John Giles (architect)
John Giles was a British architect. He was born in Lincoln, probably in 1830, and his family came from Branston near Lincoln. He was articled to the Lincoln architect Pearson Bellamy. He had moved to London by 1859 and with Pearson Bellamy entered a number competitions for major public buildings. Of these only one, for Grimsby Town, was successful. In London he was responsible for a number of major projects including the Langham Hotel. He also started in 1869 on the design of hospitals with the Infirmary to Hampstead Union Workhouse. After a short period of partnership  with Lewis Angel, when Stratford Town Hall was built and with Edward Biven, by 1873 he was in partnership with Albert Edward Gough. They were joined in the practice by J E Trollope and they became involved in the design of Arts and Crafts housing in London's west end. Giles had business interests in the City of London and was noted in 1867 as being a Director of the Imperial Guardian Life Insurance Company. Works. Giles initially worked with Bellamy and Hardy of Lincoln. In 1859 they submitted plans in a competition for the Manchester Assize Courts in Great  Ducie St. Manchester, but the competition was won by Sir Alfred Waterhouse with a notable building in the Venetian Gothic style. Giles and Bellamy and Hardy's proposed building was in the Palazzo revival style. Then in 1861 they were successful in a competition to design Grimsby Town Hall. Giles' practice was first at 2 Verulam Buildings, London in 1864 and he was to move to 28 Craven Street, Charing Cross by 1868. A notable architect articled to Giles was Charles Bell who came from Grantham in Lincolnshire. Following this Giles was working by himself and his most notable buildings  were: Giles and Angell. For a short time he worked with Lewis Angell, who was the District Surveyor for West Ham. They submitted a design for Stratford Town Hall (now known as Stratford Old Town Hall), beating thirty competing entries. The building was completed in 1869 and extended by Angell in 1881. The building is described as a "confidently Victorian version of arched Cinquecento "with rusticated stone ground floor with square headed window openings beneath an upper storey of round arched windows, divided by Corinthian columns. "Carried off with considerable panache" with an asymmetrical 100 ft domed tower. The balustraded  parapets are decorated with allegorical figures. Giles and Biven. By 1866 Giles was in partnership with Edward Biven at 28 Craven Street, when they designed an Infirmary for the St. Pancras Guardians of the Poor. This building is now part of the Highgate Wing of the Whittington Hospital. Giles and Gough. By 1873 Giles was in partnership with Albert Edward Gough (died 1908) at Craven Street. The partnership increasingly specialised in asylum, hospital and workhouse architecture. Work by them includes: Giles, Gough and Trollope. By 1888 Giles and Gough were joined by John Evelyn Trollope, an architect who had trained  under Sir Arthur William Blomfield. Trollope was to continue the practice at 28 Craven Street after Gough's death in 1908. Trollope died in 1912. The practice expanded considerably at this time, particular building hospitals and mental asylums. Also they built housing in London, in the Queen Anne revival style, normally in red brick and using terracotta decorative panels. Much of this housing appears to have been designed by John Evelyn Trollope. Buildings by Giles, Gough and Trollope: Giles and the building of asylums. Following Giles' innovative design for the Coney Hill Hospital in Gloucestershire, Giles became one of the  most successful asylum architects, winning eight of the sixteen competitions he entered and coming second in four. Examples of work undertaken by his partnership are: