Joseph John Scoles

Joseph John Scoles (1798–1863) was an English Gothic Revival architect, who designed many Roman Catholic churches.

Early life and education Scoles was born in London on 27 June 1798, the son of Roman Catholic parents Matthew Scoles, a joiner, and Elizabeth Sparling. He was educated at the Roman Catholic school at Baddesley Green and then, in 1812, apprenticed for seven years to his relative, Joseph Ireland, an architect who was extensively employed by John Milner, Between 1816 and 1819 Scoles was resident at Hassop Hall, Bakewell, and in Leicester, superintending works for Ireland.

Travel

In 1822 Scoles left England in the company of Joseph Bonomi the Younger for further study. He carried out archaeological and architectural research in Rome, Greece, Egypt, and Syria, often in the company of Henry Parke and Frederick Catherwood. In 1829 he published an engraved map of Nubia, showing the area between the first and second cataracts of the Nile, from a survey made in 1824 jointly by him and Parke, and a map of the city of Jerusalem; his plan of the church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem, with his drawings of the Jewish tombs in the valley of Jehoshaphat, was published by Robert Willis in 1849. and St George's Church, Edgbaston, for Lord Calthorpe. His only other work for the established church consisted of some small additions and restorations to Burgh Castle and Blundeston churches in Suffolk. – was censured by Pugin in an article on "Ecclesiastical Architectures" in the Dublin Review in 1843. – and a plain red brick temporary church, which survived until 1880. He also built a convent nearby in Sidney Street.

The chapel of Prior Park College, Bath, designed by Scoles, was erected after his death by his son.

Royal Institute of British Architects Scoles was elected a fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1835, was honorary secretary from May 1846 to May 1856, and vice-president in 1857–1858. Most of his contributions to the society's Proceedings were about the monuments of Egypt and the Holy Land, studied during his early travels. His third son was Alexander Joseph Cory Scoles who became a Roman Catholic priest and canon and followed his brother and father in becoming an architect. He designed many lancet style Gothic Revival churches in the south of England.