Jeckyll, Thomas

views updated

Jeckyll, Thomas (or Thomas Jeckell), (1827–81). English architect and pioneer of Japonaiserie: he designed (1876) the ‘Peacock Room’ at 49 Princes Gate, London, decorated by Whistler, now in the Freer Gallery, Washington DC, so was an important figure in the Aesthetic Movement. His ecclesiastical work often consisted of draconian and insensitive ‘restorations’, and his new churches lacked authority: St Mary, Stapleford Abbots, Essex (1862), was regarded by Pevsner as ‘hideous’. Other works include the remarkable polychrome First Pointed Methodist Church, Holt (1862–3), and the plain Holy Trinity Church, Hautbois (1864), both in Norfolk. He also designed a group of villas at 118–120 Queenstown Road, Battersea, London (1875). An eclectic designer, his work perhaps deserves more attention than it has enjoyed. He became mentally unstable, and by 1876 was insane, dying in the madhouse.

Bibliography

Soros & and Arbuthnott (2004)