Editing Giles Gilbert Scott (section)

===1930s===
In 1930 the [[London Power Company]] engaged Scott as consulting architect for its new electricity generating station at [[Battersea]]. The building was designed by the company's chief engineer, [[Leonard Pearce]], and Scott's role was to enhance the external appearance of the massive architecture.{{#tag:ref|Scott was at pains to emphasise the limits of his contribution to the building and to ensure that due credit was given to Pearce and to the architectural practice Halliday and Agate which was responsible for the interior.<ref>Scott, Giles Gilbert. "Battersea Power Station", ''[[The Times]]'', 15 January 1934, p. 8</ref>|group= n}} He opted for external brickwork, put some detailing on the sheer walls, and remodelled the four corner chimneys so that they resembled classical columns.<ref name="dnb"/> [[Battersea Power Station]], opened in 1933 but disused since 1982, remains one of the most conspicuous industrial buildings in London. At the time of its opening, ''[[The Observer]]'', though expressing some reservations about details of Scott's work, called it "one of the finest sights in London".{{#tag:ref|The paper's architecture correspondent complained that the four chimneys looked like minarets – "though very beautiful minarets".<ref>"A Cathedral of Mechanism: The Battersea Power Station", ''[[The Observer]]'', 23 April 1933, p. 13</ref>|group= n}} In a poll organised by ''[[Architectural Review|The Architectural Review]]'' in 1939 to find what lay people thought were Britain's best modern buildings, Battersea Power Station was in second place, behind the [[Peter Jones (department store)|Peter Jones]] building.<ref>"Our Best Buildings: A Poll of Laymen", 
''[[The Guardian|The Manchester Guardian]]'', 9 June 1939, p. 12</ref>

[[File:Main UL building.jpg|thumb|[[Cambridge University Library]], opened in 1934]]
In [[Cambridge]], next to Clare College's Memorial Court, Scott designed the enormous [[Cambridge University Library|library]] for the entire [[University of Cambridge]]. He placed two six-storey courtyards in parallel with a twelve-storey tower in the centre, and linked the windows vertically to the bookstacks. The main reading room measured nearly {{convert|200|ft|m}} by {{convert|41|ft|m}} and {{convert|31|ft|m}} high, lit by 25 round-headed clerestory windows on each side.<ref name="timescam">"New Cambridge Library", ''The Times'', 22 October 1934, p. 15</ref> At the time of its opening in 1934, ''[[The Times]]'' commented that the building displayed "the same enjoyment of modelling in mass which is Sir Giles Scott's chief personal contribution to contemporary architecture."<ref name="timescam"/>

Scott was elected president of the [[Royal Institute of British Architects]] for 1933, its centenary year (having already been awarded the RIBA's prestigious [[Royal Gold Medal]] in 1925).<ref>"R.I.B.A. Gold Medal", ''The Times'', 23 June 1925, p. 18</ref> In his presidential address he urged colleagues to adopt what he called "a middle line": to combine the best of tradition with a fresh modern approach, to eschew dogma, and recognise "the influence of surroundings on the choice of materials and the technique of their use. … My plea is for a frank and common-sense acceptance of those features and materials which are practical and beautiful, regardless as to whether they conform with the formula of either the modern or the traditional school."<ref>"Modern Ideas in Architecture", ''The Times'', 21 June 1935, p. 14</ref>

From 1937 to 1940, Scott worked on the [[New Bodleian Library]], in Broad Street in Oxford. It is not generally considered his finest work. Needing to provide storage for millions of books without building higher than the surrounding structures, he devised a construction going deep into the earth, behind two elevations no higher than those around them.<ref name="archive"/> His biographer A S G Butler commented, "In an attempt to be polite to these – which vary from late Gothic to Victorian Tudor – Scott produced a not very impressive neo-Jacobean design".<ref name="archive"/> A later biographer, [[Gavin Stamp]], praises the considerable technical achievement of keeping the building low in scale by building underground, but agrees that aesthetically the building is not among Scott's most successful.<ref name="dnb"/> [[Nikolaus Pevsner]] dismisses it as "neither one thing nor the other".<ref>Pevsner, p. 253</ref>