James Piers St. Aubyn (1815-95) was articled to Thomas Fulljames (1808-1874) in Gloucester. He was elected to the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1837, on the nominations of George Basevi, Edward Blore and William Railton, and became a Fellow of the Institute in 1856, proposed by Benjamin Ferrey, Giles Gilbert Scott, and F.C. Penrose. He twice served on the Council of the Institute (in 1858-60 and 1870-72). He was Surveyor to the Middle Temple in London from 1851 until 1885, and practised from Lambe Buildings in the Temple for much of his career. From c.1885 onwards, when he seems to have semi-retired, St. Aubyn worked in partnership with Henry John Wadling (d. 1918), who entered his office as a pupil in 1858 and remained as his assistant and managing clerk. St. Aubyn died on 7 May 1895 at Chy-au-Eglos, Marazion (Cornwall), and is buried on St. Michael’s Mount. H.J. Wadling succeeded to his practice, and continued to trade as “St. Aubyn & Wadling”.
St. Aubyn was undoubtedly assisted in developing his career by his family’s prominence in Devon and Cornwall, and particularly in Devonport, where they were the major landowners. He practised chiefly in London and developed a practice which extended all over southern England, but he also kept an office in Devonport for part of his career, and he was employed particularly extensively in Devon and Cornwall. He was primarily a church architect, building a considerable number of new churches and undertaking even more restorations. His church work was firmly in the Gothic revival mainstream of his time, rarely departing from the forms and decoration of the Decorated period, and lacks much originality or flair. His churches at All Saints, Reading and St Mary, Tyndalls Park, Bristol, are notably similar. His restorations often amounted to wholesale or partial rebuilding, and were seen by later generations as unnecessarily brutal; Sir John Betjeman was among St Aubyn’s 20th century detractors.
