George Vaughan Maddox
George Vaughan Maddox | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1802 |
| Died | 27 February 1864 (age 61/62) |
| Occupation | Architect |
| Years active | 1820s–1840s |
George Vaughan Maddox (1802–27 February 1864)[1] was a nineteenth century British architect, whose work was undertaken principally in the county of Monmouthshire.
Life
Maddox was born in 1802, the son of another architect, John Maddox,[2] who also worked in the county. G. V. Maddox designed some of Monmouth's most notable buildings, including the Market Hall, "his major work",[3] the Beaufort Arms Hotel, the Methodist Church,[4][5] the Masonic Hall, Kingsley House, Oak House, and 18 St James Street,[6][7] which are all in Monmouth town.[4]
His extensive output made a significant contribution to the Monmouth townscape. John Newman writes of Maddox that his buildings "give(.) Monmouth its particular architectural flavour. For two decades from the mid 1820s he put up a sequence of public buildings and private houses in the town, in a style deft, cultured, and only occasionally unresolved. His greatest work is Priory Street...."[8] Maddox, who lived at the time at 8 Monk Street,[9] worked mainly in a Neo-Classical style.
In the early 1830s, Maddox won a competition organised by the Borough Council in Monmouth, to design a new scheme which would relieve Church Street of through traffic, and provide new accommodation for slaughterhouses and a new Market Hall to replace the market beneath the Shire Hall which faced disruption because of the need to extend the accommodation for the Assizes. Maddox proposed a new carriage road running above the bank of the River Monnow, supported by a viaduct. The Market Hall, with a crescent-shaped frontage of Bath Stone in a Doric style, and an Ionic cupola and clerestory above the central part of the building, was built on one side of the road, and a long convex stuccoed frontage on the opposite side.[10] The new slaughterhouses, comprising 24 rooms with openings onto the river so that their waste would drain directly into it, were sited beneath the sandstone arches of the viaduct. The new road — now Priory Street — was opened in 1834, and the Market Hall in 1840.[7][11]
His other works as an architect include Pentwyn at Rockfield, which he built as his own residence in 1834-37;[12] and Croft-y-Bwla, a villa midway between Monmouth and Rockfield[13] which was the home of Alexander and Helen Rolls. He also undertook a limited early re-building of The Hendre,[14] and carried out work in Commercial Street, Pontypool.[15]
Gallery
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The Market Hall in Priory Street, Monmouth; the first storey in the centre of the building was destroyed by fire in 1963 -
The slaughterhouses beneath the Market Hall -
Monmouth Methodist Church -
Beaufort Arms Hotel -
The Masonic Hall
Notes
- ^ Dictionary of British Architects 1834-1914: Volume 2 L-Z
- ^ Public Architecture, House of Correction, Usk, accessed 19 January 2012
- ^ John Newman, The Buildings of Wales: Gwent/Monmouthshire, Penguin Books, 2000, ISBN 0-14-071053-1, p.44
- ^ a b NONCONFORMITY IN MONMOUTH, Nnewsletter No. 29, Capel, The Chapels Heritage Society, accessed January 2012
- ^ Newman, op.cit., p.399
- ^ Keith Kissack, Monmouth and its Buildings, Logaston Press, 2003, ISBN 1-904396-01-1, p.35
- ^ a b Monmouth Civic Society, Guide to the Monmouth Heritage Blue Plaque Trail, n.d., p.10
- ^ Newman, op.cit., p.394
- ^ Building permission, accessed January 2012
- ^ Newman, op.cit., pp.405-406
- ^ Kissack, op.cit., p.xii
- ^ Newman, op.cit., p.516
- ^ Newman, op.cit., p.411
- ^ Newman, op.cit., p.250
- ^ Newman, op.cit., p.479
