Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 11.djvu/203

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Cockerell
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Cockerell

appeared as an exhibitor at the Royal Academy in 1818. In the following year he was appointed surveyor of St. Paul's Cathedral, and was associated with his father in the surveyorship of the India House, having his office at 8 Old Burlington Street. In the same year he exhibited his 'Idea of a Restoration of the Capitol and Forum of Rome,' which was the companion design to the 'Restoration of Athens,' both familiar from the published engravings. In 1820 he sent to the Royal Academy (No. 888) 'Restoration of the East Front and Pediment of the Parthenon,' &c., and in 1821 replaced the ball and cross of St. Paul's with a new one. Between 1822 and 1824 he was engaged upon several works, among which should be mentioned a chapel at Bowood for Lord Lansdowne, and the Bristol Literary and Philosophical Institution, a view of which building was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1821. This work was rendered difficult both aesthetically and practically by the extreme declivity of Park Street, in which it was erected. During the summer of 1825 he completed the Hanover Chapel in Regent Street it is noted for the picturesque effect of its portico the first stone being laid on 6 June 1823. In June 1828 Cockerell married Anna Maria, second daughter of John Rennie [q. v.], the engineer of Waterloo Bridge, &c. In the following year (1829) he was elected an associate of the Royal Academy, and undertook the construction of a wing of the Cambridge University Library, the Westminster Fire Office in King Street, Covent Garden, and St. David's College at Llanepeter (Lampeter), Cardiganshire, the latter a Gothic design. About this time he exhibited ' Sections of the National Monument of Scotland,' of which the western portico is now to be seen on the Calton Hill, Edinburgh. In 1830 the trustees of the British Museum requested Cockerell to execute a drawing of the restoration of the western pediment of the temple of Athene Parthenos at Athens, and in 1832 he erected in the Strand the office of the Westminster Insurance Company. In 1833, when Sir John Soane resigned all his appointments, Cockerell was nominated architect of the Bank of England and carried out various changes and alterations which were required in that building, especially on the south side of the Garden Court in Threadneedle Street. In 1836 he became a full academician, and in conjunction with Mr. (afterwards Sir William) Tite completed (1837–9) the London and Westminster Bank in Lothbury. Two years later (1838) he published and exhibited at the Royal Academy a 'Tribute to the memory of Sir Christopher Wren,' with the motto 'Lector, si monumentum requiris, circumspice.' This had the form of a large engraving containing the whole of Wren's works, drawn on one scale, and served as a companion print to 'The Professor's Dream,' representing the principal buildings of ancient and modern times. In 1840, on the death of William Wilkins, R.A., Cockerell was called upon to fill the chair of professor of architecture in the Royal Academy, which post he held till 1857, delivering in the course of his duty an important series of lectures. He now resided at North End, Hampstead. On the death of George Basevi, the architect [q. v.], in 1845, the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge, begun in 1837, was placed in Cockerell's hands for completion, and many of the interior finishings are from his design. This museum was completed by Edward Middleton Barry [q. v.] in 1874. He also built (1841–2) the so-called 'Taylor Buildings' at Oxford, the erection of which in the midst of the Gothic revival prevented its receiving the amount of admiration which it deserved. Though laying itself open to some criticisms, the beauty and entire originality of the structure will some day gain it a place among the finest monuments of English nineteenth-century art. Cockerell likewise designed and carried out the building of several country mansions, and competed for the erection of the Houses of Parliament, the National Gallery, the London University, the Royal Exchange, and the Carlton and Reform Clubs. In 1845 he was presented with the honorary degree of D.C.L. by the university of Oxford. The death of Harvey Lonsdale Elmes in 1847 led Cockerell to complete St. George's Hall for the corporation of Liverpool. This work occupied him four or five years. The sculpture of the tympanum of this building was designed by Cockerell and executed by Nichol. In 1857 he completed the offices of the Liverpool and London and Globe Insurance Company in Liverpool. His last contribution to the Royal Academy was in 1858, 'Study for the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, &c.' (see Classical Journal, 1847). As president of the Royal Institute of Architects in 1860–1 he was the first to have the honour of receiving her majesty's gold medal. He was chevalier of the Legion of Honour, one of the eight foreign associates of the Academie des Beaux-Arts de France, member of the Academy of St. Luke, Rome, member of the Royal Academies of Bavaria, Belgium, and Denmark, besides the academies of Geneva and Genoa, the Archaeological Society of Athens, and the American Institute of Architecture. He died at his resi-