John Johnson the Architect, Coade and Shire Hall, Chelmsford, Essex.
The relationship between John Johnson, John Bacon I and Coade needs further reassessment but an excellent first stop is - John Johnson : 1732-1814 : Georgian architect and county surveyor of Essex by Nancy Briggs, Pub. 1991. Available on line.
John Johnson (22 April 1732 – 17 August 1814) was an English architect and Surveyor to the county of Essex. He is probably best known for designing the Shire Hall, Chelmsford which opened in 1791 (see below).
Johnson was born in Leicester. He moved to London before his thirtieth birthday and in the late 1760s was engaged by William Berners in speculative building of Berners' estate in Marylebone.
In 1775 Johnson patented an oil-based composition for covering and ornamenting houses, claiming to have improved on John Liardet's patent stucco, which had been developed commercially in association with the Adam brothers. In the resulting case of Liardet v. Johnson (1778) judgment was twice given for the plaintiff.
He designed the Shire Hall at Chelmsford in Essex in 1788 which has three Coade stone reliefs on the front and he was also responsible for the design and use the three reliefs on the Crown Court at Lewes.
After the collapse of the nave of St Mary's Church,
Chelmsford (now the cathedral), in January 1800, Johnson was responsible for a
major restoration, reconstructing the fifteenth-century columns in Coade stone.
The City Rooms at Leicester his home town has two Coade Artificial Stone Statues by Rossi.
https://woolverstone.org/heritage-trail/woolverstone-hall/
see also https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/sites/bartlett/files/chapter30_the_berners_estate.pdf
For most of the rest of his life Johnson lived in houses that he had built first at 32 Berners Street (formerly Charles St.) and at 27 Berners St from 1786 - 92.
In 1782 he succeeded William Hillyer as Surveyor to the County of Essex, a position that he held for thirty years, retiring at the age of 80.
According to J. T. Smith these ‘very extensive premises’ at 17 Newman Street were bought for John Bacon as a favour by John Johnson without promise of repayment. They included an octagonal modelling room and a large ‘marble yard’ extending behind his neighbours at Nos 18 and 19, reached via Newman Passage. When he died in 1799 the business passed to his son John Bacon junior, who negotiated a new long lease and in 1808 entered into partnership with Charles Manning (d. 1812) and then Manning’s brother Samuel, becoming essentially a sleeping partner in the business. Since his death in 1833 JT Smith has recieved much bad press but in my experience most of his information has been reliable.
For Bacon and Johnson in Nollekens and his Times JT Smith. Vol. II avaiable at
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=yale.39002003174944&seq=7
Vol. I also availabe - https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=gri.ark:/13960/t41r9q28n&seq=9
Highly recommended.
In 1785 he became a partner with Sir Herbert Mackworth and others in Dorsett and Co, a bank in Bond Street, but Mackworth left before 1792, the bank failed in 1797 and was wound up in 1803.
After this, Johnson moved from Berners Street to Camden Town, and on his retirement in 1812 returned to Leicester, where he died.
He was buried alongside his parents in St Martin's Church (now Leicester Cathedral) where he is commemorated on the base of a monument by John Bacon I, originally erected in 1786 as a memorial to his parents (poor quality image below).
For more on Johnson and his relationship with the Berners, The Berners London estate and John Bacon I see -
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/sites/bartlett/files/chapter30_the_berners_estate.pdf
The Chelmsford Naiad, or water nymph, is manufactured from Coade Artificial Stone. The Naiad fountain was designed by John Johnson as a fountain head to stand outside the Shire Hall, over the town's water source.
It is visible to the left of the Shire Hall in the painting by Philip Reinagle of 1794 (see below) at Chelmsford Museum.
She was unveiled in 1791, leaning on a pillar, on a pedestal decorated with four dolphins. The pillar on which she stood was five-foot high.
In 1814 the Naiad was replaced by the dome shaped conduit which now stands in Tower Gardens. The statue of Judge Tindal now stands on the spot outside the Shire Hall.
The Naiad was 'lost' for many years. Reputed to hve been sold at auction for £2. In 1963, she was found at Springfield Villa where she was being used a garden ornament.
The mutilated statue was given to the Chelmsford Society with a chipped nose, and her right arm, left hand and her shield missing.
The Chelmsford Society gave her to the Chelmsford Borough Council who placed her on display in the Chelmsford and Essex Museum in Oaklands Park. In 1980, she was returned to the Shire Hall where she stood in the foyer.
The figures of Mercy, Wisdom and Justice on the facade of the Shire Hall, and the Stone Bridge over the River Can are also constructed from Coade Stone. These are reputed to have been by John Bacon but it is worth speculating whether the three reliefs and the Naiad came from a design by Johnson.
A notable feature is Johnson's use of Coade stone for the Can (Stone Bridge) the balusters and the plaques in the spandrels (the areas either side of the
lower arch).
The Chelmsford Coade Naiad.
Height 183 cms.
One should be thankful for small mercies - a truly awful image of the Naiad from the Artuk webite.
https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/naiad-250941
This appears to be a special order and is not closely related to other female statues in the 1784 Catalogue.
The pose is similar to No 34 in the Coade Catalogue (image below)
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Chelmsford Shire Hall.
Designed by John Johnson opened in 1791.
With the Coade Artificial Stone Reliefs of Mercy, Wisdom and Justice.
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Images below from the Stone Edge Consrvation website.
https://www.secl.co.uk/projects/shire-hall/
The Interior of the Shire Hall.
The two statues are probably the Coade Vestales by John Bacon I.
but they were much reproduced in plaster.
.........
They say Plaster but this will need to be confirmed.
There are very few confirmed statues in plaster from the Coade Manufactory although we know that they produced them.
Height of Statue 129 x W 44 x D 44 cm; Plinth: H 45 x W 48 x D 48 cm.
https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/vestal-virgin-252738
1784 Coade Catalogue
Image from the Bibliotheque Nationale copy.
No 34 (page 4) - one of a set of four - (see Catalogue entry below).
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The Pair of Vestals.
John Bacon I.
They say plaster but this will need to be confirmed.
Height of Statue 129 x W 44 x D 44 cm; Plinth: H 45 x W 48 x D 48 cm
Originally holding two light Lustres.
These are the most common of the Coade Vestals and were reproduced in Coade Stone and Plaster.
Plaster versions were produced into the middle of the 19th century in various sizes and are frequently found plumbed for gas.
Images from artuk website.
https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/vestal-virgin-252729
https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/vestal-virgin-252730
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After the collapse of the nave of St Mary's Church, Chelmsford (now the cathedral), in January 1800, Johnson was responsible for a major restoration, reconstructing the fifteenth-century columns in Coade stone.
County Hall, Lewes, was erected to an almost identical
design between 1808 and 1812.
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The images below from the not entirely reliable Artuk website.
Which states that they are of Portland Stone despite the very obvious Coade indent.
COADE LONDON 1790.
https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/shire-hall-reliefs-339122
Beyond the market hall at the back of the ground floor Nisi
Prius and Crown Courts, and a retiring room for judges. A grand staircase lit
by a glazed dome led out of the market hall up to the grand jury room and the
‘county room’ or ballroom, which took up the whole of the front of the first
floor. There was also a small waiting room for witnesses and an office for the
Clerk of the Peace and his records.
Chimneypiece Tablet by Rossi,
The Panel Representing Terpsichore Playing the Lyre, Attended by
Pegasus.
H 21.5 x W 40.5 x
Fred Spalding’s earliest surviving view of the lower end of
Chelmsford High Street, with Shire Hall visible in the distance, taken in the
late 1860s on a glass plate using the wet collodion process. Taking a
photograph outdoors using this process was extremely challenging. (D/F
269/1/3715).
Image below courtesy Essex Records Office.
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The Coade Artificial Stone Reliefs on the Crown Court, Lewes.
Here John Johnson uses the same reliefs adapted from those at Chelmsford.
Images from -
https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/crown-court-figures-275122
Law is indented COADE SEALY 1808.
His father was John Johnson. b. 1708, son of John Johnson. Carpenter and
joiner of Leicester. m. Frances (b. 1707; d. at St Martin, Leicester, 19th
October 1776, bur. there at St Martin’s Cathedral), nee Knights. He d. at St
Martin, Leicester, 25th January 1780 (bur. there at St Martin’s Cathedral),
having had issue, two sons and two daughters:
1) John Johnson. b. at Southgate Street, Leicester, 22nd
April 1732. Architect. Settled in London before 1760. Surveyor of the County of
Essex 1782-1812. Partner Mackworth Bank 1785-1803. Founder and Principal
Trustee of the Consanguinitarium, St Martin, Leicester. Designer and builder of
Berners Street (St Marylebone), The Jockey Club (Newmarket), Shire Hall
(Chelmsford), the County Rooms (Leicester), Wimbledon Church, and a number of
country seats in Essex, the Midlands, Devon and Glamorgan. He d. at the Consanguinitarium,
St Martin, Leicester, 17th August 1814 (bur. there at St Martin’s Cathedral),
having had three sons:
a) John Johnson, the younger. b. at London, 1761 (eldest
son). Architect and surveyor. He d.s.p. 26th February 1813 (bur. Finchley
Church), worked with his father
b) The Rev Charles Johnson. b. at London, 1769. Chaplain to
King George IV when Prince of Wales, Vicar of Brent and Berrow, Rector of South
Stoke 1792-1816, and Prebendary of White Lackington in the Cathedral Church of
Wells 1816-1841. Principal Trustee of the Consanguinitarium, St Martin,
Leicester
