3-043-727 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Sir George Gilbert Scott, R.A., 1872. Engraving from a photograph by Mr. Dolamore, of '...the eminent architect who has just received from the Queen the honour of knighthood for his successful completion of the National Albert Memorial [in London]...When only a child the future leader of the Gothic revival conceived an enthusiastic admiration for ancient churches, and began studying and sketching from them, never dreaming that such drawings would again be wanted. The boy's fondness for architectural art led his father to place him with an architect at a very early age...For some years he was in partnership with Mr. W. B. Moffatt; but this connection terminated with the year 1845. The first work which brought Sir George into prominent notice was the Martyrs' Memorial at Oxford, in 1841...Sir George has been still more largely employed in restorations, for which he is well qualified by great archaeological learning and experience, and in the execution of which he is, though he may not satisfy all purists and lovers of ruinous decay, more conscientious than many of his profession. He has directed, and in some cases is still directing, extensive restorations of the cathedrals of Ely, Lichfield, Hereford, Ripon, Gloucester, Chester, St. David, St. Asaph, Bangor, and Salisbury...He is the architect of the new Foreign Office (his original Gothic design having been set aside), and, in conjunction with Sir M. Digby Wyatt, of the new India Office, and is now completing the group by the erection of the new Home and Colonial Offices...Among his secular works may be mentioned...the new Midland Railway terminus at St. Pancras...The most novel and elaborately decorative of his works [is] the Hyde Park Memorial to the Prince Consort'. From "Illustrated London News", 1872.