Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gough, Alexander Dick
GOUGH, ALEXANDER DICK (1804–1871), architect and engineer, was born on 3 Nov. 1804. At the age of nineteen, after some foreign travel, he became a pupil of Benjamin Wyatt, the architect (1823). He was entrusted with the superintendence of several of Wyatt's more important works, including Apsley House and the Duke of York's Column. In 1836 he formed a partnership with his fellow-pupil, R. L. Roumieu, and commenced practice. Between 1837 and 1847 he and his partner exhibited at the Royal Academy fourteen architectural drawings, chiefly of buildings in course of erection by them. In 1837–8 they built the Islington Literary and Scientific Institution in the Grecian style (see a view in Lewis, Hist. of Islington, p. 45); in 1839–40, new schools and teachers' residence for St. Peter's, Islington (see a lithograph published by the architects); in 1842, free church and schools, Paradise Street, St. Pancras (later Tudor); in 1843 additions to St. Peter's Church, Islington (Early English), erected by C. Barry in 1835; in 1841–3, built Milner Square, Islington; in 1847–8, rebuilt Old St. Pancras Church in the Anglo-Norman style. In 1848 the partnership between Gough and Roumieu was dissolved. Gough afterwards rebuilt St. Matthew's Church, Islington (transition from Decorated to Perpendicular), 1850–1; 1853–1855, erected St. Paul's Church, Chatham, Kent (Anglo-Norman); 1853–4, St. Mark's, Tollington Park, N. (Early English); 1854–1855, St. Jude's, Mildmay Park, N. (Transition); 1855–7, St. Philip the Evangelist, Arlington Square (Anglo-Norman) (cf. Builder, 1855, p. 453, and Companion to the Almanack, 1858, pp. 233, 234); 1857–8, St. John's, Tonbridge Wells (Decorated); 1858–1859, St. John's, Marchington Woodlands, Staffordshire (Decorated), and added tower and spire in 1860 (Building News, 9 Sept. 1859); 1858–9, Christ Church, Ore, Sussex (Decorated) (ib. 19 Aug. 1859); 1860–1, St. Mary's, Hornsey Rise; 1861, the Girls' Industrial Schools, Cardington, Bedfordshire; 1861, the Soldiers' Institute, Chatham, Kent (Classical); 1864–5, St. Barnabas's Mission Church, South Kennington (Lombardic); 1865–6, St. John the Evangelist, Hull (Decorated); 1866–7, the nave and aisles of St. Saviour's, Herne Hill Road, Camberwell (Gothic), completed by W. G. Bartleet in 1870; and 1869–70, St. Anne's, Poole's Park (Lombardic), the tower and spire being added by H. Roumieu Gough in 1877. Gough also reconstructed the interiors of St. Mary's, Brampton, Huntingdonshire; St. Nicholas's, Rochester, with parsonage; St. Giles's, Pitchcott, Buckinghamshire; St. Margaret's, Rainham, Kent; built new chancels to St. Thomas's, Winchelsea, Sussex; and All Saints', Hastings. He erected schools for St. Lawrence's Church, Effingham, Surrey, besides executing many private commissions. As an engineer Gough made surveys in 1845, partly on his own account and partly in conjunction with R. L. Roumieu, for the Exeter, Dorchester, and Weymouth Junction Coast railway; for the Direct West-End and Croydon railway; and for the Dover, Deal, Sandwich, and Ramsgate Direct Coast railway. From 1846 to 1848 he was occupied in numerous surveys for compensation claims against the South-Eastern railway, the Great Northern, the London and North-Western, and the Eastern Counties railways. He was a man of great industry, and most precise and methodical in his manner of working. He died on 8 Sept. 1871, aged 67, and was buried in Highgate cemetery. His son, Hugh Roumieu Gough, succeeded to his practice.
[Private information; manuscript notes kindly lent by Hugh Roumieu Gough, esq.; Builder, 1855 p. 41, 1871 p. 749; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Graves's Dict. of Artists; Catalogues of Royal Academy Exhibitions, 1837, 1840–4, 1849; Lewis's Hist. of Islington, pp. 44, 45, 166, 281, 360, 361; Companion to the British Almanack, 1839 p. 231, 1842 p. 228, 1855 p. 217, 1856 p. 205, 1857 p. 235; Civil Engineer, 1845, p. 127.]