  • University of Glasgow (1867–70), the spire was added after Scott's death by his son John Oldrid Scott
  • Highclere Church, Hampshire (1869–70)
  • Brownsover Hall, Warwickshire (c.1870)
  • St Mary Abbots Church, Kensington (1870–72)
  • Design for Reichstag, Berlin, not executed (1872)
  • Pulpit, Worcester Cathedral (1873–74)
  • West front, St Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh (1874–80)
  • East front, St Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh (1874–80)
  • Grahamstown Cathedral, South Africa (1874–78) & finished (1893)
  • Hall, Bombay University, India (1876)
  • Clarkson Memorial, Wisbech, (1880–82)
  • New Court, Pembroke College, Cambridge (1881)
  • St Barnabas' Church, Bromborough, Merseyside (1862–64)

See also

References
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  13. Hitchcock 1977, p. 152
  14. Eastlake 1872, p. 219
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  17. Eastlake 1872, p. 221
  18. Hitchcock 1977, p. 153
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Sources
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