William Hosking

William Hosking FSA FRIBA (26 November 1800 – 2 August 1861) was an English writer, lecturer, and architect 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.

Hosking was born at Buckfastleigh in Devon, the son of a woolen manufacturer. 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. It was here that Hosking's architectural career began for he was apprenticed to a surveyor and builder. This profession continued to interest him when, in 1819, he returned to England to seek further training, becoming articled to a Wesleyan minister-turned-architect, the Rev. William Jenkins.

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. This subsequently led to his exhibiting drawings at the Royal Academy (including "Temple of Concord, Agrigentum" and "Temple of Neptune at Paestum") and provided original material for his first book: A Selection of Architectural and Other Ornaments, Greek, Roman and Italian drawn from the originals in various museums and buildings in Italy, published in 1827. Such scholarship led to his being elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1830. At about this date he was also commissioned by the Encyclopædia Britannica, to contribute the chapters headed "Architecture" and "Building", later to be supplemented with "The Drainage of Towns".

His interest in antiquities—in particular scholarly observation of the architectural details of historic buildings—became reinforced by his membership of the forerunner of the Royal Historical Society, the Camden Society. Indeed, historical accuracy came to characterise Hosking's approach to architecture, as he sought to mix historical elements in appropriate ways. This eye for historical detail was combined with a concern for equally detailed practical improvements in construction techniques (such as fire retardation, damp proofing, and other aspects of what has become known today as a branch of civil engineering known as building control).

By the early 1830s Hosking had a sufficient reputation in the arts and sciences of buildings and construction to secure an appointment with the new Birmingham, Bristol and Thames Junction Railway Company (The West London Railway) to design an impressive scheme for carrying a roadway over the Paddington Arm of the Grand Junction Canal (now the Grand Union Canal); both of which then passed over the new railway. His success in designing this construction was much commented upon and assisted his election, in 1835, to Fellowship of the Institute of British Architects (now the Royal Institute of British Architects, RIBA).

Thereafter, Hosking continued to develop his interest in bridge design, though more academically, and went on to develop related interests in the construction of buildings for fire resistance, avoidance of damp, etc., which led to his being recognised as having competence in both civil engineering and architectural spheres.

In 1839 Hosking was chosen by the newly formed Abney Park Cemetery Company to design the buildings and contribute to the layout of a landscaped park cemetery to serve the metropolis of London in which all parts would be open to the burial of anyone regardless of belief or denomination. The aim of the promoters of Abney Park Cemetery was to open the first wholly non-denominational garden cemetery in Europe.

Hosking's brief was to design the cemetery's buildings to reflect this new liberal departure in burial reform, and to complement the cemetery's historic parkland setting, into which a magnificent arboretum and educational institute were also to be established.