George

1794

George Abbott arrived in South Australia from England, possibly Devon, on 2 December 1849 aboard the ‘Glen Huntley’ with his wife, Sarah and five of his children (Russell 1983: 3). His son, William Henry Abbott also practised as an architect, arriving in South Australia six months prior to his father. He was aged fifty-five and had spent time working for Thomas Cubitt, the builder and developer, in England when he decided to emigrate to South Australia.

He worked as an architect, surveyor and valuator from 1854 to 1858 when he joined with Daniel Garlick and they practised as architects and surveyors (Russell 1983: 4). However this partnership did not last the year as Abbott declared himself bankrupt. Abbott then worked as an assistant draughtsman with the Engineer and Architects Department of the South Australian Government some time around 1862 until 1864 when he was required to either resign his public or private practice as government employees were no longer allowed to perform private practice while in Government Service. His partnership with his son William, called Abbott and Son, (in existence in 1864) continued until 1866 due to a slackening of private work he requested his government position back and was re-employed as a draughtsman from 1 February 1866 (Russell 1983: 7). He died on 3 April 1869.

His early architectural work in South Australia included mainly ecclesiastical buildings such as Walkerville Methodist Church (1855), Wesleyan Chapel, Tea Tree Gully (1855), Clayton Congregational Chapel, The Parade, Norwood (1856), named after London Congregational Minister, John Clayton, the Wesleyan Chapel, Willunga (1857) in the Gothic style and the Bible Christian Chapel, Auburn (opened 21 October 1861) (Russell 1983). Residential work by George Abbott included the rebuilding of Vauxhall House, Norwood (1860) for J.E.Sellar, a villa residence at Auburn (1860) and a dwelling-house, Clare-Vale (1860) (Russell 1983).

The design for the Congregational Church, Hindmarsh Square, Adelaide was chosen by a competition. It was large enough to accommodate 530 persons and was described as ‘modified Byzantine’ in style (Russell 1983: 9). It featured two domed octagonal towers and was opened on 5 September 1862. In 1863 Abbott designed a Proprietary Grammar School at Port Adelaide (Russell 1983).

The Gothic style Welsyan Chapel at Brighton (1863) opened on 2 May 1864 and was described as ‘a really beautiful structure … built of Brighton limestone, and is ornamented with brick quoins and facings. … In outward appearance it is unsurpassed, if equalled, by any building of a similar nature in the district.’ (Russell 1983: 14).

The design for the United Presbyterian Church, Flinders Street, Adelaide (1864), which George Abbott was accused by a correspondent to the South Australian Register of plagiarising from a drawing of the Mill Hill Chapel, Birmingham published some years earlier in The Builder journal (Russell 1983: 16-19) featured a detailed facade. The bell chamber ‘was defined by Corinthian pilasters, and the cornice above was decorated with elongated modillions; the spire, which curved gracefully skywards, was covered with sheet metal’ (Burden 1983: 85). His last recorded work was the Vestry and Chancel for St Matthew’s Church at Kensington (1865) (Russell 1983).

Julie Collins

Citation details
Collins, Julie, ‘Abbott, George', Architecture Museum, University of South Australia, 2008, Architects of South Australia: [http://www.architectsdatabase.unisa.edu.au/arch_full.asp?Arch_ID=95]