Name

John Gibson

Designation
architect
Born
1817
Place of Birth
Castle Bromwich
Location
London
Died
1892

  • Born:                     2 June 1817
  • Died:                     23 December 1892

John Gibson was born at Castle Bromwich on 2 June 1817 and educated at King Edward Grammar School in Birmingham. He was articled first to Joseph Aloysius Hansom, until the latter’s bankruptcy in 1835 he transferred to the office of Charles Barry in London, where he worked until 1844, the year he won the competition for the National Bank of Scotland, Queen Street, Glasgow, completed in 1847. He established his reputation in England with the Imperial Assurance Building on Threadneedle Street in 1846, and from at least the second half of the 1840s worked in partnership with G MacDougall. He was admitted ARIBA on 5 February 1849 and FRIBA on 24 January 1853, his proposers being Charles Barry, Thomas Leverton Donaldson and Francis Cranmer Penrose. In 1864, Gibson was appointed architect to the National Provincial Bank of England and went on to produce designs for over 40 bank buildings including the Classically-inspired headquarters in Threadneedle Street.  He designed a number of country houses, particularly in Warwickshire, adopting the then fashionable Elizabethan styles and a number of neo-Gothic churches. He effectively retired in 1883 but was honoured with the RIBA Royal Gold Medal in 1890. 

Gibson died of pneumonia on 23 December 1892, at his residence, 13 Great Queen Street, Westminster, and was buried in Kensal Green cemetery on 28 December. An impressive monument to his design marks his grave.

Obituary              British Architect 30 December 1892 Page 508