John Forbes (architect)

John B. Forbes (born 1795?) was an architect in Cheltenham.

He designed the Pittville Pump Room for Joseph Pitt (1825-1830) and St Paul's Church (1829-1831). Besides the Pump Room, on which he personally worked 1825-28, and St Paul's Church, he is credited with several other buildings in Cheltenham, including 129-131 Promenade, 1-13 Imperial Square, 3 houses in St James Square, Montpellier Villas, 29-37 Pittville Lawn, and Brandon House, Grafton Road.[1] He had difficulty managing the finances of several concurrent speculative developments. In 1835 he was convicted of forgery, having attempted fraud on a business partner: a sentence of transportation was commuted to a short prison term. His architectural career did not recover.[2][3]

Personal life

He is consistently referred to as 'local' in descriptions of Cheltenham's development in the 1820s-30s, but his origins are currently obscure. He married twice, firstly in November 1821 to Elizabeth Martha Cook, second daughter of the late Charles Cook esq of Kennington Place, London[4] and secondly on 22 July 1838 at Clerkenwell to Mary Ann Poole, eldest daughter of Thomas Poole of Cheltenham.[5] There were four children by the first marriage, at least two of whom died young.

References
  1. D Verey and A Brooks, Buildings of England, Gloucestershire 2, The Vale and the Forest of Dean, ISBN 0-300-09733-6
  2. H.M. Colvin, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, 1600-1840 (1997) ISBN 0-300-07207-4
  3. S. Blake, The unfortunate Mr Forbes: the rise and fall of a Cheltenham architect, Cheltenham Local History Society Journal 7, 1989 ISSN 0265-3001
  4. Bath Chronicle, 29 Nov 1821,
  5. Cheltenham Chronicle, 8 Aug 1838


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