Joseph John Scoles (1798–1863) was an English

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

architect, who designed many Roman Catholic churches.

Early life and education

Scoles was born in London on 27 June 1798, the son of Roman Catholic parents Matthew Scoles, a joiner, and Elizabeth Sparling. He was educated at the Roman Catholic school at Baddesley Green and then, in 1812, apprenticed for seven years to his relative,

Joseph Ireland Joseph Ireland (c.1780–1841) was an English architect who designed Roman Catholic Church buildings in the early nineteenth century. He specialized in Romanesque revival architecture and worked with Joseph John Scoles. Life Ireland was born i ...

, an architect who was extensively employed by John Milner, then the Roman Catholic vicar-apostolic of the Midland District. Ireland built several Roman Catholic churches, one of the earliest of which was at Hinckley, in Nottinghamshire. He was probably advised on the Gothic detailing of these designs by John Carter.Eastlake 1872, p.130 Between 1816 and 1819 Scoles was resident at Hassop Hall, Bakewell, and in Leicester, superintending works for Ireland.

Travel

In 1822 Scoles left England in the company of Joseph Bonomi the Younger for further study. He carried out archaeological and architectural research in Rome, Greece, Egypt, and Syria, often in the company of

Henry Parke Henry Parke (1790–1835) was an English architect and draughtsman. Life He was a son of John Parke the oboist, was intended for the bar, and studied under a special pleader; but a speech impediment led him to abandon the law. He studied architect ...

and Frederick Catherwood. In 1829 he published an engraved map of Nubia, showing the area between the first and second cataracts of the Nile, from a survey made in 1824 jointly by him and Parke, and a map of the city of Jerusalem; his plan of the church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem, with his drawings of the Jewish tombs in the valley of Jehoshaphat, was published by Robert Willis in 1849.

Early secular work

In 1826 he returned home and resumed architectural work. In 1828 he planned and carried out the building of Gloucester Terrace, Regent's Park, for which John Nash supplied the general elevation. Gloucester Villa, at the entrance to the park, was built completely to his design. At around this time he constructed a suspension bridge over the

River Bure The River Bure is a river in the county of Norfolk, England, most of it in the Broads.Ordnance Survey (2005). ''OS Explorer Map OL40 - The Broads''. . The Bure rises near Melton Constable, upstream of Aylsham, which was the original head of ...

Great Yarmouth Great Yarmouth (), often called Yarmouth, is a seaside town and unparished area in, and the main administrative centre of, the Borough of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, England; it straddles the River Yare and is located east of Norwich. A pop ...

. It collapsed with fatal results in 1845, due to concealed defects in two suspending rods.

Anglican churches

Scoles designed three Anglican churches: St Mary's Chapel, Southtown, Yarmouth (1830), St Peter's Church, Great Yarmouth (a commissioner's church, 1831), and

St George's Church, Edgbaston St George's Church, Edgbaston, is a parish church in the Church of England in Edgbaston, Birmingham. History It was built in 1836–38 as a chapel-of-ease to St Bartholomew's Church, Edgbaston. The original building consisted of a nav ...

, for Lord Calthorpe. His only other work for the established church consisted of some small additions and restorations to Burgh Castle and

Blundeston Blundeston is a village and civil parish in the north of the English county of Suffolk. It is north-west of Lowestoft, south of Great Yarmouth and around inland from the North Sea coast. It is part of the area known as Lothingland in the Eas ...

churches in Suffolk.

Roman Catholic buildings

The Immaculate Conception, Farm Street, London W1 - West end - geograph

His works for the Roman Catholic church included Our Lady's Church, St John's Wood (1832), St Peter's Church in

Stonyhurst College Stonyhurst College is a co-educational Catholic Church, Roman Catholic independent school, adhering to the Society of Jesus, Jesuit tradition, on the Stonyhurst, Stonyhurst Estate, Lancashire, England. It occupies a Grade I listed building. Th ...

, Lancashire (1832), St Ignatius, Preston, Lancashire (1835),

St James the Less and St Helen Church, Colchester St James the Less and St Helen Church is a Roman Catholic Parish church in Colchester, Essex, England. It was built in 1837 and designed by Joseph John Scoles. It is situated on Priory Street between the junction with East Hill and St Thomas Mor ...

(1837), St Mary's, Newport, Monmouthshire (1840),

St David's, Cardiff St David's ( cy, Dewi Sant), previously known as St David's Shopping Centre, is one of the principal shopping centres in the city centre of Cardiff, Wales. It is in The Hayes area of the southern city centre. Following the extension of St Davi ...

(1842), St John the Evangelist Church, Islington (1843), the

Immaculate Conception, Farm Street The Church of the Immaculate Conception, Farm Street, also known as Farm Street Church, is a Roman Catholic parish church run by the Society of Jesus in Mayfair, central London. Its main entrance is in Farm Street, though it can also be accessed ...

, London (1844), St Francis Xavier's, Liverpool (1844), Our Lady Immaculate, Chelmsford (1847), St Mary's Church in Great Yarmouth (1848–1850), the chapel of Ince Hall, Lancashire (1859), and the Holy Cross, St Helen's, Lancashire (1860). His design for the church of St John in Duncan Terrace,

Islington Islington () is a district in the north of Greater London, England, and part of the London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the ar ...

– a neo-Romanesque brick building with stone facings – was censured by Pugin in an article on "Ecclesiastical Architectures" in the ''Dublin Review'' in 1843. In 1853 he designed a group of buildings for the London Oratory at Brompton, consisting of the Oratory House – a building in a simple Italianate style, incorporating a chapel, known as the Little Oratory, and a library – and a plain red brick temporary church, which survived until 1880. He also built a convent nearby in Sidney Street. The chapel of

Prior Park Prior Park is a Neo-Palladian house that was designed by John Wood, the Elder, and built in the 1730s and 1740s for Ralph Allen on a hill overlooking Bath, Somerset, England. It has been designated as a Grade I listed building. The house was bu ...

College, Bath, designed by Scoles, was erected after his death by his son. Unlike Scoles' other ecclesiastical work, this was Neoclassical in style, in sympathy with the mansion to which it was attached. It was built to a simple aisled basilican plan with an apse.

Royal Institute of British Architects

Scoles was elected a fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1835, was honorary secretary from May 1846 to May 1856, and vice-president in 1857–1858. Most of his contributions to the society's ''Proceedings'' were about the monuments of Egypt and the Holy Land, studied during his early travels.

Family

He died on 29 December 1863 at his home, Crofton Lodge, Hammersmith. He was survived by four sons and eight daughters from his marriage to Harriet Cory of Great Yarmouth, whom he had married in 1831. The eldest was Ignatius Scoles who followed his father as an architect, then joined the Jesuits and designed

Georgetown City Hall Georgetown City Hall is a nineteenth-century Gothic Revival building located on the corner of Regent Street and Avenue of the Republic in Georgetown, Guyana. The building was designed by architect Reverend Ignatius Scoles in 1887, and was comple ...

and St Wilfrid's Church, Preston.Guyana Times International
accessed 26 March 2013 His third son was Alexander Joseph Cory Scoles who became a Roman Catholic priest and canon and followed his brother and father in becoming an architect. He designed many lancet style

churches in the south of England.Slevin, Malachy ''St Francis Church Handsworth'' (Birmingham, 1994) pp.1–17

References

Sources

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Scoles, Joseph John 19th-century English architects Gothic Revival architects 1798 births 1863 deaths English ecclesiastical architects People from Hammersmith English Roman Catholics Architects from London