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SIR GEORGE GILBERT SCOTT (1811-1878)

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Originally appearing in Volume V24, Page 469 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SIR See also:GEORGE See also:GILBERT See also:SCOTT (1811-1878)  , See also:English architect, was See also:born in 1811 at Gawcott near See also:Buckingham, where his See also:father was See also:rector; his grandfather, See also:Thomas See also:Scott (1747-1821), was a well-known commentator on the See also:Bible . In 1827 See also:young Scott was apprenticed for four years to an architect in See also:London named Edmeston, and at the end of his pupildom acted as clerk of the See also:works at the new Fishmongers' See also:Hall and other buildings . In Edmeston's See also:office he became acquainted with W . B . See also:Moffat, a See also:fellow-See also:pupil, who possessed considerable talents for the purely business See also:part of an architect's See also:work, and the two entered into See also:partnership . In 1834 they were appointed architects to the See also:union workhouses of See also:Buckinghamshire, and for four years were busily occupied in See also:building a number of cheap and ugly unions, both there and in See also:Northamptonshire and See also:Lincolnshire . In 1838 Scott built at See also:Lincoln his first See also:church, the See also:design for which won the See also:prize in an open competition, and this was quickly followed by six others, all very poor buildings without chancels; church building in See also:England had then reached its very lowest point both in See also:style and in poverty of construction . About 1839 his See also:enthusiasm was aroused by some of the eloquent writings of See also:Pugin on See also:medieval See also:architecture, and by the various papers on ecclesiastical subjects published by the See also:Camden Society . These opened a new See also:world to Scott, and he thenceforth studied and imitated the architectural styles and principles of the See also:middle ages with the utmost zeal and patient care . The first result of this new study was his design for the Martyrs' Memorial at See also:Oxford, erected in 1840, a See also:clever See also:adaptation of the See also:late 13th-See also:century crosses in See also:honour of See also:Queen Eleanor . From that See also:time Scott became the See also:chief ecclesiastical architect in England, and in the next twenty-eight years completed a large number of new churches and " restorations," the See also:fever for which was fomented by the Ecclesiological Society and the growth of ecclesiastical feeling in England . In 1844 Scott won the first See also:premium in the competition for the new Lutheran church at See also:Hamburg, a See also:noble building with a very lofty See also:spire, designed strictly in the style of the 13th century .

In the following See also:

year his partnership with Moffat was dissolved, and in 1847 he was employed to renovate and refit See also:Ely See also:cathedral, the first of a See also:long See also:series of English cathedral and See also:abbey churches which passed through his hands .. In 1851 he visited and studied the architecture of the chief towns in zrthern See also:Italy, and in 1855 won the competition for the See also:town-use at Hamburg, designed after the See also:model of similar buildings See also:north See also:Germany . In spite of his having won the first prize, another architect was selected to construct the building, after a very inferior design . In 1856 a competition was held for designs of the new See also:government offices in London; Scott obtained the third See also:place in this, but the work was afterwards given to him on the See also:condition (insisted on by See also:Lord See also:Palmerston) that he should make a new design, not See also:Gothic, but Classic or See also:Renaissance in style . To this Scott very reluctantly consented, as he had little sympathy with any styles but those of England or See also:France from the 13th to the 15th century . In 1862–1863 he was employed to design and construct the See also:Albert Memorial, a costly and elaborate work, in the style of a magnified 13th-century reliquary or See also:ciborium, adorned with many statues and reliefs in See also:bronze and See also:marble . On the partial completion of this he was knighted . In 1866 he competed for the new London. See also:law-courts, but the prize was adjudged to his old pupil, G . E . See also:Street . In 1873, owing to illness caused by overwork, Scott spent some time in See also:Rome and other parts of Italy . The See also:mosaic See also:pavement which he designed for See also:Durham cathedral soon after-wards was the result of his study of the 13th-century mosaics in the old basilicas of Rome .

On his return to England he resumed his professional labours, and continued to work almost without intermission till his See also:

short illness and See also:death on the 27th of See also:March 1878; He was buried in the See also:nave of See also:Westminster Abbey, and an engraved See also:brass, designed by G . E . Street, was placed over his See also:grave . In 1838 Scott married his See also:cousin, See also:Caroline Oldrid, who died in 187o; they had five sons, two of whom adopted their father's profession . An incomplete See also:list of his works from 1847 in the Builder for 1878 (p . 36o) ascribes to Scott 732 buildings with which he was connected as architect, restorer or the author of a See also:report . These include 29 cathedrals, See also:British or colonial, 10 minsters, 476 churches, 25 See also:schools, 23 parsonages, 58 monumental works . 25 colleges or See also:college chapels, 26 public buildings, 43 mansions and a number of small ecclesiastical accessories . While a member of the Royal See also:Academy, Scott held for many years the See also:post of See also:professor of architecture, and gave a long series of able lectures on medieval styles, which were published in 1879 . He wrote a work on Domestic Architecture, and a See also:volume of See also:Personal and Professional Recollections, which, edited by his eldest son, was published in 1879, and also a large number of articles and reports on many of the See also:ancient buildings with which he had to See also:deal .

End of Article: SIR GEORGE GILBERT SCOTT (1811-1878)
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