Joseph Gwilt (11 January 1784 – 14 September 1863) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

and writer. He was the son of

George Gwilt George Gwilt (1746–1807), also sometimes known as George Gwilt the Elder, was an English architect, particularly associated with buildings in and around London. His sons George and Joseph were also architects, training in his office in Southwa ...

, architect surveyor to the county of Surrey, and was born at Southwark. George Gwilt the Younger, was his elder brother. He was educated at St Paul's School, and after a short course of instruction in his father's office was in 1801 admitted a student of the Royal Academy, where in the same year he gained the silver medal for his drawing of the tower and steeple of St Dunstan-in-the-East. In 1811 he published a ''Treatise on the Equilibrium of Arches'', and in 1815 he was elected FSA. After a visit to

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

in 1816, he published in 1818 ''Notitia architectonica italiana'', or ''Concise Notices of the Buildings and Architects of Italy''. In 1825 he published an edition of

Sir William Chambers __NOTOC__ Sir William Chambers (23 February 1723 – 10 March 1796) was a Swedish-Scottish architect, based in London. Among his best-known works are Somerset House, and the pagoda at Kew. Chambers was a founder member of the Royal Academy. Bio ...

's ''Treatise on Civil Architecture''; and among his other principal contributions to the literature of his profession are a translation of the ''Architecture'' of

Vitruvius Vitruvius (; c. 80–70 BC – after c. 15 BC) was a Roman architect and engineer during the 1st century BC, known for his multi-volume work entitled '' De architectura''. He originated the idea that all buildings should have three attribut ...

(1826), a ''Treatise on the Rudiments of Architecture, Practical and Theoretical'' (1826), and his valuable ''Encyclopaedia of Architecture'' (1842), which was published with additions by Wyatt Papworth in 1867. In recognition of Gwilt's advocacy of the importance to architects of a knowledge of mathematics, he was in 1833 elected a member of the

Royal Astronomical Society (Whatever shines should be observed) , predecessor = , successor = , formation = , founder = , extinction = , merger = , merged = , type = NG ...

. He took a special interest in

philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...

and music, and was the author of ''Rudiments of the Anglo-Saxon Tongue'' (1829), and of the article "Music" in the '' Encyclopaedia metropolitana''. His principal works as a practical architect were

Markree Castle Markree Castle is a castle located in Collooney, County Sligo, Ireland. It is the ancestral seat of the Cooper family, partially moated by the River Unshin. Today it is a small family-run hotel. In the 1830s the Observatory on the grounds of the ...

near Sligo in Ireland, and St Thomas's Church (1849–1850) at Charlton in

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 ...

(today part of the

Royal Borough of Greenwich The Royal Borough of Greenwich (, , or ) is a London borough in southeast Greater London. The London Borough of Greenwich was formed in 1965 by the London Government Act 1963. The new borough covered the former area of the Metropolitan Borough ...

) and the tower of St Thomas, Clapton Common (1829). Gwilt was also associated () with a flawed and short-lived attempt to rebuild the mediaeval predecessor of today's St Margaret's Church in Lee. When it became clear that the foundations of the old church were incapable of supporting a new building, a new church was commissioned, from another architect, on land nearby. A portrait of him is part of the permanent collection at the National Portrait Gallery in London. In his ''Encyclopaedia of Architecture'', he informs us that standing stones predated all other forms of architecture, that the Druids were the world’s first race of civilised people, and that at one time the language and alphabet of the entire ancient world from

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

was the same - that of the Irish Druids.

Writings

* ''An Encyclopaedia of Architecture, Historical, Theoretical, and Practical'', 1859,

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gwilt, John 1784 births 1863 deaths 19th-century English architects People educated at St Paul's School, London