John Francis Bentley

John Francis Bentley (30 January 1839 – 2 March 1902) was an English ecclesiastical architect whose most famous work is the Westminster Cathedral in London, England, built in a style heavily influenced by Byzantine architecture.

Bentley was born in Doncaster, and died in Clapham. Other examples of his work include the convent of the Sacred Heart at Hammersmith, St John's Beaumont, and the Church of the Holy Rood at Watford. He was a master of the neo-Gothic and Byzantine Revival styles.

The great opportunity of Bentley's career came in 1894, when he was commissioned to design a new Roman Catholic cathedral in Westminster, London. After deciding on a Byzantine Revival design, Bentley traveled to Italy to study some of the great early Byzantine-influenced cathedrals, such as St Mark's Basilica in Venice. Because of illness and an outbreak of cholera in Istanbul, he was unable to complete his tour with a study of the Hagia Sofia. Bentley ended his tour in Venice and returned to London to begin work on Westminster Cathedral.^[1]

Gallery of architectural work

References

• This article incorporates text from The Modern World Encyclopædia: Illustrated (1935); out of UK copyright as of 2005.
• John Francis Bentley - Catholic Encyclopedia article
• Philip's Encyclopedia Comprehensive Edition 2008. Octopus publishing Group. 2007. p. 147. ISBN 139780540091515. 

External links

• John Francis Bentley at Find a Grave
• Winefride de L'Hôpital, Westminster cathedral and its architect Volume 1 (1919) (This volume is written by Bentley`s daughter and is about the design and construction of the Cathedral)
• Winefride de L'Hôpital Westminster cathedral and its architect (1919) Volume 2 (This is Volume 2 of the biography written by Bentley`s daughter and deals with his early life and works other than Westminster Cathedral)