James Spiller (c.1761–1829) was an English architect and surveyor, a close associate of Sir John Soane. His designs included the

Church of St John-at-Hackney St John at Hackney is a Grade II* listed Anglican Church in the heart of the London Borough of Hackney with a large capacity of around 2,000. It was built in 1792 to replace Hackney's medieval parish church, of which St Augustine's Tower rem ...

, and the Great Synagogue, London.

Life

Spiller was a pupil of the architect

James Wyatt James Wyatt (3 August 1746 – 4 September 1813) was an English architect, a rival of Robert Adam in the neoclassical and neo-Gothic styles. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1785 and was its president from 1805 to 1806. Early life W ...

and became a close friend of

John Soane Sir John Soane (; né Soan; 10 September 1753 – 20 January 1837) was an English architect who specialised in the Neo-Classical style. The son of a bricklayer, he rose to the top of his profession, becoming professor of architecture at the R ...

, who sometimes employed him as a surveyor, and to draft papers on subjects on which they shared views such as the evils of speculative building. John Summerson described Spiller as "a clever man, with a difficult temperament, which perhaps was against his emerging into the front rank of architects." He was responsible for two major religious buildings in London. His Great Synagogue in Duke's Place was built 1788–90. Destroyed by bombing during the Second World War, it had tall Ionic colonnades and a flat ceiling. His new parish church of St John-at-Hackney – a bulky brick building – was constructed in 1792–7. In 1812–13 he added porches and, in stark contrast to the rest of the structure, a Portland Stone steeple with flowing curvelinear elements. In 1817 he remodelled the interior of James Wyatt's chapel of ease (later the Church of Saint John the Baptist) in Highgate Road,

Kentish Town Kentish Town is an area of northwest London, England in the London Borough of Camden, immediately north of Camden Town. Less than four miles north of central London, Kentish Town has good transport connections and is situated close to the open ...

, and in 1820 he added a portico with square piers to

Benjamin Dean Wyatt Benjamin Dean Wyatt (1775–1852) was an English architect, part of the Wyatt family. Early life He was the son and pupil of the architect James Wyatt, and the brother of Matthew Cotes Wyatt. Before setting up as an architect in 1809, he joine ...

's Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. He was surveyor to the British Fire Office (from 1799), the Royal Exchange Insurance, and the Eagle Insurance Corporation. He died in at his home in Guildford Street, London on 3 May 1829 His brother John (1763–94) was a sculptor who made a statue of Charles II for the Royal Exchange.

Writings

*''Address to the Governors & Guardians of the Foundling-Hospital, by Jas. Spiller and Thos. Spencer, ... intended as a justification of their reports and proceedings, in reply to observations upon their said reports and proceedings, by Samuel Pepys Cockerell, Esq.'' (1807); republished with an additional letter as ''Reports upon the buildings erected on the estate of the Foundling Hospital'' (1808). *''Letter to John Soane on the subject of the new churches'' (1822). Spiller also conducted a lengthy private correspondence with Soane, in which he criticised the Church Commissioners' enthusiasm for competitions and their emphasis on economy. Soane financed the printing of 500 copies of the first ''Letter''. It was superseded by a ''Second Letter to John Soane'' (1823); more than 100 loose copies of the first one remain in the Soane archive.

References

Sources

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Spiller, James 1760s births 1829 deaths Architects from London