Stokes, Leonard Aloysius Scott Nasmyth

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Stokes, Leonard Aloysius Scott Nasmyth (1858–1925). English architect. He was articled (1871–4) to the RC church-architect Samuel Joseph Nicholl (1826–1905), before gaining further experience with Street, Collcutt, and Bodley. He established his own practice in 1882, and designed many buildings for the RC Church in a free Arts-and-Crafts style. His masterpiece is St Clare's Church, Sefton Park, Liverpool (1888), a fine composition with traceried windows set in powerfully modelled walls, with internal buttresses resembling those used by Bodley at St Augustine's, Pendlebury, Manchester (1870–4). He favoured long, low, solid compositions on complex plans, as at All Saints' Convent, London Colney, Herts. (1899–1903). He also designed Downside School, near Bath, Som. (1910–12), and the North Court, Emmanuel College, Cambridge (1913–15). His domestic architecture was refined and often impressive: Yew Tree Lodge, West Drive, Streatham, London (1898–9), Thirteover House, Cold Ash, Berks. (1898), and, Littleshaw, Woldingham, Surrey (1902–4), were mentioned by Muthesius in Das englische Haus. His designs were rooted in tradition yet were innovatory and imaginative.

Bibliography

Architectural Review, c/600 (Dec. 1946), 173–7;
D&M (1985);
A. S. Gray (1985);
Placzek (ed.) (1982);
RIBA Journal (Journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects) ser. 3, xxxiv/5 (8 Jan. 1927), 163–74;
Service (ed.) (1975)
Jane Turner (1996)