John Gwynn (architect)
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English
John Gwynn Template:Post-nominals (1713 – 28 February 1786) was an English architect and civil engineer, who became one of the founder members of the Royal Academy in 1768. He advocated greater control over planning in London, for which he produced detailed suggestions. His buildings include Magdalen Bridge and the Covered Market in Oxford, and several bridges over the River Severn.
Life
Gwynn was born and died in Shrewsbury, Shropshire. He worked initially as a carpenter, but then decided to practice as a (largely self-taught) architect and town planner, moving to London, where he became a friend of Samuel Johnson.<ref name=npg>Template:Cite web</ref>
In 1749, when Sir Christopher Wren's drawings were sold, Gwynn obtained Wren's plan for the rebuilding of the City of London, and published it, adding some comments of his own.<ref name=summ1/> Seventeen years later, in 1766, he published London and Westminster Improved,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> It was passed in June of the same year.Template:Sfn in which he criticised the loose control over building in the West End, saying that "the finest part of town is left to ignorant and capricious persons", and called for development to be controlled by a general plan.<ref name=summ1>Summerson 1962, p.121</ref> He made more than a hundred suggestions for improvements to the capital.<ref name="summ122"/> They included the rebuilding of London Bridge;<ref>Hodgson and Eaton 1905, p.102</ref> the construction of a "St, George's Bridge" in the position where Waterloo Bridge was eventually built; a "King's Square" on the site of the Royal Mews<ref name=quart/> (later occupied by Trafalgar Square); a royal palace in Hyde Park; a street following a route close to that of Nash's later Regent Street and quays along both sides of the Thames.<ref name=quart/> The Quarterly Review noted in 1826 that
No part of his ingenious design, however, was adopted: the publication does not appear to have produced any public interest at the time; and Mr. Gwynn has been so little thought of since that his designs lately brought forward as original conceptions.<ref name=quart>Template:Cite journal</ref>
However proposals similar to many of Gwynn's were eventually implemented;<ref name=summ122/> in the twentieth century, John Summerson wrote that "the amazing thing about this plan is its complete grip on reality", his only impractical belief being that the growth of London could be stopped at Hyde Park in the west and at the Marylebone Road in the north.<ref name=summ122>Summerson 1962, p.122</ref>
Gwynn influenced the drafting of the Building Act 1774<ref name=npg/>Template:Efn which improved standards of materials and workmanship – Bedford Square was one of the first areas of London to benefit.Template:Citation needed
In 1759, he unsuccessfully submitted a design to the competition for the new Blackfriars Bridge.Template:Citation needed Samuel Johnson lobbied on his behalf, sending three letters in his support to the Daily Gazetteer,<ref name=anon/> but plans by Robert Mylne were preferred.<ref name=npg/> He was particularly associated with projects in Oxford, including Magdalen Bridge (1772–90), the city's workhouse (1772–73) and the Covered Market (1774), and with bridges across the River Severn<ref name=npg/> including the "English Bridge", in his native Shrewsbury (1769),<ref>Template:NHLE</ref> and others at Atcham (1769–71),<ref>Template:NHLE</ref> Llandrinio (1769-1775)<ref>Template:National Historic Assets of Wales</ref> and Worcester (1781)<ref>Template:NHLE</ref>
He was one of the foundation members of the Royal Academy in 1768,<ref>Hodgson and Eaton 1905, p.12</ref> Samuel Wale, the academy's first professor of perspective had at one time been his assistant.<ref>Hodgson and Eaton 1905, p.65</ref>
An anonymous publication of 1742 entitled The Art of Architecture: A Poem In Imitation of Horace's Art of Poetry has been generally attributed to Gwynn.<ref name=anon>Template:Cite book</ref>
He died in Shrewsbury in 1786.
Notes
References
Sources
External links
- John Gwynn (1713–1786), Architect portraits in the National Portrait Gallery, London