John Gibbs | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | c. 1827 |
| Occupation | Architect |
| Buildings | Wycliffe Hall (54Banbury Road, Oxford);Banbury Cross,Banbury;Norham Manor Estate, Oxford; monument toPrince Albert,Abingdon; parsonage and village school,South Leigh |
John Gibbs (c. 1827 – ) was a BritishGothic Revival architect based inWigan,Manchester, andOxford, England.
John Gibbs was born in Oxford, the son of James and Alice Gibbs. initially in Oxford but he moved to Wigan in the 1850s and then Manchester in the north of England.[3]
In 1858, he proposed a memorial fountain to commemorateAlfred the Great (purported to be the founder ofOxford University for many years) to be located in the centre of the wideBroad Street, southeast of St Giles', but it was never completed.[4]
The currentBanbury Cross was erected in 1859 to a design of Gibbs[5][6] at the centre ofBanbury,Oxfordshire, in commemoration of the marriage ofQueen Victoria's eldest daughter to Prince Frederick of Prussia. It is a stone, spire-shaped monument decorated inGothic form. The cross is 52 feet 6 inches high and is topped with a gilt cross. Statues surrounding the cross were added later in 1911.
Gibbs returned to Oxford in the 1860s and worked inSt Giles', centralOxford. In 1865, he designed a monument toPrince Albert inAlbert Park,Abingdon, then inBerkshire.[2] This consisted of a statue on a tall pedestal, a total of 48 feet high.
InNorth Oxford, Gibbs designed three large and prominent houses on the west side ofBanbury Road (numbers 54, 56, and 58).[7][8][9] No. 54 (1866) now forms part ofWycliffe Hall. No. 56 (1867) was built for Henry Hatch, adraper, and was later the long-time residence of SirEdward Bagnall Poulton, FRS,Hope Professor of Zoology atOxford University.[10] The building is now used by the Careers Service of Oxford University.[11] No. 58 (also 1867) was built for the chemist, William Walsh. It includes a statue ofWilliam of Wykeham by the sculptor W. Forsyth ofWorcester in a niche on the external wall of the house. The building is now the Department ofBiological Anthropology andHuman Sciences at Oxford University.[12]
John Gibbs designed the parsonage and the village school (1871) atSouth Leigh in Oxfordshire west of Oxford.[13]
Gibbs wrote books promoting theVictorian Gothic architectural style includingDesigns for Gothic Ornaments (1853) andEnglish Gothic Architecture (1855).[14]He was also the author of a novel,The Old Parish Church: with the Ghost of Merton Hall, published in 1861.[10]
