John Innes Elliott

John Innes Elliott FRSA (13 November 1912 – 3 December 1989) was a British architect who, for twenty-seven years, was the Chief Architect and Surveyor to the Metropolitan Police in London. He held the post from 1947 until his retirement in 1974. He was the seventh architect to hold the post since its inception in 1842. He took over the role from Gilbert Mackenzie Trench, who retired in 1945. Elliott's designs were carried out in the brutalist style.

Life and career Born in Liverpool, Elliott trained at the Liverpool School of Architecture between 1930 and 1935, where he was tutored by Lionel Bailey Budden and Charles Herbert Reilly. Elliott gained employment as an architectural assistant to a travel company in Wallasey, which he coincided with his studies. In the late 1930s he worked for the Office of Works in the branch for Ancient Monuments and Historic Buildings. During the war he assisted in the design of post-war housing. In the 1940s he moved to London where he was appointed the surveyor to the Metropolitan Police in 1947, after the retirement of Gilbert Mackenzie Trench two years previously.

Elliott was made a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1974 New Year Honours list and retired later that year, having completed his designs for the buildings within Hendon Police College, Colindale.

Partial list of buildings