Scott

Scott, name of a British architectural dynasty founded by Sir George Gilbert Scott (1811-1878) and continued by his son and grandson: George Gilbert Scott junior (1839-1897) and Sir Giles Gilbert Scott OM (1880-1960), two architects of outstanding ability.

George Gilbert Scott was born in Buckinghamshire in 1811. After terminating his early partnership with W. B. Moffatt, Scott built up a substantial practice embracing both Church and secular work. He restored most of the medieval English cathedrals, built hundreds of new churches, and designed such major London monuments as the Albert Memorial (1864-1875), the Foreign Office (1863-1874), and the St Pancras Hotel (1865-1877).

Scott's attachment to the Gothic style was shared by his son George Gilbert Scott, a brilliant church architect whose career was terminated by insanity and premature death. Giles Scott was trained in the office of his father's assistant, Temple Moore. He won the competition for a new Liverpool Cathedral in 1903, a project that took 80 years to complete. Stylistically eclectic, Giles Scott became one of the leading architects of the inter-war period and his commissions included Cambridge University Library (1929), the New Bodleian Library, Oxford (1937-1941), extensions to the London Guildhall, and Battersea Power Station—as well as the standard red telephone kiosk. He was knighted in 1924 and awarded the Order of Merit in 1944.