Ernest Berry Webber, FRIBA[1] (29 April 1896[2] – 19 December 1963)[3] was an English architect, surveyor and town planner best known for his designs of municipal buildings, including those in Southampton in Hampshire, and Dagenham and Hammersmith, both in London.

Webber's work for Harris involved entering the practice into architectural competitions by undertaking urban planning drafts and designs of municipal buildings.

In 1925, aged 29, Webber won a competition to design a new art gallery and museum in Manchester, to be constructed on the site now occupied by Piccadilly Gardens.

After leaving, he became articled to Robert Atkinson, and in 1914 he moved to the office of Vincent Harris, a prolific designer of public buildings.

[8] At the age of 29, he won a competition to design a new art gallery and museum in Manchester, to be constructed on the site now occupied by Piccadilly Gardens.

[9] A reporter for the Lancashire Daily Post listed the win as Webber's "first great success" and the moment when he jumps from "comparative obscurity to a position of high distinction in his profession.

[9] In 1929 Webber won a competition to design the Guildhall Civic Centre in Southampton,[10] which required his relocation to the city as the construction period was to last for 10 years, which he was to oversee.

[10] Pevsner's Hampshire: South describes the guildhall as "the most ambitious civic building erected in the provinces in the interwar years".

Pevsner calls the town hall "an unfortunate building", regretting both the loss of the "picturesque character" of the area which occurred as a result of its construction, and the "ill-judged" extensions of the 1970s.

[31] Webber married Gladys née Bellis Roberts (1896–1984) on 22 November 1922 at St Mary and Holy Trinity Church in Stratford.