First, sort out your Scotts. George Gilbert Scott (1811-78), hereafter Sir Gilbert, designed the Albert Memorial, the Foreign Office and the tumultuous cliff of a hotel that shields St Pancras Station. A spiteful ditty, summing up the Victorian business of church restoration, also accounted him first among 'the earnest band that spoiled half the churches in the land'. Giles Gilbert Scott (1880-1960), hereafter Sir Giles, was Sir Gilbert's grandson. He designed Liverpool's Anglican cathedral and the subtle profile of the erstwhile Bankside Power Station - now disfigured as Tate Modern, lest anyone doubt that it purveys art in place of electricity. After Lutyens, Sir Giles was perhaps England's best architect during the first half of the last century.

LRB 17 October 2002 | PDF Download