William Emerson (British architect)

Sir William Emerson FRIBA (3 December 1843 – 26 December 1924) was a British architect, who was President of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) from 1899 to 1902, and worked extensively in India.[1] He was the original architect chosen to build Liverpool Cathedral.

This article is about the British architect. For the American Shingle Style architect, see William Ralph Emerson. For the American architect and MIT professor, see William Emerson (American architect).
Sir

William Emerson

FRIBA
Born(1843-12-03)3 December 1843
Died6 December 1924(1924-12-06) (aged 81)
Shanklin, Isle of Wight
Alma materKing's College London
Occupationarchitect
Buildings

Early life and education

He was born in 1843 the son of a silk manufacturer in Whitechapel, London, and educated at King's College, London. Around 1861 he was articled to William Gilbee Habershon, who soon thereafter entered into partnership with Alfred Robert Pite. Emerson subsequently became a pupil of William Burges.[2]

Career

Early career
All Saints Cathedral, Allahabad

He went to India in 1864, initially to supervise the building of Bombay school of art in Bombay to Burges’s plan, which in the event was never built. Instead he stayed on to practice architecture in Bombay, returning to London in 1869, where he opened an office in Westminster. He continued however to do his best work in India. His first big commission was for Mumbai's Gothic Crawford Market (1865–71) with a fountain executed by Rudyard Kipling's father, John Lockwood Kipling, who was also responsible for the bas-reliefs on the main entrance.

Stints in Allahabad and Bhavnagar

Thereafter he moved to Allahabad where he designed his most important works, All Saints Cathedral, Allahabad (1869–93) and Muir College (1872-78). He then did two buildings for the princely Bhavnagar State, Nilambag Palace (1894–95) and the Takhatsinhji Hospital (1879–83).

In 1896, he designed the Clarence Memorial Wing St. Mary's Hospital, Paddington, London

Later work and Victoria Memorial

Eventually he designed his most known building, the Victoria Memorial (1905–21) in Calcutta.[3][4]

Victoria Memorial Hall, Calcutta

He was admitted ARIBA on 12 February 1866, his proposers being Burges, Coutts Stone and Henry Edward Kendall; and was elevated to FRIBA on 21 April 1873, his proposers being Stone, Thomas Hayter Lewis and Thomas Roger Smith. He was President of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) from 1899 to 1902, and was knighted in the 1902 Coronation Honours,[5] receiving the accolade from King Edward VII at Buckingham Palace on 24 October that year.[6]

Most of his later work was in India; his most familiar being the design of the marble clad Victoria Memorial Hall in Calcutta (1905 onwards), described as "Britain's answer to the Taj Mahal". Although asked to design a building in the Italian Renaissance style, Emerson was against the exclusive use of European styles and instead incorporated Mughal elements into the structure.

He died in Shanklin, Isle of Wight in 1924.

Personal life

He had married in 1872 Jenny, the daughter of Coutts Stone and sister of fellow architect Percy Stone.

Style
Muir Central College

Emerson was a pioneer of the Indo-Saracenic style, which developed in the 19th and 20th centuries in British India.

List of Buildings

His design for Liverpool cathedral won first prize in the first, abortive competition in 1883.

References
  1. "Emerson, Sir William". Who's Who. Vol. 59. 1907. pp. 557–558.
  2. "Emerson, Sir William (1843-1924)". archiseek. Retrieved 8 January 2011.
  3. "Sir William Emerson (1843-1924)". The Victorian Web. Retrieved 8 January 2011.
  4. Philip Ward (1998). Gujarat–Daman–Diu: A Travel Guide. Orient Blackswan. p. 280. ISBN 8125013830.
  5. "The Coronation Honours". The Times (36804). London. 26 June 1902. p. 5.
  6. "No. 27494". The London Gazette. 11 November 1902. p. 7165.
  7. Muir College The Hindu, June 9, 2006.
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