The name of Gilbert Scott is usually associated, in British architectural history, with the Victorian revival of Gothic style architecture…The name of George Gilbert Scott is connected to a number of important examples of Victorian gothic – St Pancras Hotel, The Albert Memorial etc…But George was just the first of three generations of Gilbert Scotts, and each made a crucial contribution to the elaboration of a Gothic style that was exciting and progressive.

Dan Cruickshank has described this family contribution in a film on BBCTV. You can watch it, here

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04m3ljr

The original gothic style is mainly associated with the great tradition of cathedral builders in France and Britain through the middle ages…The Victorian revival of the style sought to re-frame the gothic in relation to the potential of modern materials and to provide for a moral example through architecture.

The original gothic was built from natural materials – stone, timber and brick. Each of these materials is limited in relation to strength-to-weight and specification. The gothic tradition, exemplified through its great cathedral structures, was the elaboration of space and light through an engineering of externalised structure…large window openings are made possible through the the dispersion of compressive forces through flying buttresses and so forth. Whatever, the result is a large structure with a big proportion of window opening and the least amount of structure possible…that’s a bit like the Pompidou Centre, Paris, with its external structure and glass walls…

The youngest Gilbert Scott, Giles, designed the GPO telephone box and Bankside power station.