Interesting Facts about British architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott

Search engine giant Google celebrates the 140th birthday of British architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott with an animated Doodle on November 9, 2020. Famous for designs, for example, Battersea Power Station and the now-notorious red telephone box showed in the present Google Doodle, Scott joined traditional and modern styles to construct some of London’s most popular landmarks.

Here’s a look at the life and work of English architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott.

Personal

• Birthdate: 9 November 1880
• Birthplace: Hampstead, Middlesex, England
• Died on: 8 February 1960 (aged 79)
• Death place: Bloomsbury, Greater London, England
• Father name: George Gilbert Scott Jr.
• Mother name: Ellen King Samson
• Sun Sign: Scorpio
• Nationality: English
• Famous As: Architect
• Education: Beaumont College
• Notable Works:
  • Liverpool Cathedral
  • Church of St Paul, Liverpool
  • St Columba’s Cathedral
  • Statue of King George V
  • Cambridge University Library
  • Battersea Power Station
  • House of Commons
  • Lady Margaret Hall Chapel
• Notable awards:
  • Order of Merit
  • Knight Bachelor
  • Royal Gold Medal (1925)
  • Albert Medal (1949)
  • Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects

30 Interesting Facts about Sir Giles Gilbert Scott

1. Architect of the notable red telephone box that is recognizable around the world as a British brand name. Additionally perceived for his work on the Liverpool Cathedral, the Waterloo Bridge, and the Battersea Power Station.

2. Sir Giles Gilbert Scott and his brothers were raised as Roman Catholics; their dad was a Catholic convert.

3. Giles Gilbert Scott went to Beaumont College, and in January 1899, he worked in the office of Temple Moore as an articled student. He won the design competition for the construction of a new cathedral in the diocese of Liverpool, even though he had no experience and was just 22.

4. In 1901, while Sir Giles Gilbert Scott was as yet a student in Moore’s training, the diocese of Liverpool declared a competition to select the architect of a new cathedral. With Moore’s approval, Scott presented his own entry, on which he worked in his extra time.

5. The Liverpool Cathedral committee named Giles Gilbert Scott sole architect, and however it reserved the right to appoint another co-architect, it never truly considered doing as such.

6. Construction proceeded all through the 1930s, however, eased back definitely during the Time World War, as it had done during the First. Sir Giles Gilbert Scott kept on work on the project until his demise, refining the design as he went. He designed each part of the building down to the fine subtleties. The cathedral was done in 1978, almost decades after Scott’s death.

7. His dad, George Gilbert Scott, Jr., and grandfather, Sir George Gilbert Scott, were additionally architects. His dad battled with the mental stability and infrequently observed his child, however, Giles came to value his dad as an architectural genius later on.

8. While Giles Gilbert Scott was feuding with Bodley in Liverpool, he managed to design and see constructed his initially complete church.

9. His work on one more new Roman Catholic church at Sheringham, Norfolk indicated his preference for basic Gothic frontages. Other churches worked by Scott right now, at Ramsey on the Isle of Man, Northfleet in Kent, and Stoneycroft in Liverpool, show the improvement of his style.

10. During the First World War, Sir Giles Gilbert Scott was a Major in the Royal Marines. He was in charge of building sea defenses on the English Channel coast.

11. As Liverpool Cathedral rose Scott’s popularity developed, and he started to make sure about commissions for secular buildings.

12. Scott’s residential buildings are not many; extraordinary compared to other known is the Cropthorne Court mansion block in Maida Vale, where the frontage juts out in diagonals, dispensing with the requirement for lightwells.

13. Not long after his work on the nave at Downside Abbey, Sir Giles Gilbert Scott was appointed to design the small Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady and St Alphege, Bath, the first part of which was finished in 1929. His plan was inspired by the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, Rome.

14. Scott’s most ubiquitous design was for the General Post Office. He was one of three architects invited by the Royal Fine Arts Commission to submit designs for new telephone kiosks.

15. In 1930 the London Power Company engaged Giles Gilbert Scott as a counseling architect for its new electricity generating station at Battersea. Scott’s role was to upgrade the external appearance of the enormous architecture.

16. At the time of Battersea Power Station’s opening in 1933, The Observer, however communicating a few doubts about subtleties of Scott’s work, called it “one of the finest sights in London”.

17. In Cambridge, close to Clare College’s Memorial Court, Sir Giles Gilbert Scott designed the huge library for the whole University of Cambridge.

18. Sir Giles Gilbert Scott became president of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1933, it’s century; he previously was awarded the RIBA Royal Gold Medal in 1925.

19. From 1937 to 1940, Giles Gilbert Scott worked on the New Bodleian Library, in Broad Street in Oxford.

20. Scott’s search for the “middle line” caused him difficulties when he was selected as architect for the new Coventry Cathedral in 1942. Unfit to accommodate these differences Scott resigned in 1947; a competition was held and won by Basil Spence with an uncompromisingly modern design.

21. After the Commons office of the Palace of Westminster was destroyed by bombs in 1941, Giles Gilbert Scott was designated in 1944 to reconstruct it.

22. In 1944, Sir Giles Gilbert Scott was designated a Member of the Order of Merit (OM) by King George VI.

23. Scott made the design of the Trinity College Chapel in Toronto, finished in 1955, a stunning case of the perpendicular Gothic, executed by the nearby firm of George and Moorhouse and highlighting windows by E. Liddall Armstrong of Whitefriars.

24. Sir Giles Gilbert Scott stayed working in his late 70s. He was working on designs for the Roman Catholic Church of Christ the King, Plymouth, when he created lung cancer. He brought the designs into University College Hospital, where he kept on amending them until his death on 8 February 1960 aged 79 in Bloomsbury, Greater London, England.

25. A requiem mass for Giles Gilbert Scott was celebrated by Father Patrick Casey at St James’ Roman Catholic Church, Spanish Place, London, on 17 February 1960.

26. Following the consecration of Liverpool Cathedral, Scott was knighted by King George V at Knowsley Hall, where the King and Queen were remaining as visitors of the 17th Earl of Derby.

27. In a 2005 study of Scott’s work, John Thomas sees that Scott senior’s “important church of St Agnes, Kennington (1874–77; 1880s–93) clearly influenced Giles’s early work, including Liverpool Cathedral Lady Chapel.”

28. Sir Giles Gilbert Scott was known for his work on the Liverpool Cathedral, Battersea Power Station, Lady Margaret Hall, Cambridge University Library, Oxford, and designing the famous red telephone box. Scott originated from a family of architects.

29. Sir Giles Gilbert Scott was noted for his mixing of Gothic tradition with modernism, making what may somehow or another have been practically designed buildings into popular landmarks.

30. On November 9, 2020, Google celebrated Sir Giles Gilbert Scott’s 140th Birthday with Google Doodle.