BELL, John (Lt-Col Sir)

Surveyor General

BELL was sent to the Cape of Good Hope as Deputy Quartermaster-General in 1821 and served as Chief Secretary to the Colony's government from 1828. At that time his nephew Charles Davidson BELL held the post of Surveyor-General in the Cape Colony.

According to Lewcock's evidence, it was BELL who supplied his own design for St George's Church in Cape Town, an adaptation of the neo-Grecian church of St Pancras in London (designed 1819-1822 by W & H Inwood).

Radford (1979:180 ill 37) states that BELL was the designer of the 1841 Gothic Revival church on Robben Island. Although the exterior of this church has buttresses, coarse finials and battlemented tower, RADFORD points out that there is not a single pointed arch in the building; he suggests that the choice of Gothic Revival reflects the directive of the church commission, outlined in the 1818 Act of Parliament, on the building of new churches in England. These churches became known as commissioners' churches.

[For further biographical information see Wikipedia].

(Lewcock 1963; Radford 1979)

All truncated references not fully cited in 'References' are those of Joanna Walker's original text and cited in full in the 'Bibliography' entry of the Lexicon.

List of projects

With photographs
With notes

Garrison Church: 1841 : 2000. Robben Island, Western Cape - Designer

St George's Church/ Cathedral: 1830-6. Cape Town, Western Cape - Designer

References

Lewcock, Ronald. 1963. Early Nineteenth Century Architecture in South Africa : a study of the interaction of two cultures, 1795-1837. Cape Town: AA Balkema. pp 264, 266, 283, 292, 433