Gothic for the steam age

George Gilbert Scott was the most prolific and most famous of Victorian architects. For many, however, blinded by prejudice to the merits of Victorian architecture and the Gothic Revival, he was the most notorious. The rehabilitation of his reputation after a century of abuse is symbolised, above all, by the magnificent restoration of one of his best-known buildings (once seriously threatened with demolition), the hotel at St Pancras Station in London. He was the founder of the greatest architectural dynasty in British history, a dynasty which still flourishes in the fourth and fifth generation. Scott ran the largest architectural office of its time and it produced designs for some seven or eight hundred buildings (estimates vary). Only a limited selection can therefore be illustrated here, but all of his major secular works are represented, whether by old or new photographs, original drawings and prints, along with the best and most significant of his many churches.The first in what is a long-overdue illustrated biography of Sir Gilbert Scott, Gavin Stamp has trawled tirelessly through the archives, trying to piece together the life of this great Victorian architect. The sheer scale of Scott's work and the foundations of an architectural empire has amassed a huge portfolio. Within these pages is a celebration of his work.