John Raphael Rodrigues Brandon (5 April 1817 in London – 8 October 1877 at his chambers at 17 Clement's Inn, Strand, London) was a British Gothic Revival architect and architectural writer, much of whose work was done in collaboration with his brother Joshua, until the latter's death in 1847.

Life

Training

Raphael Brandon was the second child of the six children of Joshua de Isaac Moses Rodrigues Brandon and his wife, Sarah. He studied with an architect named Dédeau in Alençon, France, before being apprenticed to Joseph T. Parkinson in 1836. After his apprenticeship he set up in practice with his younger brother Joshua Arthur Rodrigues Brandon at Beaufort Buildings in the Strand, London. Following Joshua's early death in 1847, Raphael Brandon went into partnership with Robert Ritchie. This partnership was formally dissolved on 10 October 1856.

Publications

Both Raphael and Joshua Brandon were keen adherents of the Neo Gothic style and they jointly produced a series of three works on Early English ecclesiastical architecture that became and remained architectural pattern books for the whole 19th century: "serves the one useful and necessary purpose of showing practically and constructively what the builders of the middle ages really did with the materials they had at hand, and how all those materials, whatever they were, were made to harmonise."

Buildings

In the 1840s, Raphael and Joshua designed several stations and engine-houses in the style of medieval manor houses on the London and Croydon Railway, disguising chimneys as early Gothic church bell-towers. Raphael's exhibited designs at the Royal Academy between 1838 and 1874 included a design for Colchester Town Hall (1843, in his and John Blore's name – built in 1845) and in 1853, together with Robert Ritchie, a design for the interior of the Church of Christ the King, Bloomsbury for the Catholic Apostolic Church. Although the Brandons were best known for their expertise in the Gothic Style, the Colchester Town Hall, the nearby Corn Exchange and The Royal Kent Dispensary building (by Brandon & Ritchie; later part of Miller General Hospital) in Greenwich High Road are all in the Classical style. Raphael was architect of the restoration of St Martin's Church, Leicester (now Leicester Cathedral.) This included the building of the tower (completed in 1862) and spire (1867). The work on this was in the correct Early English style, although his work elsewhere in the church was in the perpendicular style. The tower and spire, described by Pevsner as "intentionally impressive" are loosely based on those of the Church of St Mary the Virgin, Ketton in Rutland. Among the many churches Brandon built independently were the small church of St Peter's in Great Windmill Street, London, and Holy Trinity Church, Knightsbridge (1861), both of which have since been demolished. He also built, altered, and restored many other churches. They include: However, even Brandon becoming a fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1860 failed to bring him the same success as an active architect as he had had as an author and this, the early death of his brother Joshua, and the death of his wife and child, all drove him to suicide by shooting himself in the head. Thomas Hardy, who worked briefly for Brandon, based his description of Henry Knight's chambers in his novel A Pair of Blue Eyes on his office at Clement's Inn. Brandon also employed James Rawson Carroll, architect of the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital, Dublin, Ireland. Paying tribute to Brandon shortly after his death, Charles Barry said "...the most important work which he executed, and the one which brought him chiefly into notice as an ecclesiastical architect, was the Catholic Apostolic Church in Gordon Square. Of this remarkable building, which still remains uncompleted, it has frequently been said that it is a composition including many features more or less directly copied from old examples. But we must remember that it was begun at a period when the study of Gothic architecture was still immature, and when in the interest of our art it was better to copy correctly than to design with an originality which might not bear the test of criticism."

Sources