George Frederick Bodley
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George Frederick Bodley (1827 - 21 October 1907) was an English architect working in the Gothic revival style.
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He was the youngest son of a physician in Brighton, England. His elder brother, the Rev. W. H. Bodley, became a well-known Roman Catholic preacher and a professor at St Mary’s College, New Oscott, Birmingham.
George Bodley was articled to the famous architect Sir George Gilbert Scott, under whose influence he became imbued with the spirit of the Gothic revival, and he gradually became known as the chief exponent of 14th century English Gothic, and the leading ecclesiastical architect in England.
One of his first churches was St Michael and All Angels, Brighton (1855), and his principal buildings include
- All Saints, Cambridge
- Eton Mission church, Hackney Wick
- Clumber church
- Eccleston church
- Hoar Cross church
- St Augustines, Fendlebury
- Holy Trinity, Prince Consort Road, South Kensington
- Chapel Allerton, Leeds
- St Faiths, Brentford
- Queens' College chapel, Cambridge
- Marlborough College chapel
- St Paul's, Burton-upon-Trent
His domestic work included the London School Board offices, the new buildings at Magdalen College, Oxford, and Hewell Grange (for Lord Windsor).
From 1872 he worked in a twenty year partnership with T. Garner. He also designed (with his pupil James Vaughan) the cathedral at Washington, D.C., and cathedrals at San Francisco and in Tasmania.
In 1902, Bodley was one of the assessors for the competition to design the new Anglican Cathedral in Liverpool selecting the design by the young Giles Gilbert Scott. When construction of the cathedral began in 1904, Bodley was appointed to oversee Gilbert Scott's work and made several changes to the interior design of the Lady Chapel.
Bodley began contributing to the Royal Academy in 1854, and in 1881 was elected A.R.A., becoming R.A. in 1902. In addition to being a most learned master of architecture, he was a beautiful draughtsman, and a connoisseur in art; he published a volume of poems in 1899; and he was a designer of wallpaper and chintzes for Watts & Co., of Baker Street, London; in early life he had been in close alliance with the Pre-Raphaelites, and he did a great deal, like William Morris, to improve public taste in domestic decoration and furniture.
He died on 21 October 1907 at Water Eaton, Oxford.