John Jay 1805-1872 was a building and civil engineering contractor and stonemason with offices in the
City of LondonThe City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...
during the early nineteenth century and the subsequent era of London's rapid railway and civic expansion. His varied portfolio also included building the clock and Victoria tower of the Houses of Parliament after the damage of the 1833 fire, and many smaller-scale architect-designed projects such as the
Abney Park ChapelAbney Park Chapel, is a Grade II Listed chapel, designed by William Hosking and built by John Jay that is situated in Europe's first wholly nondenominational cemetery, Abney Park Cemetery, London....
and
Trinity Independent ChapelNow a little used Methodist chapel, the original Trinity Independent Chapel was designed in 1840-41 by William Hosking FSA, at Poplar, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, and built by John Jay....
.
John Jay was born in Norfolk in January 1805.
John Jay 1805-1872 was a building and civil engineering contractor and stonemason with offices in the
City of LondonThe City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...
during the early nineteenth century and the subsequent era of London's rapid railway and civic expansion. His varied portfolio also included building the clock and Victoria tower of the Houses of Parliament after the damage of the 1833 fire, and many smaller-scale architect-designed projects such as the
Abney Park ChapelAbney Park Chapel, is a Grade II Listed chapel, designed by William Hosking and built by John Jay that is situated in Europe's first wholly nondenominational cemetery, Abney Park Cemetery, London....
and
Trinity Independent ChapelNow a little used Methodist chapel, the original Trinity Independent Chapel was designed in 1840-41 by William Hosking FSA, at Poplar, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, and built by John Jay....
.
Early life
John Jay was born in Norfolk in January 1805. By 1826 he had moved to
Bethnal GreenBethnal Green is an area in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, in the East End of London. Bethnal Green is located north east of Charing Cross...
near the
City of LondonThe City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...
, where he married Esther Wilson (1806-88) at St. Matthew's Church. By the late 1830s he had offices in the heart of the
City of LondonThe City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...
at 65
London WallLondon Wall was the defensive wall built by the Romans around Londinium, their strategically important port town on the River Thames in England. The name London Wall, as explained below, may also be used to refer to a road related to this wall....
. These appear to have been inherited or shared with a close relative, for in 1806 another Mr Jay, also a builder with an address at London Wall, had already rebuilt the venue that was later named the
Adelphi TheatreThe Adelphi Theatre is a 1500-seat West End theatre, located on the Strand in the City of Westminster. The present building is the fourth on the site. The theatre has specialised in comedy and musical theatre, today it is a receiving house for a variety of productions, including many musicals...
, to the designs of the architect, Samuel Beazley.
Buildings of note
The first building known to have been built by John Jay was the
Abney Park ChapelAbney Park Chapel, is a Grade II Listed chapel, designed by William Hosking and built by John Jay that is situated in Europe's first wholly nondenominational cemetery, Abney Park Cemetery, London....
(opened May 1840). This was swiftly followed by the
Trinity Independent ChapelNow a little used Methodist chapel, the original Trinity Independent Chapel was designed in 1840-41 by William Hosking FSA, at Poplar, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, and built by John Jay....
(opened in 1841) - both designed by the architect
William HoskingWilliam Hosking FSA was a writer, lecturer, and architect who had an important influence on the growth and development of London in Victorian times...
, and St. Michael's Church in
StockwellStockwell is an inner city area of London, England, in the London Borough of Lambeth.Stockwell is south south-east of Charing Cross and located between Brixton, Clapham, Vauxhall and Kennington. The A3 road runs through Stockwell.-History:...
(consecrated 18 November 1841), designed by William Rogers.
In the 1850s John Jay won a contract for construction of the Victoria Towers and clock, and the Old Palace Yard frontage at the Houses of Parliament ; and one for St. Olave's Grammar School. His other
civic buildings included Andrew Reed's philanthropic ventures, the
Infant Orphan Asylum at Wanstead (opened in 1843) and the
Idiot Asylum at Earlswood now the
Royal Earlswood HospitalThe Royal Earlswood Hospital or The Royal Earlswood Asylum for Idiots in Redhill, Surrey was an asylum for people with learning disabilities....
.
In the field of railway construction, John Jay's contracts included
Stoke-on-Trent Railway StationStoke-on-Trent railway station is a main-line railway station in central England. It is located on the Stafford to Manchester branch of the West Coast Main Line and serves the Staffordshire city of Stoke-on-Trent...
, built to the Elizabethan and Jacobean designs of A.H.Hunt (tender awarded July 1847); a section of the
Great Northern RailwayThe Great Northern Railway was a British railway company established by the London & York Railway Act of 1846.The main line ran from London via Hitchin, Peterborough, and Grantham, to York, with a loop line from Peterborough to Bawtry via Boston and Lincoln, and branch lines to Sheffield and...
from King's Cross to the entrance of the tunnel beneath
Copenhagen FieldsThe Metropolitan Cattle Market in Islington, north London was built by the City of London Corporation and opened in June 1855 by Prince Albert...
along with the King's Cross goods station and passenger terminus itself (all c.1850). In 1853 he was awarded the contract for building the
Metropolitan Line undergroundThe Metropolitan line is part of the London Underground. It is coloured in TfL's Corporate Magenta on the Tube map and in other branding. It was the first underground railway in the world, opening on 10 January 1863...
, which he worked on during the 1860s.
Colchester StationColchester railway station is the main station for Colchester in Essex, England. It is on the former Great Eastern Railway main line from London Liverpool Street to Norwich and is a junction for the line to Walton-on-the-Naze and Clacton-on-Sea which diverges southwards from the main line to the...
(
Eastern Counties RailwayThe Eastern Counties Railway was an English railway company which began operating on 20 June 1839 with a train service running from a temporary terminus at Mile End to Romford, now part of the Great Eastern Main Line...
) was also built by Jay; as was a substantial part of Paddington Station. the latter was built by Jay c.1857 for the
Great Western Railway CompanyThe Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835, and ran its first trains three years later...
to the designs of
BrunelIsambard Kingdom Brunel, FRS , was a British engineer. He is best known for the creation of the Great Western Railway, a series of famous steamships, including the first propeller-driven transatlantic steamship, and numerous important bridges and tunnels...
.
Jay also built commercial premises (such as the first
Billingsgate MarketOld Billingsgate Market is the name given to what is now a hospitality and events venue in the City of London, England, based in the Victorian building that was formerly Billingsgate Fish Market....
, and the rebuilding of the Clothworker's Hall in the
City of LondonThe City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...
- both during the 1850s); and estates of domestic houses - for example, three hundred houses at the Packington Estate just north of the City of London were built by John Jay. Also, in 1868, upon acquisition of Campsbourne Lodge along with those parts of its estate not already sold off to the British Feeehold Land Company or other developers, he proceeded to build several of the streets bordering Alexandra Park; some of which remain to this day.
At one point relatively early in his career, his business was expanding so rapidly that he was unable to finance it (he was compelled to file for bankruptcy on February 14 1843, at the Court of Bankruptcy in London). Before long his debts were re-arranged and discharged, and the business prospered again, enabling his family to move, in about 1860 to a fashionable detached villa in its own grounds, Highbury Park House,
HighburyHighbury is an area in the London Borough of Islington.- Early Highbury :The area now known as Highbury was part of the larger manor of Tolentone, which is mentioned in the Domesday Book. Tolentone was owned by Ranulf brother of Ilger and included all Islington, the areas north and east of...
; and soon afterwards to Ashford House, Priory Road, in nearby
HornseyHornsey is a district in London Borough of Haringey in north London in England. Whilst Hornsey was formerly the name of a parish and later a municipal borough of Middlesex, today, the name refers only to the London district. It is an inner-suburban area located north of Charing Cross.-Locale:The ...
.
Death and memorial
A memorial monument to John Jay, which is (
grade 2 listed by
English HeritageEnglish Heritage . is a non-departmental public body of the United Kingdom government with a broad remit of managing the historic built environment of England. It is currently sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
), stands in Dr Watts' Walk,
Abney Park CemeteryAbney Park in Stoke Newington, north-east London, UK is a historic parkland originally laid out in the early 18th century by Lady Mary Abney and Dr. Isaac Watts, and the neighbouring Hartopp family. In 1840 it became a non-denominational garden cemetery, semi-public park arboretum, and educational...
,
Stoke NewingtonStoke Newington is a district in the London Borough of Hackney. It is north-east of Charing Cross.-Boundaries:In modern terms, Stoke Newington can be roughly defined by the N16 postcode area . Its southern boundary with Dalston is quite ill-defined too...
and is said to have been carved in his own workshop, possibly by his own hand. It is a highly ornamented white marble sarcophagus with moulded cover, lions' feet and rich acanthus decoration to the corners. Many of his station buildings still exist, and are also
listed by
English HeritageEnglish Heritage . is a non-departmental public body of the United Kingdom government with a broad remit of managing the historic built environment of England. It is currently sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
.