George Goldie

George Goldie (9 June 1828 – 1 March 1887) was an English ecclesiastical architect who specialised in Roman Catholic churches.

Life Goldie was born in York, the maternal grandson of the architect Joseph Bonomi the Elder. His paternal grandparents were George Sharpe Goldie and Sophia McDougall Osborne. After the death of her husband, Sophie went to Rouen and converted to Catholicism.

His father, also named George, became a medical doctor and was active in the Catholic Emancipation movement. In 1828, Dr. Goldie married Mary Anne Bonomi, daughter of Joseph Bonomi. He was a student there when Augustus Pugin was working on the Chapel of St. Cuthbert. Goldie took such an interest that the two became friends, and it was Pugin who advised Goldie to study with Weightman and Hadfield. St. Wilfrid's served as the pro-Cathedral of the Diocese of Beverley until 1878 when Beverley was split into dioceses of Leeds and Middlesbrough.

In 1880 Goldie's son Edward (1856–1921) entered the partnership, having first been apprenticed in 1875. The firm was then known as "Goldie Child & Goldie. Edward Goldie's work includes Hawkesyard Priory in Armitage, Staffordshire, built for the Dominican Order 1896–1914, and the church of Our Most Holy Redeemer and St Thomas More, Chelsea, built in 1895.

Goldie contributed articles on architectural subjects to The Month. In 1877, Pope Pius IX awarded George Goldie the Cross and Order of St. Sylvester for his work "as a Catholic architect." Around 1796 Joseph Bonomi designed the original Catholic chapel on the corner of Spanish Place and Charles Street. His Great-grandson, Edward, won the competition for its replacement, the present St James's, Spanish Place, which opened on Michaelmas Day, 1890.

Goldie married Mdlle de Kersabiec. They had a number of children. He retired, for health reasons, to Saint-Servan, Brittany, where he died after a brief illness. He was buried at Saint-Jouan-des-Guérets.

Work

Our Lady of Victories, Kensington (at the time of building, the Pro-Cathedral for the Archdiocese of Westminster) Reliquary at Bar Convent, York, where his two sisters were nuns Chapel of Carmel House, Nunnery Lane, Darlington, County Durham, 1848–54 St Patrick's Church, Bradford, 1853 St Paul's Church, Hyde, 1853-54 Interior furnishings of St John's Cathedral, Salford including the reredos of 1853–55, together with the adjoining buildings, called "Cathedral House" Interior, Saint Mary's Dominican Church, Pope's Quay, Cork, Ireland, 1868-71 Interior, St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Pope's Quay, Cork Ireland. Designs: George Goldie, Architect. St Vincent's Church, Sheffield, 1856 St Ninian's Church, Wooler, Northumberland, 1856 Our Lady and St Edmund Church, Abingdon-on-Thames, 1857 Convent of the Sisters of Mercy, Mount Vernon Street, Liverpool, 1857 St Peter's Church, Scarborough, 1858 Our Lady of the Garioch & St John the Evangelist, Fetternear, Aberdeenshire, 1859 St Pancras Church, Ipswich, Suffolk, 1860 1861 Ss Mary and Romuald, Yarm, North Yorkshire, 1860 Additions and alterations to Pampisford Hall, Cambridgeshire, 1860 York Oratory, 1862–64 St. Scholastica's Abbey, Teignmouth, 1863 St Mary and St Augustine, Stamford, Lincolnshire, 1864–65 St. Ignatius Church, Wishaw, Lanarkshire, 1865 Tower of St Edward King and Confessor Catholic Church, Clifford, Leeds, 1859–66 Church of St Mary and St John, Ballincollig, County Cork, 1865–66 St. Patrick's Church, Bandon, Co. Cork, Ireland, 1856-61. St John the Evangelist Catholic Church, Castle Douglas, Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland, 1867. St. John's College, Waterford, 1868 St Mary's Church, Stockton-on-Tees, chancel and aisle, 1870 St Joseph's Church, Stokesley, North Yorkshire, 1873 St. Robert's Church, Harrogate, 1873 Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Sligo, 1874 Chapel of the Convent of the Assumption, Kensington Square, London, 1875 St Mungo's Church, Townhead, Glasgow, 1841 and 1877 St Mary and St Joseph's Church, Bedale, 1878 Sacred Heart Church, Liverpool, 1886