John Wills (1846 – 20 June 1906) was an architect based in

Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby g ...

Personal life

He lived at Dodbrook, 136 Whitaker Road, Derby, a house he designed himself. For many years he was president of the Derby and Derbyshire Band of Hope Union, and treasurer of the South Derbyshire Liberal Association. He was also a councillor on Derby Town Council for the Becket Ward in the 1880s. He was a trustee of Green-hill Chapel in Derby. He died in Salcombe, Devon on 20 June 1906.

Career

He formed a partnership with his sons William Francis Wills (b. 1877) and John Ross Wills (b. 1882). His practice was based at Victoria Street Chambers in Derby.Directory of British Architects 1834-1914. Alison Felstead and Jonathan Franklin, Continuum International Publishing Group, 2001 He was responsible for building many non-conformist chapels in the Midlands and in the southeastern counties of Sussex,

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbour ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

and

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

. He has been called the "pre-eminent architect" of

Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only ( believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compe ...

chapels in Kent, where his designs ranged from expensive, large chapels in towns to small wayside chapels in rural areas. His Baptist church at Holland Road in

Hove Hove is a seaside resort and one of the two main parts of the city of Brighton and Hove, along with Brighton in East Sussex, England. Originally a "small but ancient fishing village" surrounded by open farmland, it grew rapidly in the 19th c ...

has been called one of the most important Nonconformist chapels of the

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...

in Sussex. He was the author of ''Hints to Trustees of Chapel Property and Chapel Keepers' Manual'' which was in its 3rd edition by 1884.

Buildings

References

Bibliography

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wills, John 19th-century English architects Councillors in Derbyshire 1846 births 1906 deaths Architects from Derby