William Webster (builder)

William Webster (May 1819 - 1 February 1888) was an English builder who worked with architects and engineers such as Gilbert Scott and Joseph Bazalgette and is especially associated with several embankments of the River Thames.^[1]

Born in the small Lincolnshire village of Wyberton in 1819, Webster apprenticed to the Boston builder Mr. Jackson. Immediately following his apprenticeship, Webster became a builder in Wyberton and was initially involved in the refurbishment and renovation of a number of churches in Lincolnshire (working with Sir Gilbert Scott on Algakirk church) and the surrounding counties as well the building of Boston's Exchange Building.

Between 1856 and 1857, Webster was commissioned to build the Cambridge Lunatic Asylum at Fulbourn. Following the completion of this project his next was the building of the Three Counties Asylum, near Hitchin.

Moving to London in 1860, his first projects in the capital included contracts for the Crossness Southern Outfall Sewer,^[2] Abbey Mills Pumping Station and the Western Pumping Station (adjacent to the Grosvenor Canal in Pimlico). He then moved to constructing parts of the Victoria Embankment and the whole of the Albert and Chelsea Embankments (1871)^[3][4] as well as an extension to the embankment around the Houses of Parliament. He was also involved in the Holborn Viaduct railway station^[5] and hotel, and the southern approaches to Tower Bridge.^[6] His company also undertook many other contracts including building Blackheath Halls,^[7] chapels (for example, the Dissenters' Chapel in Hither Green Cemetery)^[8] and other buildings.

Webster died at his residence, Wyberton House (built, probably to his own design, by him),^[9] in Lee, London on 1 February 1888, and was interred at St Margaret's, Lee.

Notable works

• Crossness Pumping Station (1865)
• Albert Embankment (1869)
• Victoria Embankment (1870)
• Chelsea Embankment (1874)
• Blackheath Halls

See also

• Thames Embankment

References

Metropolitan Board of Works
Districts	Fulham (dissolved 1886) Greenwich Hackney (dissolved 1894) Holborn Lee/Plumstead (re-named 1894) Lewisham Limehouse Poplar St Giles St Olave St Saviour's Strand Wandsworth Westminster Whitechapel	Headquarters at Spring Gardens
Incorporated vestries	Original vestries (1855) Battersea Bermondsey Bethnal Green Camberwell Chelsea Clerkenwell Hampstead Islington Kensington Lambeth Mile End Old Town Newington Paddington Rotherhithe St George Hanover Square St George in the East St Luke Middlesex St Martin in the Fields St Marylebone St Pancras Shoreditch Southwark St George the Martyr Westminster St Margaret and St John Westminster St James Woolwich Later vestries Fulham (1886) Hammersmith (1886) Hackney (1894) Plumstead (1894) Stoke Newington (1894)
Undertakings	Metropolitan Buildings Office Metropolitan Commission of Sewers Metropolitan Fire Brigade
Major works	Charing Cross Road Hammersmith Bridge London sewerage system Northumberland Avenue Putney Bridge Southwark Street Shaftesbury Avenue Thames Embankment Waterloo Bridge
Legislation	Royal Commission on the City of London Metropolis Management Act 1855 Local Government Act 1888 London Government Act 1899
People	Francis Fowler Frederick Marrable James McGarel-Hogg John Thwaites Joseph Bazalgette List of Members