John Foulston (1772 – 30 December 1841) was an English architect who was a pupil of

Thomas Hardwick Thomas Hardwick (1752–1829) was an English architect and a founding member of the Architects' Club in 1791. Early life and career Hardwick was born in Brentford, Middlesex the son of a master mason turned architect also named Thomas Hard ...

and set up a practice in London in 1796.Peter Leach, ''Foulston, John (1772–1841)'', rev., Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. Online at http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/37425 (subscription required). Accessed 17 May 2008. In 1810 he won a competition to design the Royal Hotel and Theatre group of buildings in

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymout ...

, Devon, and after relocating he remained Plymouth's leading architect for twenty-five years.

Urban Planning of Plymouth

At the time, Plymouth was a prosperous port town, separated along the coast of

Plymouth Sound Plymouth Sound, or locally just The Sound, is a deep inlet or sound in the English Channel near Plymouth in England. Description Its southwest and southeast corners are Penlee Point in Cornwall and Wembury Point in Devon, a distance of ab ...

from the neighbouring towns of East Stonehouse and Devonport; collectively known as the

Three Towns Three Towns is a term used to refer to several groups of towns. United Kingdom There are several groups of towns in the United Kingdom referred to as the Three Towns, many of which form contiguous settlements, or are in close proximity to each ...

. Foulston was responsible for the creation of Union Street from the Frankfort Gate which was built across marshland to unite the three towns.

Ker Street, Devonport

Most of Foulston's work was in the

Greek Revival style The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but a ...

, but his best known project was the creation of a group of buildings in Ker Street, Devonport in 1821–24. This eclectic group consisted of a

Greek Doric The Doric order was one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of co ...

town hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually house ...

and commemorative

column A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member. ...

; a terrace of houses in Roman Corinthian style and two houses in

Greek Ionic The Ionic order is one of the three canonic orders of classical architecture, the other two being the Doric and the Corinthian. There are two lesser orders: the Tuscan (a plainer Doric), and the rich variant of Corinthian called the composite ...

; a "

Hindoo Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

" nonconformist chapel and an " Egyptian" library. Of these, all but the chapel and the houses survive, and are Grade I listed. Royal Hotel Plymouth

The Royal Hotel, Theatre and Assembly Rooms

Foulston's Royal Hotel, Theatre and Assembly Rooms were built between 1811 and 1818. The theatre was notable for being one of the first buildings in Britain to use

cast Cast may refer to: Music * Cast (band), an English alternative rock band * Cast (Mexican band), a progressive Mexican rock band * The Cast, a Scottish musical duo: Mairi Campbell and Dave Francis * ''Cast'', a 2012 album by Trespassers William ...

and wrought iron for parts of its main structure; it was demolished just before World War II to make way for a cinema.

Other works

Among his other works in Plymouth were The Plymouth Athenaeum, home of the Plymouth Institution of which Foulston was a member. The Athenaeum (1818–19) was bombed during World War II in 1941 and later demolished.Cherry & Pevsner 1989, p.664. Belmont House (c.1825), The Proprietary Library (1812, destroyed by bombing, 1941), The Royal Union Baths (1828, demolished 1849 to make way for Millbay railway station), and St. Catherine's Church (1823, demolished 1958). He also designed many

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and ...

-faced terraces and suburban villas, some of which survive as

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

s. In 1818 he designed the asterisk-shaped Cornwall County Asylum at Bodmin, later known as St Lawrence's Hospital, and now a

Grade II* listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

apartment building. In

Torquay Torquay ( ) is a seaside town in Devon, England, part of the unitary authority, unitary authority area of Torbay. It lies south of the county town of Exeter and east-north-east of Plymouth, on the north of Tor Bay, adjoining the neighbourin ...

he built the ballroom (1830, demolished), and in

Tavistock Tavistock ( ) is an ancient stannary and market town within West Devon, England. It is situated on the River Tavy from which its name derives. At the 2011 census the three electoral wards (North, South and South West) had a population of 13,02 ...

he restored the medieval abbey gatehouse in

Gothic style Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages * Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths ** Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken ...

. Foulston remodelled Warleigh House in Bickleigh in the Gothic style in the 1830s.

Later life and career

Not long before he retired he took into his partnership the architect

George Wightwick George Wightwick (26 August 1802 – 9 July 1872) was a British architect based in Plymouth, and possibly the first architectural journalist. In addition to his architectural practice, he developed his skills and the market for architectural ...

who succeeded to his practice. After his retirement, Foulston created a set of watercolour drawings of some of his buildings, which are now in the City Art Gallery. He became a fellow of the Institute of British Architects in 1838, and in the same year published "The Public Buildings of the West of England", a book that included plans and drawings of many of his buildings.A contemporary advert for the book is in In his later years he created an elaborate water garden at his home (Athenian Cottage in the suburb of Mutley), and he was wont to drive round the streets of the town in a gig disguised as a Roman war chariot. He died at his home and is buried in St Andrew's new cemetery in Plymouth.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Foulston, John 1772 births 1841 deaths Architects from Devon English urban planners