Giles Gilbert Scott is best known these days by the British public either for his K2 and K6 red telephone boxes (now rapidly vanishing from the English scene) or for his two London power stations on the River Thames at Chelsea and at Bankside in Southwark, the latter now transformed into Tate Modern. His major ecclesiastical work was the magnificent Liverpool Anglican Cathedral which towers over the city. He was originally awarded the contract as a young man in 1903 together with George Frederick Bodley. The combination was an unhappy one and Scott took over the task on his own on the death of Bodley four years later. This edifice, being non-Catholic, however, falls outside the scope of this particular article.
He was arguably the best Catholic ecclesiastical architect of the 20th century.
Giles Gilbert Scott was the grandson of the famous Anglican architect Sir Gilbert Scott (1811-78) whose most famous works include the Albert Memorial and the Grand Midland Hotel at St Pancras. As a young man his life was changed by reading Pugin’s Contrasts (1836) and he paid this remarkable tribute to the book in his memoirs: “I was awakened from my slumber by the thunder of Pugin’s writings. I well remember the enthusiasm to which one of them excited me one night travelling by railway in the first years of their existence. I was from that moment a new man. Old things (in my practice) had passed away from me and, behold, all things had become new, or rather modernism had passed away from me and every aspiration of my heart had become medieval. What had for 15 years been a labour of love only, had become the one business, the one aim, the one overmastering object of my life. I cared for nothing as regarded my art but for the revival of Gothic architecture.” Scott went on to design a large number of accomplished but, to my mind, ultimately slightly dull, Anglican Gothic Revival churches.
George Gilbert Scott Jr (“Middle Scott”) (1839-1897) was the son of Sir George Gilbert Scott and the father of Sir Giles Gilbert Scott. He was a King’s Scholar at Eton. He designed the sophisticated Anglican churches of St Agnes, Kennington (1877) and St Alphege, Southwark (1882). They suffered from being bombed in the Blitz and were subsequently demolished unnecessarily by the Church of England – in Betjeman’s words about the former it was one of two “fine churches of unfashionable date demolished since the war”. Middle Scott converted to Catholicism in 1880. His major Catholic work was the excellent church (now cathedral) of St John the Baptist in Norwich (begun 1882 and completed 1910). His life was an unhappy one and he died of cirrhosis of the liver in the Grand Midland Hotel at St Pancras station, designed by his father.
Giles Gilbert Scott was brought up as a Catholic and was educated by the Jesuits at the sadly vanished Beaumont College, mainly on the grounds that his father had admired the preparatory school buildings by JF Bentley. His brother, the Catholic architect Adrian Gilbert Scott (1882-1963), was also educated there. In 1899 Giles Gilbert Scott became an articled pupil in the practice of the mainly ecclesiastical Anglican architect Temple Moore, whom the late Gavin Stamp regarded as the greatest architect of the Gothic Revival.
After his early success with the competition for Liverpool Cathedral, Scott designed a number of Catholic churches before the First World War. He met and married the Protestant Louise Wallbank Hughes, a receptionist at the Adelphi Hotel in Liverpool. They had a long and happy marriage from which two sons survived to adulthood. One of these was the Catholic architect, Richard Gilbert Scott (1923-2017).
During the First World War Scott was a major in the Royal Marines. He was in charge of building sea defences on the English Channel coast.
His practice continued to flourish after the war and he increasingly won secular commissions as well as those for churches.
The Benedictines were good patrons to him. He started work on the monastery church at Ampleforth in 1922-24. The church shows Scott’s trademarks of simplicity and beautifully proportioned mass. The Arts and Crafts Gothic arch in the crossing under the tower dominates the sanctuary and is richly decorated with carving.
He partially completed the nave at Downside Abbey, as a memorial to the Old Gregorians killed in the war, in 1923-25, adding seven new bays, triforium and clerestory to Thomas Garner’s choir and the transepts by Dunn & Hansom. He also eventually completed the 165-foot tower based on traditional Somerset towers. His major English Catholic churches were, in chronological order:
The Annunciation, Bournemouth, 1906. Scott’s first church has a certain industrial feel, built for the Jesuits, in geometrical Gothic. Betjeman called it “a brilliantly original design in (red) brick”. The exterior is dominated by a huge bellcote. The sanctuary has a magnificent diffusion of light caused by the unprecedented raising of crossing, transept and sanctuary to the height of the tower.
St Joseph, Sheringham, Norfolk 1910-36. This was paid for by Mrs Catherine Deterding and is a highly original design in red brick, the most interesting building in Sheringham. It has a tall five bay nave and chancel in one, with a circular east window. The nave windows have bold curvilinear tracery. Scott extended the church in 1934-5. There was an unfortunate reordering by Anthony Rossi in 1993.
Our Lady of the Assumption, Northfleet, Kent (1913-16). The church is dramatic and innovative. Its monumental brown brick exterior is a precursor for the tower of Liverpool Cathedral. The interior is austere and has many fittings by Scott, including the main altar and reredos.
Our Lady and St Alphege, Bath (1927-29). The church was built for the Benedictines of stone rubble based on the early Christian basilica of St Maria in Cosmedin in Rome. The interior with its baldacchino is austere, with many fittings by Scott including remarkable lighting in the form of gold sunburst discs.
Our Lady of Mount Carmel and St Simon Stock, Kensington (1954-9). The church of the Discalced Carmelites was rebuilt after the earlier church by EW Pugin was severely damaged in the Blitz. It is a tall refined Gothic building.
St Anthony of Padua, Preston (1954-9). This large towered church is built in brick and consists of a nave and chancel with continuous clerestory. The refined interior has great arches in the roof leading to a baldacchino with Corinthian columns.
Church of Christ the King, Plymouth (1961-2, built posthumously). This Arts and Crafts Gothic Revival Church is Scott’s final work. Brick outside, the interior is of great refinement with good fittings. It now serves as the University Chaplaincy.
Scott was also responsible for various restorations and additions of churches. He was knighted at Knowsley Park outside Liverpool, the home of the Earls of Derby, in 1924 after the consecration of the Cathedral. In 1944 he was awarded the OM by George VI. He died in 1960 and was buried outside the west entrance of Liverpool Cathedral, his magnum opus, by monks from Ampleforth Abbey. A subsequent Requiem Mass for him was celebrated at Spanish Place.
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