It has been 100 years since ‘the man who built Kettering’, John Alfred Gotch, was elected president of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA): the first provincial architect to be appointed president since the formation of the Institute in 1834.
John Alfred Gotch founded his own architecture practice in 1879 and was then joined by Charles Saunders in 1887 and Henry Surridge in 1899, to create Gotch, Saunders and Surridge, now known as GSSArchitecture, a national architecture practice that has been operating for an impressive 144 years in 2023.
In an extraordinary 9-year period following World War I, GSS designed and built over 140 branches for the Midland Bank. Their crowning achievement was the construction of the Bank’s headquarters in Poultry, London, which includes input from Sir Edwin Lutyens. After a four-year renovation period, the building reopened in 2018 as a 5-star hotel and the Ned restaurant.
With an impressive portfolio of work behind him, Gotch was also involved with 49 school-building projects between 1891 and 1937, the majority situated in Northamptonshire and the adjoining county of Bedfordshire.
Some of his most notable works include his biggest school-building project, as well as the largest building he erected in Kettering, Kettering Grammar School, a secondary school built for Northamptonshire County Council in 1912-16 at a cost of £16,323. In addition, Gotch also created the original designs for the Grade II listed Alfred East Art Gallery in Kettering, together with many of the shops and pubs.
In 2018, a Kettering Civic Society memorial plaque was unveiled at the HSBC Bank in Kettering, which is one of 142 branches he designed for the former Midland Bank, which commemorates Gotch’s contribution to the town.
With an impressive legacy, GSSArchitecture now operates with six national offices and over 70 team members who create innovative and sustainable design solutions across all sectors, including residential, education, commercial, healthcare, sports, and leisure.
Senior Partner at GSSArchitecture, Tom Lyons, comments, “We have a long history at GSS, and we are proud of the legacy that John Alfred Gotch and his partners have left for us to follow. We have grown significantly over the years to a national practice but with our Head Office still here in Northamptonshire, and it’s fantastic to have so much history and see how far the practice has come. We hope to continue Gotch’s legacy by producing exciting schemes and encouraging future generations to also follow in his footsteps.”
A special thanks to Dr Roy Hargrave for his research on John Alfred Gotch.
