Amon Wilds
Encyclopedia
Amon Wilds was an English
architect
and builder. He formed an architectural partnership with his son Amon Henry Wilds
In this article, Amon Wilds is referred to as Wilds senior and his son Amon Henry Wilds as Wilds junior. in 1806 and started working in the fashionable and growing seaside resort of Brighton
, on the East Sussex
coast, in 1815. After 1822, when the father-and-son partnership met and joined up with Charles Busby
, they were commissioned—separately or jointly—to design a wide range of buildings in the town, which was experiencing an unprecedented demand for residential development and other facilities. Wilds senior also carried out much work on his own, but the description "Wilds and Busby" was often used on designs, making individual attribution difficult. Wilds senior and his partners are remembered most for his work in post-Regency Brighton, where most of their houses, churches and hotels built in a bold Regency style
remain—in particular, the distinctive and visionary Kemp Town
and Brunswick
estates on the edges of Brighton, whose constituent parts are Grade I listed buildings.
of All Saints Church in Lewes, which he executed in red brick in contrast to the flint tower. In 1810, he built Castle Place on the High Street, part of which was later converted into a house for the palaeontologist
Gideon Mantell
. This was the first of many buildings (mostly in Brighton) on which the Wilds' signature motif, the ammonite capital
, was used. Consisting of an ammonite
-shaped Ionic-style
capital
on top of a pilaster
, this design was particularly liked by the Wilds because it represented a pun on their first names.
In 1815, both men moved to Brighton, where their partnership grew and took on more work. They continued to work in both towns until 1820, after which they concentrated exclusively on Brighton. By this time, Wilds senior had completed two buildings on behalf of Thomas Read Kemp
, who later proposed and funded the Kemp Town estate. He was a wealthy Brighton resident who had been Member of Parliament
for Lewes until 1816, when he resigned, left the Church of England
and found a Nonconformist
sect. He commissioned Wilds senior to build a chapel for him; although it was later reconsecrated as an Anglican church (under the name Holy Trinity Church
) and has been altered externally, it still exists (as an art gallery) and is Grade II-listed. Wilds senior's design was Greek Revival
, featuring a four-column portico
of the Doric order
and a large square tower. In 1819, Kemp decided to move from Herstmonceux
to Brighton, and asked Wilds senior to design a house for him on land he owned in what later became the Montpelier
suburb. As its dimensions matched those of Solomon's Temple
, it was called "The Temple". Square and two-storeyed, with five bays
on each side and a recessed upper storey, it became a school in 1828 and is now the Brighton and Hove High School
. It is listed at Grade II.
Charles Busby joined Wilds senior and his son in partnership soon after moving to Brighton in 1822. Their first major project was the execution of Kemp's grand scheme for a vast estate of high-quality houses on the cliffs east of Brighton, intended for the rapidly increasing number of rich people wanting to live in Brighton. By this time, Wilds junior was working independently most of the time, so Wilds senior and Busby received most of the credit for the design, planning and layout. Building work began in May 1823, but the plan—consisting of 250 houses—proved too ambitious: not enough people moved to the isolated site, and Kemp's money was running out. Only 106 were eventually built, 36 of which were complete by the time Wilds senior died.
Wilds also had some input in the design of the Brunswick estate
, just over the border in Hove
, which was conceived soon after Kemp Town's construction started; Charles Busby was more influential in the project, though, and recent research indicates that on the contract dated 11 November 1824 agreeing details of the construction of Brunswick Square and Terrace, Wilds senior had obliterated his name and stated that Busby should be considered responsible for the work.
From 1825 Wilds senior and Busby undertook more speculative building, for example at Marine Square and Portland Place; but Wilds senior was able to spend time on a complete redesign of the late 17th-century Union Chapel
in Union Street. This was Brighton's oldest Nonconformist place of worship; it originally housed a Presbyterian
community, then became an Independent chapel
and later the Union Free Church (founded by the merger of two Congregational church
es). In the 20th century it passed to a miners' mission and then the Elim Pentecostal Church
, which occupied it until 1988, after which it became a pub. Amon Wilds gave the building a tall Greek Revival
façade which dominates the lane it stands on; it has three Doric pilasters topped by a pediment, slightly tapering Greek-style windows and a triglyph
. The interior was less imposing: a central pulpit was surrounded by pews in a semicircular pattern on a slight gradient.
Amon Wilds died at the age of 71 on 12 September 1833 and is buried in the churchyard at St Nicholas' Church, Brighton
. His ornate gravestone was designed by his son.
The inscription reads:
Sacred to the memory of
Mr. Amon Wilds
Died September 12, 1833 Aged 71 Years
A remarkable incident accompanies the period at which this gentleman came to settle in Brighton.
Through his abilities and taste the order of the ancient architecture of buildings in Brighton
may be dated to have changed from its antiquated simplicity and rusticity and its improvements
have since progressively increased. He was a man of extensive genius and talent and in his
reputation for uprightness of conduct could only meet its parallel.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
and builder. He formed an architectural partnership with his son Amon Henry Wilds
Amon Henry Wilds
Amon Henry Wilds was an English architect. He was part of a team of three architects and builders who—working together or independently at different times—were almost solely responsible for a surge in residential construction and development in early 19th-century Brighton, which until then had...
In this article, Amon Wilds is referred to as Wilds senior and his son Amon Henry Wilds as Wilds junior. in 1806 and started working in the fashionable and growing seaside resort of Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
, on the East Sussex
East Sussex
East Sussex is a county in South East England. It is bordered by the counties of Kent, Surrey and West Sussex, and to the south by the English Channel.-History:...
coast, in 1815. After 1822, when the father-and-son partnership met and joined up with Charles Busby
Charles Busby
Charles Augustin Busby was an English architect.He created many buildings in and around Brighton such as Brunswick Square and St Margarets Church. His style usually included Romanesque style pillars to his buildings....
, they were commissioned—separately or jointly—to design a wide range of buildings in the town, which was experiencing an unprecedented demand for residential development and other facilities. Wilds senior also carried out much work on his own, but the description "Wilds and Busby" was often used on designs, making individual attribution difficult. Wilds senior and his partners are remembered most for his work in post-Regency Brighton, where most of their houses, churches and hotels built in a bold Regency style
Regency architecture
The Regency style of architecture refers primarily to buildings built in Britain during the period in the early 19th century when George IV was Prince Regent, and also to later buildings following the same style...
remain—in particular, the distinctive and visionary Kemp Town
Kemp Town
Kemp Town is a 19th Century residential estate in the east of Brighton in East Sussex, England, UK. Kemp Town was conceived and financed by Thomas Read Kemp. It has given its name to the larger Kemptown region of Brighton....
and Brunswick
Brunswick (Hove)
Brunswick Town is an area in Hove, in the city of Brighton and Hove, England. It is best known for the Regency architecture of the Brunswick estate.-History:...
estates on the edges of Brighton, whose constituent parts are Grade I listed buildings.
Life and activities
Wilds senior was born at Lewes, the county town of East Sussex, in 1762, and became a builder and carpenter. He later moved into the field of architecture and design, and after his son developed an interest in the same activities they formed a building firm in Lewes in about 1806. Wilds senior's first independent design commission was an extension to the naveNave
In Romanesque and Gothic Christian abbey, cathedral basilica and church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar, the main body of the church. "Nave" was probably suggested by the keel shape of its vaulting...
of All Saints Church in Lewes, which he executed in red brick in contrast to the flint tower. In 1810, he built Castle Place on the High Street, part of which was later converted into a house for the palaeontologist
Paleontology
Paleontology "old, ancient", ὄν, ὀντ- "being, creature", and λόγος "speech, thought") is the study of prehistoric life. It includes the study of fossils to determine organisms' evolution and interactions with each other and their environments...
Gideon Mantell
Gideon Mantell
Gideon Algernon Mantell MRCS FRS was an English obstetrician, geologist and palaeontologist...
. This was the first of many buildings (mostly in Brighton) on which the Wilds' signature motif, the ammonite capital
Ammonite Order
The Ammonite Order is an architectural order that features fluted columns and capitals with volutes shaped to resemble fossil ammonites. The style was invented by George Dance and first used on John Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery in Pall Mall, London in 1789 .Ammonite motifs were also used on...
, was used. Consisting of an ammonite
Ammonite
Ammonite, as a zoological or paleontological term, refers to any member of the Ammonoidea an extinct subclass within the Molluscan class Cephalopoda which are more closely related to living coleoids Ammonite, as a zoological or paleontological term, refers to any member of the Ammonoidea an extinct...
-shaped Ionic-style
Ionic order
The Ionic order forms one of the three orders or organizational systems of classical architecture, the other two canonic orders being the Doric and the Corinthian...
capital
Capital (architecture)
In architecture the capital forms the topmost member of a column . It mediates between the column and the load thrusting down upon it, broadening the area of the column's supporting surface...
on top of a pilaster
Pilaster
A pilaster is a slightly-projecting column built into or applied to the face of a wall. Most commonly flattened or rectangular in form, pilasters can also take a half-round form or the shape of any type of column, including tortile....
, this design was particularly liked by the Wilds because it represented a pun on their first names.
In 1815, both men moved to Brighton, where their partnership grew and took on more work. They continued to work in both towns until 1820, after which they concentrated exclusively on Brighton. By this time, Wilds senior had completed two buildings on behalf of Thomas Read Kemp
Thomas Read Kemp
Thomas Read Kemp was an English property developer and politician. He was the son of Sussex landowner Thomas Kemp, whose farmhouse in Brighton was rented by the Prince of Wales in 1786.-Biography:...
, who later proposed and funded the Kemp Town estate. He was a wealthy Brighton resident who had been Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
for Lewes until 1816, when he resigned, left the Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
and found a Nonconformist
Nonconformism
Nonconformity is the refusal to "conform" to, or follow, the governance and usages of the Church of England by the Protestant Christians of England and Wales.- Origins and use:...
sect. He commissioned Wilds senior to build a chapel for him; although it was later reconsecrated as an Anglican church (under the name Holy Trinity Church
Holy Trinity Church, Brighton
The former Holy Trinity Church is a closed Anglican church in the centre of Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. Established in the early 19th century by Thomas Read Kemp, an important figure in Brighton's early political and religious life, it was originally an independent...
) and has been altered externally, it still exists (as an art gallery) and is Grade II-listed. Wilds senior's design was Greek Revival
Greek Revival architecture
The Greek Revival was an architectural movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in Northern Europe and the United States. A product of Hellenism, it may be looked upon as the last phase in the development of Neoclassical architecture...
, featuring a four-column portico
Portico
A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls...
of the Doric order
Doric order
The Doric order was one of the three orders or organizational systems of ancient Greek or classical architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian.-History:...
and a large square tower. In 1819, Kemp decided to move from Herstmonceux
Herstmonceux
Herstmonceux is a village and civil parish in the Wealden District of East Sussex, England. The parish includes Herstmonceux Castle, the village of Cowbeech and a number of smaller hamlets.-History:...
to Brighton, and asked Wilds senior to design a house for him on land he owned in what later became the Montpelier
Montpelier, Brighton
Montpelier is an inner suburban area of Brighton, part of the English city and seaside resort of Brighton and Hove. Developed together with the adjacent Clifton Hill area in the mid-19th century, it forms a high-class, architecturally cohesive residential district with "an exceptionally complete...
suburb. As its dimensions matched those of Solomon's Temple
Solomon's Temple
Solomon's Temple, also known as the First Temple, was the main temple in ancient Jerusalem, on the Temple Mount , before its destruction by Nebuchadnezzar II after the Siege of Jerusalem of 587 BCE....
, it was called "The Temple". Square and two-storeyed, with five bays
Bay (architecture)
A bay is a unit of form in architecture. This unit is defined as the zone between the outer edges of an engaged column, pilaster, or post; or within a window frame, doorframe, or vertical 'bas relief' wall form.-Defining elements:...
on each side and a recessed upper storey, it became a school in 1828 and is now the Brighton and Hove High School
Brighton and Hove High School
Brighton & Hove High School is an independent day school for girls aged 3 – 18 in the city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England.Founded in 1876, the school has expanded from being a very small school for less than twenty pupils to its present size of taking some 700 students...
. It is listed at Grade II.
Charles Busby joined Wilds senior and his son in partnership soon after moving to Brighton in 1822. Their first major project was the execution of Kemp's grand scheme for a vast estate of high-quality houses on the cliffs east of Brighton, intended for the rapidly increasing number of rich people wanting to live in Brighton. By this time, Wilds junior was working independently most of the time, so Wilds senior and Busby received most of the credit for the design, planning and layout. Building work began in May 1823, but the plan—consisting of 250 houses—proved too ambitious: not enough people moved to the isolated site, and Kemp's money was running out. Only 106 were eventually built, 36 of which were complete by the time Wilds senior died.
Wilds also had some input in the design of the Brunswick estate
Brunswick (Hove)
Brunswick Town is an area in Hove, in the city of Brighton and Hove, England. It is best known for the Regency architecture of the Brunswick estate.-History:...
, just over the border in Hove
Hove
Hove is a town on the south coast of England, immediately to the west of its larger neighbour Brighton, with which it forms the unitary authority Brighton and Hove. It forms a single conurbation together with Brighton and some smaller towns and villages running along the coast...
, which was conceived soon after Kemp Town's construction started; Charles Busby was more influential in the project, though, and recent research indicates that on the contract dated 11 November 1824 agreeing details of the construction of Brunswick Square and Terrace, Wilds senior had obliterated his name and stated that Busby should be considered responsible for the work.
From 1825 Wilds senior and Busby undertook more speculative building, for example at Marine Square and Portland Place; but Wilds senior was able to spend time on a complete redesign of the late 17th-century Union Chapel
Union Chapel, Brighton
The Union Chapel, also known as the Union Street Chapel, Elim Free Church, Four Square Gospel Tabernacle or Elim Tabernacle of the Four Square Gospel, is a former chapel in the centre of Brighton, a constituent part of the city of Brighton and Hove, England...
in Union Street. This was Brighton's oldest Nonconformist place of worship; it originally housed a Presbyterian
Presbyterianism
Presbyterianism refers to a number of Christian churches adhering to the Calvinist theological tradition within Protestantism, which are organized according to a characteristic Presbyterian polity. Presbyterian theology typically emphasizes the sovereignty of God, the authority of the Scriptures,...
community, then became an Independent chapel
Independent (religion)
In English church history, Independents advocated local congregational control of religious and church matters, without any wider geographical hierarchy, either ecclesiastical or political...
and later the Union Free Church (founded by the merger of two Congregational church
Congregational church
Congregational churches are Protestant Christian churches practicing Congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its own affairs....
es). In the 20th century it passed to a miners' mission and then the Elim Pentecostal Church
Elim Pentecostal Church
The Elim Pentecostal Church is a UK-based Pentecostal Christian denomination.-History:George Jeffreys , a Welshman, founded the Elim Pentecostal Church in Monaghan, Ireland in 1915. Jeffreys was an evangelist with a Welsh Congregational church background. He was converted at age 15 during the...
, which occupied it until 1988, after which it became a pub. Amon Wilds gave the building a tall Greek Revival
Greek Revival architecture
The Greek Revival was an architectural movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in Northern Europe and the United States. A product of Hellenism, it may be looked upon as the last phase in the development of Neoclassical architecture...
façade which dominates the lane it stands on; it has three Doric pilasters topped by a pediment, slightly tapering Greek-style windows and a triglyph
Triglyph
Triglyph is an architectural term for the vertically channeled tablets of the Doric frieze, so called because of the angular channels in them, two perfect and one divided, the two chamfered angles or hemiglyphs being reckoned as one. The square recessed spaces between the triglyphs on a Doric...
. The interior was less imposing: a central pulpit was surrounded by pews in a semicircular pattern on a slight gradient.
Amon Wilds died at the age of 71 on 12 September 1833 and is buried in the churchyard at St Nicholas' Church, Brighton
St Nicholas' Church, Brighton
The Church of Saint Nicholas of Myra, usually known as St. Nicholas Church, is an Anglican church in Brighton, England. It is both the original parish church of Brighton and the oldest surviving building in Brighton. It is located on high ground at the junction of Church Street and Dyke Road in...
. His ornate gravestone was designed by his son.
The inscription reads: