James Cubitt was a Victorian

Victorian era

The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...

 church 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...

 specialising in building non-conformist chapels. He was the son of a Baptist

Baptist

Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...

 minister, from Norfolk

Norfolk

Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...

 who taught at Spurgeon's Pastor's College

Spurgeon's College

Spurgeon's College is a theological institute of higher learning located in South Norwood Hill, London. It was founded by Charles Haddon Spurgeon, known as 'the Prince of Preachers' and in his time minister of the largest church in the world, the Metropolitan Tabernacle at Elephant and Castle...

 in South Norwood Hill — then on the outskirts of London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

.

Cubitt was articled to the firm of Isaac Charles Gilbert, in Nottingham (1851—56) and joined W. W. Pocock building chapels for the Wesleyan

Wesleyanism

Wesleyanism or Wesleyan theology refers, respectively, to either the eponymous movement of Protestant Christians who have historically sought to follow the methods or theology of the eighteenth-century evangelical reformers, John Wesley and his brother Charles Wesley, or to the likewise eponymous...

s. From 1862, he formed his own office, forming a partnership with Henry Fuller in 1868.

Cubitt's philosophy was laid out in his book, Church Design for Congregations. He attacked as obsolete the traditional nave

Nave

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...

 and aisle

Aisle

An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of seats on both sides or with rows of seats on one side and a wall on the other...

 design. When the "columns are thick or moderately thick, it inevitably shuts out a multitude of people from the service ... When, on the other hand, its columns are thin, the inconvenience is removed, but the architecture is ruined ... The type as it remains is but a shadow of its former self–a medieval church in the last stage of starvation". Too many architects were failing the principal criteria of their brief: "to produce a grand and beautiful church in which everyone could see and hear the service".

His chapels are built as broad uncluttered spaces around a central pulpit and Lord's table.

Cubitt lived most of his professional life at Loughton

Loughton

Loughton is a town and civil parish in the Epping Forest district of Essex. It is located between 11 and 13 miles north east of Charing Cross in London, south of the M25 and west of the M11 motorway and has boundaries with Chingford, Waltham Abbey, Theydon Bois, Chigwell and Buckhurst Hill...

, where he built several private houses and three schools. He is commemorated by a blue plaque

Blue plaque

A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person or event, serving as a historical marker....

 on Monghyr Cottage, 2 Traps Hill, Loughton, where he died, and was buried in an unmarked grave next to his wife in Loughton Cemetery.

Works

• Architecture
  • Emmanuel Congregational Church
    Emmanuel United Reformed Church, Cambridge
    Emmanuel United Reformed Church in Cambridge, England is located close to the centre of town, on Trumpington Street. A congregational church, it voted to join the new United Reformed Church in 1972.-History:...
    
     in Cambridge
    Cambridge
    The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
    
     (1873)
  • Union Chapel, Islington
    Union Chapel, Islington
    The Union Chapel is a Grade II* listed church and music venue in Islington, North London, England, located on Compton Terrace.An example of Victorian gothic architecture, it was designed by James Cubitt, and constructed between 1874 and 1877, with further additions 1877-90, providing an ambitious...
    
     (1877)
  • Welsh Presbyterian Church Charing Cross Road
    Charing Cross Road
    Charing Cross Road is a street in central London running immediately north of St Martin-in-the-Fields to St Giles Circus and then becomes Tottenham Court Road...
    
     (1888, now a public house
    Public house
    A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...
    
    )
  • Staples Road Junior School, Loughton (1888)
  • Sunnybank, nos 7-9 Woodbury Hill, Loughton, Essex (1889)
• Books
  • Church Design for Congregations (1870)

See also

• Dissenting Gothic
  Dissenting Gothic
  Dissenting Gothic is a distinctive style of neo-Gothic architecture in its own right that emerged primarily in Britain, its colonies and North America, during the nineteenth century "Gothic Revival"..-The style:...
  
  
• Cubitt
  Cubitt
  Cubitt may refer to:*Cubitt Town, an area on the Isle of Dogs in Tower Hamlets in London, England*David Cubitt , a Canadian television actor*Eleni Cubitt, a film maker born in Greece...
  
  - James Cubitt is no relation to his contemporary engineers and master builders of the same name.