BENTLEY, JOHN FRANCIS (1839-1902), English archi tect, was born at Doncaster, Jan. 3o, 1839, and died at Clapham, London, March 2, 1902. He began as an engineer, passing after a short time into a builder's office and then went as pupil to Henry Clutton, an architect whose practice was largely ecclesiastical and influenced by the French Gothic school. Bentley refused the partnership offered by Clutton and went into practice on his own account in 1862. His earliest important undertaking was the enlargement and decorative treatment of St. Francis church, Notting Hill, London, followed by other ecclesiastical work in London and the country, in which he showed an increasing tend ency towards a more English form of Gothic design. The semi nary of St. Thomas, at Hammersmith, London (now the Sacred Heart convent) , is noteworthy for the beauty of its treatment and carefully conceived plan, and was followed by St. John's school at Beaumont, one of the best examples of his work based on English Renaissance of the I7th century. Holy Rood church, at Watford, built in 1892, is an excellent example of Bentley's skill in adapting mediaeval ideals to the circumstances of our times.
In his 56th year Bentley was appointed by Cardinal Vaughan as the architect of the proposed Roman Catholic cathedral in Westminster, London. The Byzantine style was chosen, Bentley equipped himself for dealing with the problem by studying his subject in Italy and Constantinople, and spent several months in Rome and northern Italy in 1894. From a series of sketch plans, prepared on his return, was evolved that for the cathedral as now built. In the beginning it was intended that the whole of the inside surface should be clothed with marble and mosaic. There was, however, much difficulty in arriving at a comprehensive pictorial scheme for the treatment of the vast building. Bentley himself prepared a very thoughtful and complete proposal, of which only a small part is embodied in the mosaics already executed.
In May, 1898, he visited the United States to prepare plans for the proposed cathedral at Brooklyn; the designs, in which he reverted to Gothic, were left incomplete at his death, which took place on the eve of his being presented with the gold medal of the Royal Institute of British Architects. Besides his architectural works, Bentley's talent in designing for the subsidiary arts found scope in numerous commissions for stained glass, furniture, metal work, embroidery and the like.