{{Short description|English architect (1772–1841)}} {{Use British English|date=September 2013}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}} {{Infobox architect | name = John Foulston | image = John Foulston's Town Hall, Column and Library in Devonport.jpg | caption = An 1820s print of Foulston's town hall, column and library in Devonport | birth_date = {{Birth date text|1772}} | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1841|12|30|1772 }} | death_place = Plymouth, England | }} thumb|right|The same view in 2008
'''John Foulston''' (1772 – 30 December 1841) was an English architect who was a pupil of Thomas Hardwick and set up a practice in London in 1796.<ref name="dnb">Peter Leach, ''Foulston, John (1772–1841)'', rev., Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. Online at http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/37425 (subscription required). Accessed 17 May 2008.</ref> In 1810 he won a competition to design the Royal Hotel and Theatre group of buildings in Plymouth, Devon,<ref name="plydat">{{cite web |url=http://www.plymouthdata.info/PP-Foulston.htm |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120515165809/http://www.plymouthdata.info/PP-Foulston.htm |archivedate=15 May 2012 |title=John Foulston (1772–1842) |last=Moseley |first=Brian |date=3 December 2011 |website=The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History |accessdate=12 February 2015 }}</ref> and after relocating he remained Plymouth's leading architect for twenty-five years.<ref name="dnb"/>
==Planning of Plymouth== At the time, Plymouth was a prosperous port town, separated along the coast of Plymouth Sound from the neighbouring towns of East Stonehouse and Devonport; collectively known as the Three Towns. Foulston was responsible for the creation of Union Street from the Frankfort Gate which was built across marshland to unite the three towns.<ref name="dnb"/>
===Ker Street, Devonport=== Most of Foulston's work was in the Greek Revival style, but his best known project was the creation of a group of buildings in Ker Street, Devonport in 1821–24.<ref name="dnb"/> This eclectic group consisted of a Greek Doric town hall and commemorative column; a terrace of houses in Roman Corinthian style and two houses in Greek Ionic; a "Hindoo" nonconformist chapel and an "Egyptian" library. Of these, all but the chapel and the houses survive,<ref>{{cite book |title=The Buildings of England – Devon |author=Bridget Cherry & Nikolaus Pevsner |publisher=Penguin |location=Harmondsworth [Eng.] |year=1989 |pages=675–676 |isbn=978-0-14-071050-2}}</ref> and are Grade I listed.<ref>{{NHLE |num=1322009 |desc=Devonport Guildhall |accessdate=30 June 2008 }}</ref><ref>{{NHLE |num=1322008 |desc=Devonport Column |accessdate=30 June 2008 }}</ref><ref>{{NHLE |num=1322006 |desc=Oddfellows Hall |accessdate=30 June 2009 }}</ref>
thumb|left|The Royal Hotel, Plymouth
===The Royal Hotel, Theatre and Assembly Rooms=== Foulston's Royal Hotel, Theatre and Assembly Rooms were built between 1811 and 1818.<ref name="dnb"/> The theatre was notable for being one of the first buildings in Britain to use cast and wrought iron for parts of its main structure; it was demolished just before World War II to make way for a cinema.<ref name="plydat"/>
===Other works=== Among his other works in Plymouth were The Plymouth Athenaeum, home of the Plymouth Institution of which Foulston was a member.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.plymouthathenaeum.co.uk/page6.aspx |title=Historic People |publisher=Plymouth Athenaeum |accessdate=6 November 2014 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20141106192704/http://www.plymouthathenaeum.co.uk/page6.aspx |archivedate= 6 November 2014 }}</ref> The Athenaeum (1818–19) was bombed during World War II in 1941 and later demolished.<ref name="cp664">Cherry & Pevsner 1989, p. 664.</ref> Belmont House (c. 1825),<ref>Cherry & Pevsner 1989, p. 673.</ref> The Proprietary Library (1812, destroyed by bombing, 1941),<ref name="Hosk">{{cite book|title=A New Survey of England: Devon|last=Hoskins|first=W. G.|year=1954|pages=459|publisher=Collins|location=London}}</ref> The Royal Union Baths (1828, demolished 1849 to make way for Millbay railway station),<ref name="Hosk"/> and St. Catherine's Church (1823, demolished 1958).<ref name="cp664"/> He also designed many stucco-faced terraces and suburban villas, some of which survive as listed buildings.<ref>See, for instance {{NHLE |num=1130059 |desc=St Michael's Lodge |accessdate=17 May 2008 }}</ref>
In 1818 he designed the asterisk-shaped Cornwall County Asylum at Bodmin, later known as St Lawrence's Hospital, and now a Grade II* listed apartment building.<ref>{{NHLE|num=1195283 |desc=Former St. Lawrence's Hospital |accessdate=10 July 2015 }}</ref>
In Torquay he built the ballroom (1830, demolished), and in Tavistock he restored the medieval abbey gatehouse in Gothic style.<ref name="dnb"/> Foulston remodelled Warleigh House in Bickleigh in the Gothic style in the 1830s.<ref name=NHLE>{{NHLE|num=1162274|desc=Warleigh House|access-date=11 March 2018|mode=cs2}}</ref>
{{Quote box | quote = "Augustus of Rome was for building renowned<br /> And of marble he left what of brick he had found:<br /> But was not our Foulston a very great master?<br /> He found us all brick and left us all plaster." | source = —Epigram, based on one written about John Nash, published in the ''Western Antiquary'' (1884)<ref name=FJ68>{{cite journal |last1= Jenkins|first1= Frank|year= 1968|title= John Foulston and His Public Buildings in Plymouth, Stonehouse, and Devonport|journal= Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians|volume= 27|issue= 2|pages= 124–135|publisher= University of California Press |doi= 10.2307/988470|jstor= 988470}}{{subscription}}</ref> | width = 30% | align = right }}
==Later life and career== Not long before he retired he took into his partnership the architect George Wightwick who succeeded to his practice. After his retirement, Foulston created a set of watercolour drawings of some of his buildings, which are now in the City Art Gallery. He became a fellow of the Institute of British Architects in 1838,<ref name="dnb"/> and in the same year published "The Public Buildings of the West of England",<ref name="plydat"/> a book that included plans and drawings of many of his buildings.<ref>A contemporary advert for the book is in {{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/architectengine02davygoog |title=The Architect, Engineer, and Operative Builder's Constructive Manual |accessdate=17 May 2008 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/architectengine02davygoog/page/n295 188]|year=1839 }}</ref>
In his later years he created an elaborate water garden at his home (Athenian Cottage in the suburb of Mutley<ref name="plydat"/>), and he was wont to drive round the streets of the town in a gig disguised as a Roman war chariot. He died at his home and is buried in St Andrew's new cemetery in Plymouth.<ref name="dnb"/>
==References== {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Foulston, John}} Category:1772 births Category:1841 deaths Category:Architects from Devon Category:English urban planners