JOHN THOMAS, SCULPTURE AND ARCHITECT (1813-1862)

Extract from the Public Statues and Sculptor Association

John Thomas was born in Gloucestershire and was apprenticed to a local stonemason.  He later moved to Birmingham where he worked with his brother and was talent spotted by the architect, Charles Barry.  He worked on ornamental sculpture at Birmingham Grammar School, which launched his career as the most prolific and successful architectural sculpture of the high Victorian period.

John Thomas’s successes include:

Much of the statuary for the railway stations at Euston and Paddington

The 2 colossal lions at the entrance to the Britannia Bridge, Menai Straits (1848)

A statue of Queen Victoria, part of the Randall Fountain in Maidstone (1862}

A statue of Sir Hugh Myddletyon at Islington Green (1862)

His Architectural successes include:

The neo Jacobean Somerleyton Hall and village, built for Sir Morton Peto (1844-57)

The Italianate Water Garden at the head of the Serpentine in Kensington Gardens

Brandon Railway Station was built 1844-45 with designs attributed to John Thomas with the building being extended in the 1870’s and 1880’s.  Brandon Station received listed status in August 2020