John Gibbs was a British Gothic Revival architect based in Wigan, Manchester, and Oxford, England.

Life

John Gibbs was initially in Oxford but he moved to Wigan in the 1850s and then Manchester in the north of England. In 1858, he proposed a memorial fountain to commemorate

Alfred the Great Alfred the Great (alt. Ælfred 848/849 – 26 October 899) was King of the West Saxons from 871 to 886, and King of the Anglo-Saxons from 886 until his death in 899. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf and his first wife Osburh, who bot ...

(purported to be the founder of Oxford University for many years) to be located in the centre of the wide Broad Street, southeast of St Giles', but it was never completed. The current

Banbury Cross Banbury is a historic market town on the River Cherwell in Oxfordshire, South East England. It had a population of 54,335 at the 2021 Census. Banbury is a significant commercial and retail centre for the surrounding area of north Oxfordshire ...

was erected in 1859 to a design of Gibbs at the centre of Banbury,

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...

, in commemoration of the marriage of Queen Victoria's eldest daughter to Prince Frederick of Prussia. It is a stone, spire-shaped monument decorated in Gothic 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 in St Giles', central Oxford. In 1865, he designed a monument to

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