John Alfred Gotch honoured with memorial as Kettering’s prominent architect and architectural historian

Commemorated by Kettering’s Mayor, James Burton and Kettering’s Civic Society,

John Alfred Gotch, who died in 1942 aged 89, received a blue heritage plaque on Kettering’s High Street to honour the architect and architectural historian’s work.

Having attended Kettering Grammar School, he later studied at the University of Zürich and at King’s College London. Gotch was president of the Architectural Association in 1886, vice-president of the RIBA from 1914–1919, and president of RIBA from 1923–1925.

As well as designing many buildings, particularly for the Midland Bank, Gotch had a special interest in Elizabethan and Jacobean architecture. Gotch is author of nine books on the subject, giving prominent authority to such matter as well as having edited a book on the history of the Royal Institute of British Architects.

Image: © Kettering Civic Society