[1] Hakewill was a pupil of John Yenn RA, and also studied at the Royal Academy, where in 1790 he was awarded a silver medal for a drawing of an aspect of Somerset House.

In 1809, he was appointed architect to Rugby School, where the gothic buildings and chapel are his designs.

[1] He also did work for the Radcliffe trustees at Oxford and the Middle Temple.Hakewill designed two notable Greek Revival buildings.

Coed Coch, Dolwen, Denbighshire, Wales, a country house with a diagonally-placed portico (now demolished) and stair, was completed in 1804.

From 1815 to 1816, Hakewill was also commissioned by Farnborough Hall to build a new coach-house and remodel the rose garden and path down to the cascade.