Name

John Philpot Jones

Designation
architect
Born
1830
Place of Birth
Clonmell, Ireland
Location
London
Died
1873

  • Born : 1830 Cork/Clonmel Ireland
  • Died  : Sunday 1 June 1873
  • Burial : Brompton Cemetery

John Philpot Jones, was born in Cork or Clonmel about 1830. He moved to London in 1857 where he entered into partnership with W Swinden Barber, this partnership being dissolved 3 March 1859. The London City Directories list his name from 1862 until 1870 when he formed a partnership with Edward Salomons, of Manchester.

 in 1857 he entered the competition for the Town Hall at Cork and in the same year he was selected as a finalist in the competition for the Government Offices in Whitehall, London (Builder 11 July 1857, 383). In 1860 he was awarded First Premium for his design of the Town Hall and Market at Bishop Auckland, Durham. (Builder 7 April 1860 - illustration), although the committee subsequently appointed a Newcastle architect to prepare revised plans. In 1862 Philpot Jones entered the competition for the Cathedral of St Finn Barre (CI) Bishop Street, Cork, County Cork, his design being exhibited at the Architectural Exhibition, London, April 1863. He is mentioned in the Dublin Builder in 1859 as having won a competition for a new prison at Genoa and as having designed two prisons in Turin. Between 1857 and 1872 he exhibited architectural drawings regularly at the Royal Academy, including ecclesiastical work, residential commissions, a warehouse at Deptford, a factory at New Cross for Letts and Sons, and a hotel at Florence.

In 1864 he exhibited designs for Dundarane Hall, Lancashire at the Royal Academy This presumably is the house illustrated in Building News, February 1865 page 100 and engraving page 104. “MANSION, LANCASHIRE - WE give a wood engraving of a mansion about to be erected in Lancashire. It is from the designs of Mr. J. Philpot Jones, architect, 21, Whitehall-place, S.W. The building is to be of red brick, with bands of stone and terra-cotta, with marble shafts to windows, and granite columns to the arcade garden front. The roofs are to be covered with tiles of red and dark grey colour, in patterns.” This is J P Jones only known work in Lancashire before his partnership with Salomons, but has yet to be identified.

In 1872 William Henry Crossland, in association with John Philpott-Jones and Edward Salomons entered, and won, an architectural competition for the Royal Holloway Sanatorium at Virginia Water. However, before building work started, Philpott-Jones had died and Salomons had lost interest, leaving Crossland to inherit the commission. Note that no formal partnership agreement existed between the three men.

John Philpot Jones is widely credited with responsibility for, or at least some degree of involvement in, the preparation of the plans for St John’s Cathedral, Newfoundland, Canada. The project was initiated by Bishop Michael Fleming in 1838 with construction commencing in 1841. “the distinguished Irish architect” John Philpot Jones. This attribution must be questioned, given that he was aged eleven when construction work started.

John Philpot Jones suddenly collapsed and died in the evening of Sunday 1 June 1873. An inquest was held and cause of death ascertained as “an affection of the heart,” a complaint he had been suffering from intermittingly for a considerable time. (The Architect 7 June 1873 page 308). He was buried at Brompton Cemetery on 7 June 1873 and left a widow, Ann Mary Philpot, and four children.

Address
1857-1859: Jones and Barber Hanover Chambers, Buckingham Street
1859: J Philpot Jones, architect, 153, Cambridge Street, London.
1864: J. Philpot Jones, architect, 21, Whitehall Place, London SW

Residence
1873: 1, Marloes Road, South Kensington London W8
From 1876 until 1912 this was the home of Andrew Lang, man of letters. (Blue plaque)

Obituary: The Architect 7 June 1873 page 308

Reference
R.I.B.A., Directory of British Architects 1834-1914, 2001, i, 1040)
Algernon Graves, Royal Academy Exhibitors, iv, 1906, 276;
Dictionary of Irish Architects
Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada

Partnerships

Name Designation Formed Dissolved Location
Salomons and Jones Architectural practice 1870 1873 Manchester London