| John Dando Sedding | |
|---|---|
| Born | 13 April 1838 Eton, Berkshire |
| Died | 7 April 1891 |
| Nationality | English |
| Work | |
| Buildings | Holy Trinity Church, Sloane Street, London |
John Dando Sedding (1838–1891) was a noted Victorian church architect, working on new buildings and repair work, with an interest in a ‘crafted Gothic’ style. He was an influential figure in the Arts and Crafts movement, many of whose leading designers studied in his offices. His 1889 lecture, "The Architectural Treatment of Gardens",[1] was influential in the revival espoused by Reginald Blomfield, of "Jacobean" features such as terraces, covered walks, bowling greens, clipped yew hedges and topiary, which would combine with "cottage garden" elements in the Arts and Crafts gardens of 1890-1915.
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Sedding was the son of a village schoolmaster, who spent much of his youth in Derbyshire. Like William Morris, Philip Webb and Norman Shaw, he was a pupil of George Edmund Street. His elder brother, Edmund, had also trained as an architect with Street and had set up in practice as an architect in Penzance, Cornwall, where John Dando Sedding joined him about 1865. Edmund suffered from ill health and died in 1868. Sedding was elected a fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1875 and moved from Bristol to set up in practice in London the following year, when he took offices on the upper floors of 447 Oxford Street, next door to the premises of William Morris & Co. He was elected a member of The Art Workers Guild in 1884, the year of its foundation.
In 1876 Sedding met John Ruskin, under whose influence he developed a freer Gothic style, introducing natural ornament into his designs. Sedding encouraged his students to study old buildings at first hand, focusing on the practicalities of craft techniques. He placed an emphasis on texture and ornament; the naturalistic treatment of flowers, leaves and animals, always drawn from life; and the close involvement of the architect in the simple processes of building and in the supervision of a team of craftsmen employed direct. The firms of William Bone of Liskeard and Charles Trask from near Ilminster appear frequently in the list of his works.
The German architect and critic Hermann Muthesius stated that "he formed the first bridge between the architects' camp and that of handicraft proper".
Sedding's memorial is on the north wall in the Lady Chapel of his major church, at Holy Trinity, Sloane Street, and he is buried in the churchyard of St John's Church, West Wickham, Kent.
Sedding’s buildings include the Holy Trinity Sloane Street, London, the Church of the Holy Redeemer, Clerkenwell, London (one of the first churches in London to be built in the classical style since the time of Sir Christopher Wren), and numerous rural churches, particularly in the West Country, such as those at Holbeton and Ermington in Devon, and St Elwyn's Hayle and All Saints' Church, Falmouth in Cornwall. He also gained a reputation in the West Country as a skilled repairer of old churches.
His most notable work in the Bristol area is the so-called House of Charity (1890-5), with picturesque detailing. He added a new vestry to St Mary's Church, Stamford, in 1890 and was the architect of St Edward's Church in the Hampshire village of Netley Abbey.[2] He is noted for many successful designs for church furnishings and plate, and contributed rich decorative features to numerous churches, such as screens at Axbridge, Somerset (1888) (with Art Nouveau-style detailing to the arches and lettering), and a reredos at St Saviour's, Walcot, Bath.