Architect born in Chester, the third architect in his family to practice in the city. Aged 14, he became a pupil of the celebrated neoclassical architect, Thomas Harrison of Chester. In 1829 Cole succeeded Harrison as County Architect and completed the historic Grosvenor Bridge in Chester to Harrison’s design. In 1833 he visited Greece, Italy, Asia Minor, Egypt and Morocco, and in 1835 published his Select Views of the Remains of Ancient Monuments in Greece. He acquired a second office in Birkenhead and moved there in 1840. He developed his practice as an architect, as a Commissioner under the Improvement Act of 1833, and as a member of Birkenhead Dock and Warehouse Company. He married twice and had 17 children. His major works include the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates at Tatton Park, Cheshire (1843), and a number of churches and chapels, including, in Chester, St Bridget’s (1827–28; demolished 1891), St Paul’s, Boughton (1829–30; rebuilt, 1875–76, by John Douglas) and Pepper Street Chapel (1835); and in Birkenhead, St Anne’s (now Christ the King), Beckwith Street (1846–50) and the Congregational Church (now Wirral Christian Centre), Woodchurch Road (1857–58). He also enlarged and then castellated Bolesworth Castle in 1829. His style was at first classical, but later often Gothic. He exhibited twice at the Royal Academy in London, in 1831 and 1832. He lived for his last few years in Parkgate, Wirral.
Bibliography: G.W.O. Addleshaw, ‘Architects, Sculptors, Designers and Craftsmen, 1770–1970, whose work is to be seen in Chester Cathedral’, Architectural History, vol. 14 (1971); H. Colvin, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, New Haven and London, 1995, pp. 265–66; C. Hartwell et al, Cheshire (The Buildings of England), New Haven and London, 2011; E. Morris and E. Roberts, Public Sculpture of Cheshire and Merseyside, Liverpool, 2012, pp. 57, 213, 215; F. Simpson, ‘A Few Cheshire Worthies’, The Journal of the Chester and North Wales Architectural, Archaeological and Historic Society, vol. 28 (1928), p. 135.
Emma Roberts, 2012
