Basic Biographical Details

Name: John Bradshaw Gass
Designation:  
Born: 1855
Died: July 1939
Bio Notes: John Bradshaw Gass was born in 1855 at Annan, Dumfriesshire, the son of George Pool Gass and his wife Alice. Alice was the sister of the architect John Jonas Bradshaw. Gass was brought up in Bolton and educated privately. He then studied at Bolton School of Art and became a fine watercolourist, exhibiting at the Royal Academy from 1879: in his later years he was to travel North Africa, Asia and India in his search for subjects. After a short period as a teacher of mathematics and art, he was articled to his uncle, J J Bradshaw remaining with him as managing assistant from 1876 in parallel with Wallace. During that period he studied civil engineering at Owen’s College, Manchester from 1874 in order to equip himself for the predominantly industrial nature of the practice. He won the Ashbury Exhibition Prize in 1878 and was Art Prizeman in 1879.

Gass then obtained a place in the office of George & Peto in London, enabling him to study at the Royal Academy Schools from July 1880. In the same year he made a study tour of Belgium, returning with superb measured drawings of the 15th and 16th century houses which had such a strong appeal for George. He passed the qualifying exam and was admitted ARIBA on 3 January 1881, his proposers being Arthur Cates, James Thomas Knowles and Octavius Hansard. His uncle then made him a partner, the practice title now being Bradshaw & Gass. Further study tours in France, Holland and Germany followed over the next few years, and in 1883 he won the Godwin Bursary. He took time out from the practice to undertake a study tour of New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Washington in 1885. In the course of it he visited the offices of H J Hardenburgh, R M Hunt, W Le Baron Jenney, H H Richardson and others, returning with a splendid collection of photographs of their work. This visit resulted in a number of papers given over the next decade, notably on the American methods of construction which were applied to the large number of four to six-storey warehouses and mills he built on his return: some of these had quite imaginative detail. He was admitted FRIBA in 1 March 1889, his proposers being Bradshaw, Knowles and William Alfred Royle: Bradshaw himself had been admitted only three years earlier on 18 January 1886, his proposers being Edward Graham Paley, Richard Knill Freeman and Ernest George.

After Gass’s American tour the practice moved quickly into the national league. The Wesleyan church became a very important client commissioning large buildings in Finsbury, London, 1902, Liverpool 1904 and Wigan 1908; other major commissions were the Victoria Halls in Bolton, 1898-1900, the Royal Friendly Society, Southampton Row, London, 1902-04, the Northern Stock Exchange, Congregational Church House and Cooperative Insurance Headquarters, all in Manchester in 1907-09. A London office opened at 31 (later 108) City Road to supervise the London commissions. These buildings were in vigorous neo-Baroque with elements drawn from George, Shaw and American practice, but there was an arts-and-crafts side to the practice in the houses and other buildings for Lever at Port Sunlight, in a large half-timbered country house at Withnell Fold, Chorley and in the Wesleyan Church, Haulgh, Bolton.

Withnell Fold was Gass’s work but the simpler arts-and-crafts idiom of the smaller houses built in those years seems to have been associated with the third partner Arthur John Hope. Born on 2 October 1875 he had been brought up in less affluent circumstances in Atherton and educated at Wigan Grammar School where his aptitude for mechanics induced him to study civil engineering at the Bolton Schools of Science and Art. He was articled to Bradshaw & Gass in 1892 but thereafter he neither sought London experience not attempted the qualifying exam. He was strong on structural engineering and quick to see imaginative solutions in the planning of buildings but had no patience with drawing them out. His assistant Ernest Wall Winks described him as one of those who ‘not only wrack their own brains but utilise those of everyone else with whom they came in contact’. Presentation drawings were entrusted to Roger Oldham, as subtle a watercolourist as Gass himself. Hope was taken into partnership in 1902. The practice title then became Bradshaw, Gass & Hope.

Bradshaw died at Greenmount, Heaton on 28 April 1912, the practice title being amended to Bradshaw Gass & Hope by omitting the comma. It is unlikely that Bradshaw had designed much for the previous quarter century, but with the practice that now extended to Portugal, an increase in design staff was required, even though the London office had been closed. In 1913 Gass & Hope recruited James Robert Adamson. Born in 1883 and educated at Galashiels and George Watson’s College, Edinburgh, Adamson had been articled to John Burnet & Son in Glasgow 1901-05, and had studied at Glasgow School of Art and the Royal Technical College, remaining with Burnet as an assistant before moving to Newcastle as chief assistant to Graham & Hill.

In January 1914 Bradshaw Gass & Hope won the competition for the reconstruction of the Manchester Royal Exchange, their most ambitious project. At that date Gass gave the total value of the work executed since the Bradshaw & Gass partnership was formed in 1881 as being ‘upwards of four million pounds sterling’. Opened in October 1921, the Royal Exchange was the last project in the full neo-Baroque idiom associated with Gass. After the First World War the lead designer in the practice became Hope, working closely with Adamson who was made a partner on his marriage in 1920. Also a partner from some time after 1914 and before 1920 was William Scott, born in 1880 who had concentrated on the industrial side of the practice since about 1900: he was primarily a structural engineer and construction manager.

In the early 1920s the most important of the assistants was the Rome scholar Frederick Orchard Lawrence whose skill in presentation for a time enabled the practice to reduce the dependence on the free-lance work of Philip Dalton Hepworth and Cyril Farey when entering competitions. A considerable number of the staff were Scottish in the 1920 and 30s: most of them, like James Maclaren Honeyman, and the Edinburgh City architect Alexander Steele, came only for experience. But in 1925 Lawrence left and an advertisement for senior architectural draughtsmen brought an application from Robert Mackison McNaught, who had been a partner in the Dumbarton firm of Denny & Blain since 1921. Articled to Denny & Blain before war service with the Royal Engineers, he had studied at the Glasgow School of Architecture under Bourdon and Fulton and had spent the years 1919 to 1920 with Campbell & Hislop before returning to Denny & Blain. McNaught took charge of the Bolton drawing office, working under Hope, and became a partner when Gass died in July 1939. Adamson, who was for a time a vice President of the RIBA, died in September 1943, the surviving partners then being Hope, Scott and McNaught. Hope died in April 1960 and McNaught, by then senior partner, in 1969.

Private and Business Addresses

The following private or business addresses are associated with this :
 AddressTypeDate fromDate toNotes
Item 1 of 119, Silverwell Street, Bolton, Lancashire, EnglandBusiness1929 *  

* earliest date known from documented sources.


Employment and Training

Employers

The following individuals or organisations employed or trained this (click on an item to view details):
 NameDate fromDate toPositionNotes
Item 1 of 6Jonas James Bradshawc. 1870(?)1874(?)Apprentice 
Item 2 of 6Bradshaw & Gass1871 Apprentice 
Item 3 of 6Jonas James Bradshaw1875(?)1878(?)Managing Assistant 
Item 4 of 6Ernest George & Peto18781880Assistant 
Item 5 of 6Bradshaw & Gass18811902Partner 
Item 6 of 6Bradshaw Gass & Hope1903 *After 1929Partner 

* earliest date known from documented sources.


RIBA

RIBA Proposers

The following individuals proposed this for RIBA membership (click on an item to view details):
 NameDate proposedNotes
Item 1 of 6Jonas James Bradshaw11 March 1889for Fellowship
Item 2 of 6Arthur Cates3 January 1881for Associateship
Item 3 of 6Octavius Hansard3 January 1881for Associateship
Item 4 of 6James Thomas Knowles3 January 1881for Associateship
Item 5 of 6James Thomas Knowles11 March 1889for Fellowship
Item 6 of 6William Alfred Royle11 March 1889for Fellowship

RIBA Proposals

This proposed the following individuals for RIBA membership (click on an item to view details):
 NameDate proposedNotes
Item 1 of 5James Robertson AdamsonEarly 1930for Fellowship
Item 2 of 5Charles Ernest Elcock1911For LRIBA
Item 3 of 5Arthur John Hope20 July 1911for Licentiateship
Item 4 of 5Alexander MackenzieEarly 1931for Licentiateship
Item 5 of 5Colin Macaulay Middleton12 April 1937for Associateship

Buildings and Designs

This was involved with the following buildings or structures from the date specified (click on an item to view details):
 Date startedBuilding nameTown, district or villageIslandCity or countyCountryNotes
Item 1 of 11926Leith Town Hall and Public LibraryLeith EdinburghScotlandWon competition to secure job

References

Bibliographic References

The following books contain references to this :
 Author(s)DateTitlePartPublisherNotes
Item 1 of 4British Architectural Library, RIBA2001Directory of British Architects 1834-1914   
Item 2 of 4Gray, A Stuart1985Edwardian Architecture: A Biographical Dictionary  p185
Item 3 of 4Lingard, Jane and Timothy2007Bradshaw Gass & Hope: the Story of an Architectural Practice London, Gallery Lingard 
Item 4 of 4Redman, Austen2007Bolton Civic Centre and the Classical Revival Style of Bradshaw Gass & Hope From Clara Hartwell and Terry Wyke (eds): Making Manchester: essays in honour of H G Archer 

Periodical References

The following periodicals contain references to this :
 Periodical NameDateEditionPublisherNotes
Item 1 of 1Builder7 July 1939  pp652-653 (Obituary)