Joseph John Scoles (1798–1863) was an English

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...

architect, who designed many Roman Catholic churches.

Early life and education

Scoles was born in London on 27 June 1798, the son of Roman Catholic parents Matthew Scoles, a joiner, and Elizabeth Sparling. He was educated at the Roman Catholic school at Baddesley Green and then, in 1812, apprenticed for seven years to his relative,

Joseph Ireland Joseph Ireland (1841) was an English architect who designed Roman Catholic Church buildings in the early nineteenth century. He specialized in Romanesque revival architecture and worked with Joseph John Scoles. Life Ireland was born into a Catho ...

, an architect who was extensively employed by

John Milner John David Milner (December 28, 1949 – January 4, 2000) was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a first baseman and left fielder from to for the New York Mets, Pittsburgh Pirates and the Montreal ...

, then the Roman Catholic vicar-apostolic of the Midland District. Ireland built several Roman Catholic churches, one of the earliest of which was at Hinckley, in Nottinghamshire. He was probably advised on the Gothic detailing of these designs by John Carter.Eastlake 1872, p.130 Between 1816 and 1819 Scoles was resident at

Hassop Hall Hassop Hall is a 17th-century country house near Bakewell, Derbyshire, which was operated as a hotel until it closed on 29 September 2019. It is a Grade II* listed building. History The Manor was owned by the Foljambe family until the 14th cent ...

, Bakewell, and in Leicester, superintending works for Ireland.

Travel

In 1822 Scoles left England in the company of

Joseph Bonomi the Younger Joseph Bonomi the Younger (9 October 1796 – 3 March 1878) was an English sculptor, artist, Egyptologist and museum curator. Early life Bonomi was born in London (Gunnis says Rome) into a family of architects. His father, Joseph Bonomi the E ...

for further study. He carried out archaeological and architectural research in Rome, Greece, Egypt, and Syria, often in the company of Henry Parke and

Frederick Catherwood Frederick Catherwood (27 February 1799 – 27 September 1854) was an English artist, architect and explorer, best remembered for his meticulously detailed drawings of the ruins of the Maya civilization. He explored Mesoamerica in the mid 19th ...

. In 1829 he published an engraved map of

Nubia Nubia (, Nobiin language, Nobiin: , ) is a region along the Nile river encompassing the area between the confluence of the Blue Nile, Blue and White Nile, White Niles (in Khartoum in central Sudan), and the Cataracts of the Nile, first cataract ...

, showing the area between the first and second cataracts of the Nile, from a survey made in 1824 jointly by him and Parke, and a map of the city of Jerusalem; his plan of the church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem, with his drawings of the Jewish tombs in the valley of

Jehoshaphat Jehoshaphat (; alternatively spelled Jehosaphat, Josaphat, or Yehoshafat; ; ; ), according to the Hebrew Bible, was the son of Asa, and the fourth king of the Kingdom of Judah, in succession to his father. His children included Jehoram, who ...

, was published by Robert Willis in 1849.

Early secular work

In 1826 he returned home and resumed architectural work. In 1828 he planned and carried out the building of Gloucester Terrace,

Regent's Park Regent's Park (officially The Regent's Park) is one of the Royal Parks of London. It occupies in north-west Inner London, administratively split between the City of Westminster and the London Borough of Camden, Borough of Camden (and historical ...

, for which John Nash supplied the general elevation. Gloucester Villa, at the entrance to the park, was built completely to his design. At around this time he constructed a suspension bridge over the

River Bure The River Bure is a river in the county of Norfolk, England, most of it in the Broads.Ordnance Survey (2005). ''OS Explorer Map OL40 - The Broads''. . The Bure rises near Melton Constable, upstream of Aylsham, which was the original head of ...

Great Yarmouth Great Yarmouth ( ), often called Yarmouth, is a seaside resort, seaside town which gives its name to the wider Borough of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, England; it straddles the River Yare and is located east of Norwich. Its fishing industry, m ...

. It collapsed with fatal results in 1845, due to concealed defects in two suspending rods.

Anglican churches

Scoles designed three Anglican churches: St Mary's Chapel, Southtown, Yarmouth (1830), St Peter's Church, Great Yarmouth (a commissioner's church, 1831), and St George's Church, Edgbaston, for Lord Calthorpe. His only other work for the established church consisted of some small additions and restorations to

Burgh Castle Burgh Castle is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. Burgh Castle is located south-west of Great Yarmouth and east of Norwich. The parish was part of Suffolk until 1974. History Burgh Castle was likely the site of a ...

and

Blundeston Blundeston is a village and civil parish in the north of the English county of Suffolk. It is north-west of Lowestoft, south of Great Yarmouth and around inland from the North Sea coast. It is part of the area known as Lothingland in the Ea ...

churches in Suffolk.

Roman Catholic buildings

His works for the Roman Catholic church included Our Lady's Church, St John's Wood (1832), St Peter's Church in

Stonyhurst College Stonyhurst College or Stonyhurst is a co-educational Catholic Public school (United Kingdom), public school providing education for boarding school, boarding and day school, day pupils, adhering to the Society of Jesus, Jesuit tradition. It is ...

, Lancashire (1832), Our Lady Church, Bangor (1834, now closed), St Ignatius, Preston, Lancashire (1835),

St James the Less and St Helen Church, Colchester St James the Less and St Helen Church is a Roman Catholic Parish church in Colchester, Essex, England. It was built in 1837 and designed by Joseph John Scoles. It is situated on Priory Street between the junction with East Hill and St Thomas Mo ...

(1837), St Mary's, Newport, Monmouthshire (1840),

St David's, Cardiff St David's (), previously known as St David's Shopping Centre, is one of the principal shopping centres in the city centre of Cardiff, Wales. It is in The Hayes area of the southern city centre. Following the extension of St David's 2 in 2009, ...

(1842),

St John the Evangelist Church, Islington St John the Evangelist Church is a Catholic Parish church in Islington, London. It was built from 1841 to 1843, seven years before the Reestablishment of the Catholic hierarchy in 1850. It was designed by Joseph John Scoles, with parts of the in ...

(1843), the Immaculate Conception, Farm Street, London (1844), St Francis Xavier's, Liverpool (1844), Our Lady Immaculate, Chelmsford (1847), St Mary's Church in Great Yarmouth (1848–1850), the chapel of Ince Hall, Lancashire (1859), and the Holy Cross, St Helen's, Lancashire (1860). His design for the church of St John in Duncan Terrace,

Islington Islington ( ) is an inner-city area of north London, England, within the wider London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's #Islington High Street, High Street to Highbury Fields ...

– a neo-Romanesque brick building with stone facings – was censured by Pugin in an article on "Ecclesiastical Architectures" in the ''Dublin Review'' in 1843. In 1853 he designed a group of buildings for the London Oratory at Brompton, consisting of the Oratory House – a building in a simple Italianate style, incorporating a chapel, known as the Little Oratory, and a library – and a plain red brick temporary church, which survived until 1880. He also built a convent nearby in Sidney Street. The chapel of

Prior Park Prior Park is a Neo-Palladian house that was designed by John Wood, the Elder, and built in the 1730s and 1740s for Ralph Allen on a hill overlooking Bath, Somerset, England. It has been designated as a Grade I listed building. The house was bu ...

College, Bath, designed by Scoles, was erected after his death by his son. Unlike Scoles' other ecclesiastical work, this was Neoclassical in style, in sympathy with the mansion to which it was attached. It was built to a simple aisled

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica (Greek Basiliké) was a large public building with multiple functions that was typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek Eas ...

n plan with an

apse In architecture, an apse (: apses; from Latin , 'arch, vault'; from Ancient Greek , , 'arch'; sometimes written apsis; : apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical Vault (architecture), vault or semi-dome, also known as an ' ...

Royal Institute of British Architects

Scoles was elected a fellow of the

Royal Institute of British Architects The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three suppl ...

in 1835, was honorary secretary from May 1846 to May 1856, and vice-president in 1857–1858. Most of his contributions to the society's ''Proceedings'' were about the monuments of Egypt and the Holy Land, studied during his early travels.

Family

He died on 29 December 1863 at his home, Crofton Lodge, Hammersmith. He was survived by four sons and eight daughters from his marriage to Harriet Cory of Great Yarmouth, whom he had married in 1831. The eldest was

Ignatius Scoles Ignatius Scoles SJ (1 December 1834 – 15 July 1896) was a Roman Catholic Jesuit priest, architect and writer. He designed churches and civic buildings and was the son of Joseph John Scoles.Guyana Times International' accessed 26 March 2013 Earl ...

who followed his father as an architect, then joined the

Jesuits The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

and designed

Georgetown City Hall Georgetown City Hall is a nineteenth-century Gothic Revival building located on the corner of Regent Street and Avenue of the Republic in Georgetown, Guyana. The building was designed by architect Reverend Ignatius Scoles in 1887, and was complet ...

and

St Wilfrid's Church, Preston Saint Wilfrid's Church is a Roman Catholic Church (building), church run by the Society of Jesus, in the city centre of Preston, Lancashire, Preston, Lancashire, England. It was built in 1793 and is situated between Fishergate and Winckley Square ...

.Guyana Times International
accessed 26 March 2013 His third son was Alexander Joseph Cory Scoles who became a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

priest and

canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the material accepted as officially written by an author or an ascribed author * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western canon, th ...

and followed his brother and father in becoming an architect. He designed many lancet style

churches in the south of England.Slevin, Malachy ''St Francis Church Handsworth'' (Birmingham, 1994) pp.1–17

References

Sources

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Scoles, Joseph John 19th-century English architects Gothic Revival architects 1798 births 1863 deaths English ecclesiastical architects People from Hammersmith English Roman Catholics Architects from London Architects of Roman Catholic churches