Horace Jones

Horace Jones, painting by Walter William Ouless (1886)

Sir Horace Jones (born May 20, 1819 in London ; died May 21, 1887 there ) was a British architect . From 1864 he was the city ​​architect of the City of London , his most famous design is Tower Bridge .

Life

Horace Jones was born on May 20, 1819 in London to the solicitor David Jones and his wife Sarah Lydia Shephard. After leaving school, he trained with the architect and surveyor John Wallen. He then went on a long journey through southern Europe, where he studied historical buildings in Italy and Greece. In 1843 Jones settled in Holborn as an architect. Beginning in 1864, he assumed the post of municipal architect ( English architect and surveyor ) thereby also for the City of London, both urban planning and the Thames bridges was responsible. In April 1875, Jones married Ann Elizabeth Patch, the daughter of a barrister .

Jones was involved with the Royal Institute of British Architects . There he was an associate member from 1842 and a fellow from 1855 , from 1882 to 1884 he held the post of President. Jones was also an active Freemason , holding the rank of Grand Superintendent of Works in his box from 1882 until his death . In July 1886, Jones was knighted . He died in London on May 21, 1887, the day after his 68th birthday, and is buried in West Norwood Cemetery .

Act

During his time as a freelance architect, Jones designed, among other things, office buildings for companies from various industries, a new City Hall for Cardiff , the Surrey Music Hall in Newington and Caversham Hall . He has also been commissioned several times to carry out real estate projects.

After moving to the service of the City of London in 1864, Jones naturally planned new constructions, extensions and redesigns of public buildings. The early days saw the completion of the psychiatric clinic in Dartford , which his predecessor James Bunstone Bunning had begun, as well as a new roof for the Guildhall . One focus was the design of a number of market halls , such as Leadenhall Market , the Billingsgate fish market , the cattle market on the site of the former shipyard in Deptford and several separate halls for meat, fruit, vegetables, poultry and other food in Smithfield . According to a design by Jones, a memorial column was built at Temple Bar in 1880 in place of the previously demolished city gate by Christopher Wren . The last more significant property is the Guildhall School of Music building on John Carpenter Street , which was inaugurated at the end of 1886 .

Jones also saw the need. to improve traffic conditions on the bridges over the Thames. A proposal he initially made for the extension of London Bridge was not approved by the administration. In 1876 he came to the conclusion that the best option was to build a new suspension bridge with a central section that could be folded up . He therefore created, together with the engineer John Wolfe-Barry , the planning of such a structure at the height of the tower . Construction began in 1886, but Jones did not see completion in 1894.

Picture gallery

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  Cardiff City Hall

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  Surrey Music Hall

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  Caversham Hall

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  Fish market in Billingsgate

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  Smithfield Meat Market

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  Leadenhall Market

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  Memorial at Temple Bar

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  Guildhall School of Music

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  Tower bridge

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  Tomb of Jones

literature

George Clement Boase:  Jones, Horace . In: Sidney Lee (Ed.): Dictionary of National Biography . Volume 30:  Johnes - Kenneth. , MacMillan & Co, Smith, Elder & Co., New York City / London 1892, p. 137 (English).

Web links

• Horace Jones on the Tower Bridge website