Thomas Rickman was an English architect and architectural antiquary who was a major figure in the Gothic Revival.
13 Facts About Thomas Rickman
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Thomas Rickman is particularly remembered for his Attempt to Discriminate the Styles of English Architecture, which established the basic chronological classification and terminology that are still in widespread use for the different styles of English medieval ecclesiastical architecture.
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Thomas Rickman avoided the medical career envisaged for him by his father, a grocer and druggist, and instead went into business for himself.
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Thomas Rickman married his first cousin Lucy Rickman in 1804, a marriage that estranged him from the Quakers.
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Thomas Rickman was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1829.
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When in the Church Building Act 1818 a large grant of money was set by the government to build new "Waterloo churches", Thomas Rickman sent in a design of his own which was successful in an open competition; thus he was fairly launched upon the profession of an architect, for which his natural gifts strongly fitted him.
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Thomas Rickman then moved to Birmingham where he designed the St George's Church for the city.
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Thomas Rickman built churches at Hampton Lucy, Ombersley, and Stretton-on-Dunsmore, St George's at Birmingham, St Philip's, St Mary the Virgin and St Matthew's in Bristol, two in Carlisle, St Peter's and St Paul's at Preston, St David's in Glasgow, Grey Friars at Coventry, St Michael's Church, Aigburth and many others.
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Thomas Rickman designed New Court of St John's College, Cambridge, a palace for the bishop of Carlisle, and several large country houses.
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Thomas Rickman attracted a large share of the Church Building Commission's patronage in the new churches built in the West Midlands pursuant to the Church Building Act of 1818.
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Thomas Rickman remained in this practice until Hutchinson's death in 1831.
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Thomas Rickman was buried in the churchyard of the church he had designed: St George's Church.
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Thomas Rickman's tomb, designed by R C Hussey and completed in 1845, still stands, although the church does not.