John Foulston

John Foulston (1772 – 30 December 1841) was an English architect. He was a pupil of Thomas Hardwick and set up a practice in London in 1796.Peter Leach, "Foulston, John (1772–1841)", rev., Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. Online at http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/37425 (subscription required). Accessed 17 May 2008.] In 1810 he won a competition to design the Royal Hotel and Theatre group of buildings in Plymouth, Devon,cite web
url=http://www.plymouthdata.info/PP-Foulston.htm
title=Plymouth, John Foulston
publisher=www.plymouthdata.info
accessdate=2008-05-16] and he moved there where he remained the leading architect for twenty-five years.

At the time, Plymouth was no more than a town, along the shore of Plymouth Sound from the towns of East Stonehouse and Devonport; they were collectively known as the Three Towns. Foulston was responsible for the creation of Union Street which was built across marshland to unite the three towns.

Most of Foulston's work was in the Greek Revival style, but his best known project was the creation of a group of buildings in Ker Street, Devonport in 1821-24. This eclectic group consisted of a Greek Doric town hall and commemorative column; [cite web
url=http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/details/default.aspx?id=473549
title=Devonport Column
publisher=English Heritage, National Monuments Record
accessdate=2008-05-17] a terrace of houses in Roman Corinthian style and two houses in Greek Ionic; a "Hindoo" nonconformist chapel and an "Egyptian" library. Of these, all but the chapel and the houses survive. [cite book
title=The Buildings of England — Devon
author=Bridget Cherry & Nikolaus Pevsner
publisher=Penguin
location=Harmondsworth [Eng.]
year=1989
pages=675-6
isbn=0 14 071050 7]

Foulston's Royal Hotel, Theatre and Assembly Rooms were built between 1811 and 1818. The theatre was notable for being one of the first buildings in Britain to use cast and wrought iron for parts of its main structure; it was demolished just before World War II to make way for a cinema. Among his other works in Plymouth were The Athenaeum (1818-19, bombed in World War II and demolished afterwards),Cherry & Pevsner 1989, p.664.] Belmont House (c.1825), [Cherry & Pevsner 1989, p.673.] The Proprietary Library (1812, destroyed by bombing, 1941),cite book
title=A New Survey of England: Devon
last=Hoskins
first=W. G.
date=1954
pages=459
publisher=Collins
location=London] The Royal Union Baths (1828, demolished 1849 to make way for Millbay railway station), and St. Catherine's Church (1823, demolished 1958). He also designed many stucco-faced terraces and suburban villas, some of which survive as listed buildings. [See, for instance cite web
url=http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/details/default.aspx?id=473328
title=St Michael's Lodge
publisher=English Heritage, National Monuments Record
accessdate=2008-05-17] In Torquay he built the ballroom (1830, demolished), and in Tavistock he restored the medieval abbey gatehouse in Gothic style.

Not long before he retired he took into his partnership the architect George Wightwick who succeeded to his practice. After his retirement, Foulston created a set of watercolour drawings of some of his buildings, which are now in the City Art Gallery. He became a fellow of the Institute of British Architects in 1838, and in the same year published "The Public Buildings of the West of England", a book that included plans and drawings of many of his buildings. [A contemporary advert for the book is in cite web
url=http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Gnk6AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA188
title=The Architect, Engineer, and Operative Builder's Constructive Manual
publisher=Google Book Search
accessdate=2008-05-17
pages=188]

In his later years he created an elaborate water garden at his home (Athenian Cottage in the suburb of Mutley), and he was wont to drive round the streets of the town in a gig disguised as a Roman war chariot. He died at his home and is buried in St Andrew's new cemetery in Plymouth.

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