Gilbert Blount archive

Correspondence between Blount and his father concerning his career, J. Charlier (Clerk to the company) concerning business and Brunel concerning his resignation. The letters date from December 1840 to October 1842 and show Blount's career progress and give insight into his work. Personal Notebooks/Diaries covering 1842-July 1843 & 1847-1849. Various notes and excerpts from material and guides pertaining to Blount's profession. Also included are transcripts of letters.

Gilbert Blount was an English Catholic architect born in 1819 and active from about 1840-70. He received his earliest training as a civil engineer under Isambard Kingdom Brunel (c.1825-28) for whom he worked as a superintendent of the Thames Tunnel works. After a period in the office of Sydney Smirke, Blount was appointed as architect to Cardinal Wiseman, the Catholic Archbishop of Westminster.

Blount's mature work coincided with the resurgence of Catholic church building in England. His activity as an architect was largely in service of the need for new churches and related ecclesiastical institutions.

Numbered files.

Available to researchers, by appointment. Please email: special.collections@brunel.ac.uk , giving at least two working days notice.

Further details about access to our collections are available on our website.

Access to archive material is subject to preservation requirements and must also conform to the restrictions of the Data Protection Act and any other appropriate legislation.

The collection was given to Brunel University Library by Michael May, the grandson of Gilbert Blount, in 1976

There is a finding aid available on the Special Collection's webpage .

Collection arranged and described by Tom Elliott-Aston, with additions by Katie Flanagan.

At the discretion of the Special Collections Librarian.

The collection is complete and further accruals are unlikely.

The Architectural Archives at the University of Pennsylvania hold material related to Gilbert Blount's later career as a church architect.