William Hosking

William Hosking FSA FRIBA (26 November 1800 – 2 August 1861) was an English writer, lecturer, and architect[1] who had an important influence on the growth and development of London in Victorian times.

He became the first Professor of Architecture at King's College London, and associated this discipline in a scholarly fashion with interests in town planning, civil engineering, history and antiquities.

In 1809 he emigrated with his parents to New South Wales (which joined the federation of Australia in 1901), where his father, whose business interests in Devon had been doing poorly, had accepted a government office.

In the early 1820s Hosking completed his articles and travelled in southern Europe, including Italy; primarily to study art and architecture with Jenkins's son John.

A landscape vaguely akin to rather simplified version of John Loudon's "gardenesque" style emerged around the perimeter, with the larger part of the estate remaining naturalistic and partially sylvan, possibly echoing the Rural Cemetery ideal emerging in America insofar as this was practicable in a country where landscape was no longer relatively unaffected by human activity.

Collison increasingly came to the view that Hosking's layout and architectural styles should meet a brief of being symbolic of the cemetery's founding ideals; to reflect the fact that here was to be the first nineteenth-century garden cemetery to be neither consecrated, nor set out by Act of Parliament, giving it both a non-denominational character and also permitting inclusion of spaces and designs for wider educational and public access purposes.

Hosking's buildings must also respect the landscape, for here, unlike other cemeteries of its period, use of the land for interment was partly viewed as a convenient means to achieve other common purposes; all of the original founders were Congregationalists who shared an underlying motivation to preserve and encourage interest and appreciation in the landscape of Abney Park that "spoke to them" of the memory of Isaac Watts and Lady Mary Abney.

To realise the visionary Abney Park project, Hosking was commissioned to design an Egyptian revival entrance ensemble comprising carefully studied temple lodges (with twin north and south components) with dramatic pylons, gates and railings in between.

This was to become the earliest example in European architecture of a cemetery building (as opposed to monuments or gates) being designed and built in "Egyptian revival" style.

His proposal was the Metropolitan Sepulchre, a brick and granite pyramid taller than St. Paul's Cathedral containing nearly a quarter of a million catacombs, on nearly a hundred levels, surmounting Primrose Hill, complete with a public observatory at the top!

Hosking's skills did not just shine through in his careful planning and detailing of Egyptian-revival temple lodges and frontage; he was also commissioned to design a similarly unique and impressive cemetery chapel.

Hosking served on the Council of the Institute of British Architects 1842-3 while contributing to the standard work of the period: The Theory, Practice and Architecture of Bridges of Stone, Iron, Timber, and Wire; with examples on the principle of suspension, 1843.

At about the same time as contributing to the epic bridge book, Hosking and medievalist antiquarian John Britton were commissioned by the Vestry of Bristol to report on the fabric of a much-admired thirteenth-century church, St. Mary Redcliffe.

Its replacement, in a very modern style (the New Trinity Congregational Church) formed part of the "Exhibition of Live Architecture" for the Festival of Britain, 1951, at the Lansbury Estate development.

Report of the Commissioners of Her Majesty's Woods, Forests, Land Revenues, Works and Buildings, enclosing the Report of the Surveying Officers appointed to make Preliminary Inquiries, 1847; evidence for enlarging the Markets and providing new Markets, and for the Regulation of the Markets and Fairs within the Borough of Sunderland, and for the general Improvement of the said Borough; and For Paving, Lighting, Sewering, supplying with Water and improving the Borough of Sunderland, and for vesting the Management thereof and of the Markets and Bridge in the Mayor, Aldermen and Burgesses ..." "Report of the Commissioners of Her Majesty's Woods, Forests, Land Revenues, Works and Buildings, enclosing the Report of the Surveying Officers appointed to make Preliminary Inquiries, 1847; evidence relating to a proposed 'Act for building a Bridge across the River Ouse, in the City of York .. and for widening, altering and improving certain Streets or Thoroughfares within the said City, and for other Purposes'".

A Royal Commission was appointed in 1848 to look into the whole question, and various schemes to convert the open inner courtyard into exhibition space were submitted during 1849, including one by Hosking for a circular gallery modeled on the Pantheon in Rome.

It was therefore a great surprise when he learnt that the museum was indeed commissioning a building for the quadrangle - with the dome, circular plan and other features that had distinguished his proposal - but did not envisage crediting him for the competition idea.

Somewhat piqued, Hosking set out his concerns in a book: Some observations upon the recent addition of the Reading-room to the British Museum; with plans, sections and other illustrative documents (London: Stanford, 1858) that aimed to put the record straight from his perspective.

Hosking, thinking no doubt of the less personality-driven approach that could have been achieved by the earlier "open" competition, was left with his own reflections on the matter: from his perspective there was much to do to raise the standard of conduct of public life in London institutions.

In his latter days, with a University Professorship and scholarly disposition, a flourishing reputation as an author, an authority on bridge design, a small but distinguished portfolio of church and cemetery design, and appointments as a professional expert for official inquiries into town planning improvements and building standards, Hosking was one of the referees for the Office of Metropolitan Buildings overlooking the Thames in central London at 6 Adelphi Terrace, Charing Cross.