Gimson spent a lot of time sketching as a young man. Part of his training to be an architect was to go and observe older buildings for himself. Young architects would be set tasks of measuring up and drawing parts of old buildings to learn how they were planned and constructed. Gimson was fortunate. He was able to travel both around Britain and in France and Italy. He wasn’t just interested in buildings, but in everything inside them – textiles, furniture, metalwork – anything that caught his eye. He also spent a lot of time studying nature, and made both decorative and scientific sketches of plants.
The Wilson holds eight of Gimson’s sketchbooks and a number of other sketches. Most date from the 1880s and early 1890s, but the Wilson holds one later sketchbook which is full of Gimson’s rough sketches of ideas for furniture, metalwork and architectural designs.
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Sketch of the floor of the choir in Canterbury Cathedral, 1888.
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Houses in Bridgenorth, Shropshire, 1887.
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Rubbings of rabbits from the monumental brass of Bishop Wyvill of Salisbury, about 1375.
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Sketches from Gimson's travels in Italy, 1887, showing details from the Baptistry in Florence, and Siena Cathedral.
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Gimson went again to Italy in 1889, this time travelling to Venice and its surrounding area, where he sketched this cross in the museum at Torcello.
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Most of his sketchbooks date from his early years as a student architect, and show his observation. In this later sketchbook you can see him working through his inspiration in rough ideas and sketches, in this instance, of candle sconces.
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