Edward Jones (Welsh architect)

Edward Jones (1796–1835) was a Welsh-born architect and surveyor. He was a pupil of John Wallen, Architect and Principal Surveyor to London.[1] Jones was influenced by Greek Revival Architecture.

Biography

Edward Jones was born in February 1796 in Wrexham, Denbighshire, Wales, the youngest son of John and Ann Jones. John Jones was a Wrexham carpenter who built Linen Hall, also known as Jones' Hall, in Queen Street, Wrexham.[2] By 1815, John and Anne also owned properties in Pentrefelin and in the townships of Broughton and Brombo.[3]

On 1 March 1823, Edward married Sophia Edwards (1801-1880) at St Lukes, Deptford. Their marriage was witnessed by Harriet and Maria Wallen.[4] Edward and Sophia had four children, all born in Wrexham:[5]

In 1834, Edward Jones was a trustee of the Presbyterian Chapel, Chester Street, Wrexham.[6] On 1 May 1835, Edward died aged 39, at his home next to Linen Hall, Queen Street, Wrexham.[7] He was buried on 8 May 1835 by Rev. John Pearce in the Dissenters' Burial Ground, Rhosddu Road, Wrexham[8]

Edward Jones, (1834). Design for an Athenian Villa. Yale Center for British Art.

Career

In about 1813, Edward became a pupil of architect and surveyor, John Wallen .[9] During his tutelage in Wallen's office he would have encountered a diverse range of architectural projects[10] including Wallen’s innovative, steel-framed, commercial designs.[11] During 1818, he undertook the ‘Grand Tour’ of Greece[12] and Italy,[13] thus complementing his architectural education.[14]

It can be assumed that he had returned to John Wallen’s office at 10 White Lion Street, Pentonville, by 1919, because this information is attached to Edward's first recorded exhibition at the Royal Academy. [15] Wallen is known to have introduced another pupil, William Beatson, to the Royal Academy;[16] therefore, it is probable that Edward was also an academy student and exposed to Ancient Greek architecture by the academy's professor of architecture, Sir John Soane.[17]

During 1823, Edward was practicing at 21-20 Providence Row, Finsbury Square, London[18] and he is assumed to be the ‘Mr Jones’ who made a design for the North front and wings of Broomhall, Fife, the seat of Thomas Bruce, the 7th Earl of Elgin. His design was never executed[19] due to Elgin’s financial embarrassment largely due to the cost of acquiring and shipping the Parthenon Marbles.[20]

By 1826, Edward had moved to 24 Charles Street, Bedford Square[21] and was also listed as Architect and Surveyor, Queen Street, Wrexham[22] In 1830, he designed an ornamental temple, based on the Temple on the Ilissus, for Mrs. Powis of Berwick Hall on the Severn.[23] By 1834, his practice had moved to 67 Great Russell Street, Bedford Square, London.[24]

Publications

Grecian Revival Architecture was originally led by Robert Smirke and William Wilkins, however, by 1820, opposition to this architectural genre was being expressed in the periodicals[25] and defenders of Classic and Gothic styles were initiating the Battle of Styles as it would be known during the Victorian period.[26] Nevertheless, the Greek Revival continued to spread throughout Britain, in part, because young London-based architects built in the provinces.[27]

In 1835, Edward published a folio with plates, Athenian or Grecian Villas: Being a Series of Original Designs for Villas or Country Residences to exemplify in effect its applicability to Domestic Edifices of this country, and its adaption in Plan to the modern arrangement of their usual arrangements. Price 15 shillings. Edward dedicated his work, by permission, to Sir Robert Smirke. He relied upon the “pleasing description” of temples and villas given by the earliest authors and also studies by the highly regarded author and topographer of Greece, Colonel Leake. Edward noted the discovery of several bas-reliefs depicting Grecian villas, finding they embodied the same qualities as Greek public edifices.[28] Edward’s 1835 designs allowed for the addition of similar sculpture, bronze statues and other art that “were invariably adjuncts to the tasteful and elegant buildings of the Greeks”.[29] The estimated cost of construction was attached to each design.

In November 1835, John Claudius Loudon’s Architectural Magazine attacked Edward’s publication.[30] In a highly critical review, Loudon suggested that Edward’s plans not only displayed the mediocrity of Grecian architecture but also violated architectural principle by marking stone sizes on masonry walls. Loudon deemed this to be an aesthetic “sin” committed by the builders of Whitehall, Somerset House and “almost every portico of the street houses of London”.[31] The review ignored Edward’s research, instead asserting that Grecian architectural simplicity, which embodies straight horizontal and vertical geometry, is inherently inferior in resources to Gothic and Roman architecture. Loudon invited Edward’s reply, apparently unaware that Edward had already died.[32]

Art Work

Edward was an exhibitor at The Royal Academy of Arts, Liverpool Academy of Arts and The Society of British Artists in Suffolk Street.[33] Work by Edward Jones displayed at the Royal Academy of Arts, London.[34]

Work by Edward Jones, now held by Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, USA.[35]

References

  1. ↑ Colvin H. 1978, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600-1840, London: John Murray, 467.
  2. ↑ Palmer A N. 1888, The History of the Older Nonconformity of Wrexham and its Neighbourhood, Wrexham: Woodall, Minshall & Thomas, 90.
  3. ↑ Will of Anne Jones of Wrexham 1815.; Palmer A N. 1888, op cit., 90.
  4. ↑ Pallot's Marriage Index for England: 1780 - 1837
  5. ↑ Non-conformist register.RG4/4131 Chester Street Presbyterian Chapel , Wrexham, Denbighshire 1814-1837
  6. ↑ Palmer A.N. 1888, op cit.,90.
  7. ↑ Palmer A.N. 1888, op cit.; Piece 4131: Wrexham, Chester Street Chapel (Presbyterian), 1814-1837
  8. ↑ Nonconformist register; Chester Street, Wrexham; Palmer 1888 op cit.
  9. ↑ Colvin H. 1978, op cit. 467.
  10. ↑ Webster, C. 2010, "An alternative to Ecclesiology: William Wallen (1807–53)". In G. Brandwood. Seven Church Architects 1830-1930, Ecclesiology To-day. London: Ecclesiological Society
  11. ↑ Hitchcock, H.R. 1954, Early Victorian Architecture in Britain. New Haven: Yale University Press
  12. ↑ Colvin H. 1978, op cit. 467.
  13. ↑ Jones E. 1818, Ruins at Chiaravalle near Ancona, Italy, held by Yale Center for British Art, New Haven.
  14. ↑ Crinson M. & Lubbock J. 1994, Architecture_Art Or Profession?: Three Hundred Years of Architectural Education in Britain, Manchester: Manchester University,24.
  15. ↑ Graves A. 1906, The Royal Academy of Arts: A Complete Dictionary of Contributors and Their Work from Its Foundation in 1769 to 1904, Volume 4, 262.
  16. ↑ Bowman I. 2005, William Beatson, A Colonial Architect, Auckland: Balasoglou,14.
  17. ↑ Watkins D. (Ed.) 2000 , Sir John Soane: The Royal Academy Lectures, Cambridge: Cambridge Press, 27-42.
  18. ↑ Will of John Nesbitt Fox 1823, Edward Jones as Executor.
  19. ↑ Mordaunt Crook M. 1970, Country Life, 29 January, 245-6.
  20. ↑ Gifford J. 1988,The Buildings of Scotland, Fife, National Trust of Scotland, London: Penguin. 103.
  21. ↑ Graves A. 1906,262.
  22. ↑ Pigots Directory 1928, North Wales, Wrexham.
  23. ↑ Colvin H. 1978, op cit. ,467
  24. ↑ Address on Art, Yale Centre for British Art. New Haven. US
  25. ↑ Summerson J. 1993, Architecture in Britain 1530-1830. New Haven: Yale University Press, 477.
  26. ↑ Kelly J. Mays 2014, How the Victorians Un-Invented Themselves: Architecture, the Battle of the Styles, and the History of the Term Victorian, Journal of Victorian Culture, Volume 19, Issue 1, 2014;
  27. ↑ Summerson J. 1993, op cit., 479.
  28. ↑ Jones E. 1835, Athenian or Grecian Villas: Being a Series of Original Designs for Villas or Country Residences to exemplify in effect its applicability to Domestic Edifices of this country, and its adaption in Plan to the modern arrangement of their usual arrangements, Soho: John Williams , 6.
  29. ↑ Jones E. 1835, op.cit ,8
  30. ↑ Loudon J.C. 1835, Conductor, The Architectural Magazine, and Journal of improvement in Architecture, Building and Furnishing and in the various arts and trades connected therewith., Volume 2 , Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green & Longman: London, 299-301
  31. ↑ Loudon J.C. 1835, op cit. 2-3; 300
  32. ↑ Loudon J.C. 1835, op cit. 299-301.
  33. ↑ Colvin H. 1978, op cit. 467.
  34. ↑ Graves A. 1906, The Royal Academy of Arts: A Complete Dictionary of Contributors and Their Work from Its Foundation in 1769 to 1904, Volume 4, 262
  35. ↑ Yale Center for British Art 2015, available online, http://collections.britishart.yale.edu/vufind/Record/3646794
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