Gass, John Bradshaw 1855 - 1939

John Bradshaw Gass was born in Annan, Dumfriesshire, Scotland [1] on 18 June 1855. He was articled to his uncle, Jonas James Bradshaw (1837-1912), in Bolton, Lancashire from 1871 to 1876 and remained with him as his managing assistant until 1878. He then worked as an assistant to Ernest George (1839-1922) and Harold Ainsworth Peto (1854-1933) in 1879-80. He also attended Manchester University and the Royal Academy Schools in London. In 1885 he was awarded the Godwin & Wimperis Bursary.

Gass passed the Royal Institute of British Architects Voluntary Examination in 1880 and in January 1881 commenced practice as an architect in partnership with Bradshaw as Bradshaw & Gass. In 1902 Arthur John Hope (1875-1960) joined the partnership which was renamed Bradshaw, Gass & Hope. After the death of Bradshaw in 1912 the partnership was renamed Bradshaw Gass & Hope [no comma]. The practice continued following the deaths of its original partners and eventually closed in 2017.

Gass was elected an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (ARIBA) in 1881 and a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (FRIBA) in 1889. He was President of the Manchester Society of Architects.

In addition to his work as an architect, Gass was also a watercolour painter and between 1880 and 1910 exhibited at the Royal Academy in London. He died in Horwich, Lancashire on 3 July 1939.

A biographical file on John Bradshaw Gass is available at the Enquiry Desk, Royal Institute of British Architects Library, London
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[1] or Bolton, Lancashire, England. According to the Dictionary of Scottish Architects his place of birth was Annan, and that he moved to Bolton as a child, however, ancestry.com gives his place of birth as Bolton

Worked in

Works

Competitions: Bradshaw & Gass: Horwich Chapel, 1898; Belmont Congregational Church; Tower Buildings, Wigan, £15,000; 1900. London Wesleyan Church, £7,000; Royal London Buildings, Wigan, £12,000; Leysian Building. City Road. London, E.C., £70,000; Central Hall Buildings, Liverpool, £32,000. Bradshaw, Gass & Hope: 1904, Radcliffe School, £7,000; Stock Exchange Buildings. Manchester, £45,000; Baptist Church, Farnworth, £8,000; 1907, Co-operative Insurance Offices Manchester, £19,000; Wesley Church and Schools, Hanligh, Bolton, £9,000; Baptist Church Institute, Bolton, £3,000; Congregational Church House. Manchester, £21,000; Zion Institutional Church, Manchester, £24,000; Libraries, Astley Bridge and Great Lever, Bolton, £8,000; Stockport Central Library, £15,000; Leeds Co-operative Central premises, £30,000; Miners' Hall, Bolton. £10,000; Blackburn Wesleyan Central Hall, £15,000; 1914, Royal Exchange, Manchester, £200,000.

Works: In addition to carrying out the buildings won In competition as above, works executed by the firms of Bradshaw & Gass and Bradshaw, Gass & Hope reach the value of upwards of four millions sterling. [Source: Who's Who in Architecture 1914]

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Competitions: In partnership (Bradshaw and Gass, 1880, Bradshaw Gass and Hope, 1903) won 24 competitions — many open ones.

Works: In partnership (Bradshaw and Gass, 1880; Bradshaw Gass and Hope, 1903): London: Leysian Buildings, City Road, E.C. (1900); Royal London Insurance Buildings, Southampton Row; Woolwich Soldiers Home, etc. Manchester: Royal Exchange Buildings; Stock Exchange Buildings; Congregational Church House and Milton Hall; Zion Institutional Church. Liverpool: Central Hall Buildings. Leeds: Co-operatlve Contral premises. Bolton: Victoria Hall and King's Hall Buildings; schools, training colleges, libraries and other Public buildings; the Miners' Hall; "Evening News " offices; Co-operative Societies' Central and other buildings; churches: business and bank premises; hospital and sanatorium; residences and housing schemes. Wigan: Central Hall buildings. In addition to the foregoing, many industrial buildings for cotton spinning, weaving, and thread-making, leather, iron, paper and other trades in the chief industrial centres in Lancashire and Yorkshire and other parts of England; buildings In connection with fisheries on the coast; and In India, important church and college buildings; as well as work on the Continent. [Source: Who's Who in Architecture 1923]

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