John Goldicutt was a British architect, the son of a bank cashier, who was better known for his architectural drawings than his completed buildings.
Background
John Goldicutt was born in 1793, to Hugh Goldicutt (died 1823), a bank cashier, and his wife, Celia, née Scholar (1756–1813). Goldicutt"s early career was in banking and in 1803 he followed his father into the bank of Herries, Farquhar & Company (now Lloyds) but he left the next year to join the architectural practice of Henry Hakewill.
Education
In the same year he travelled to Paris where he studied at the school of Achille Leclère and entered the monthly competition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts.
Career
Goldicutt began to study at the Royal Academy in 1812. He then travelled in Italy and Sicily for several years preparing drawings that were later published. Goldicutt worked with Henry Hakewill until Hakewill"s death in 1830, as well as working on his own projects.
He submitted drawings for the design of the new Post Office building (1820), the Cambridge University observatory (1821), the Middlesex Lunatic Asylum (1829), the Fishmongers" Hall (1830) and for Nelson monument (1841).
John Henry Hakewill (1811–1880) was later Goldicutt"s pupil. Goldicutt showed 35 architectural drawings at the Royal Academy between 1810 and 1842.
In 1820, his drawing Ruins of the Great Hypaethral Temple, Salinuntum, Sicily, was etched by Bartolomeo Pinelli and appeared in Goldicutt"s The Antiquities of Sicily (1819). One of Goldicutt"s last designs was for Street James" Church, Sussex Gardens, Paddington, (c 1841) which was finished by George Gutch after Goldicutt"s death.
Goldicutt"s original scheme was for a neo-classical design in yellow brick, influenced by his travels in Italy.
The yellow brick was used but Gutch changed the style to Gothic. The building was later extensively changed by General Electric Street in 1882. He was a justice and commissioner of sewers for Middlesex and Westminster and from 1828 he was surveyor for Street Clement Danes and Street Mary-le-Strand.
Goldicutt died on 3 October 1842 at 39 Clarges Street, London.
Membership
Goldicutt was honorary secretary of the Institute of British Architects (1834-1836), a member of the Academy of Street Luke in Rome, and of the Accademia di Belle Arti in Naples.