SAVAGE, James

(b. 1779 London, d. 1852 London)

English architect. He became a student at the Royal Academy in 1796.

In 1800 he won second prize in a competition for a scheme of improvements to the city of Aberdeen and five years later came first in a competition to rebuild the Ormond Bridge over the Liffey in Dublin, which had been swept away by a storm. The project was delayed, and it was decided instead to build the new bridge about 50 metres west of the destroyed one. Savage exhibited his design for the new location as Richmond Bridge forming the approach to the Four Courts, Dublin at the Royal Academy in 1809. A three-arched bridge built of granite, with cast-iron balustrades, it was constructed in 1813-16. Originally named after the Duke of Richmond, it is now known as the O’Donovan Rossa Bridge. In 1815 Savage won a competition to design a river-crossing at Tempsford in Bedfordshire with another three arched bridge.

In 1819 his plans for the new parish church of St Luke, Chelsea were chosen from among more than 40 submissions. It was an ambitious building, designed to accommodate 2,500 people. He designed it in imitation of the Gothic churches of the 14th and 15th centuries, with solid stone vaulting supported by flying buttresses. Savage designed several other, less ambitious Gothic churches, and one, St James, Bermondsey, in a Classical style.

He submitted designs for the new London Bridge to a committee of the House of Commons in 1823, but they were rejected. In 1825 he drew up a plan which he called the “Surrey Quay” for embanking the south bank of the Thames, from London Bridge to Lambeth. In 1836, he unsuccessfully entered the competition to design the new Houses of Parliament. He was involved in several restoration projects.

He was a member of the Surveyors’ Club, and, for many years, member and chairman of the Committee of Fine Arts of the Society for the Promotion of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce. He was a founder member of the Graphic Society, a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, a member of the Architectural Society, and, briefly a fellow of the Institute of British Architects, from which he resigned after a disagreement. He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1799 to 1832.

Exterior view

In the 1820s, the Gothic Revival began to be considered as a serious style for more than country houses, rivaling the predominant Neoclassicism. One of the first areas in which the Gothic Revival emerged triumphant was church building. The pattern of the exterior was for a tall west tower, though furnished with large tracery windows, buttresses and pinnacles. In the lavish design of St. Luke’s in Chelsea, the western classical portico is replaced by a low Gothicizing porch with pointed arches and ogee hoods. The nave and aisles within are completely vaulted in stone, thereby attempting to imitate Gothic not only in decoration but also in the structure.

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General view

The O’Donovan Rossa Bridge is a road bridge spanning the River Liffey in Dublin. Replacing a short lived wooden structure, the original masonry bridge on this site was built in 1684 as a five-span simple arch bridge, and named Ormonde Bridge. In December 1802 this bridge was swept away during a severe storm.

In 1813 construction started on a replacement bridge — the current structure — a little further west to the designs of James Savage and was opened in 1816. It consists of three elliptical arch spans in granite, with sculptured heads on the keystones. The heads represent Plenty, the Liffey, and Industry on one side, with Commerce, Hibernia and Peace on the other.

The photo shows the O’Donovan Rossa Bridge (formerly Richmond Bridge). Behind the bridge the Four Courts, Ireland’s main courts building can be seen.

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Interior view

In the 1820s, the Gothic Revival began to be considered as a serious style for more than country houses, rivaling the predominant Neoclassicism. One of the first areas in which the Gothic Revival emerged triumphant was church building. In the interior, the nave and aisles are completely vaulted in stone, thereby attempting to imitate Gothic not only in decoration but also in the structure.

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