Godfrey Sykes

Godfrey Sykes
Born 1824
Died 1866

Godfrey Sykes (born Malton, North Yorkshire, 1824 - died London 28 February 1866) was an English designer and painter.

After an apprenticeship to the Sheffield engraver James Bell, he trained at the Sheffield School of Art from 1843 and taught there from 1857. In the Early 1850s, he met Alfred Stevens, who had moved to Sheffield in 1850 to become chief designer at the ironfounders Henry E Hoole & Co. Sykes was greatly influenced by Stevens's work in the Renaissance Revival manner, and for a period worked at Hoole's under Stevens. In Sheffield he executed such decorative works as a frieze for the Mechanics Institute in 1853 and a ceiling for the news room for The Telegraphic in 1856.

Some of his works are currently on exhibit at the Graves Art Gallery in Sheffield. One of his mosaics is also incorporated into the north facade of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.