William Tite

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William Tite (February 1798 – 20 April 1873) was an English architect who served as President of the Royal Institute of British Architects. He was particularly associated with various London buildings, with railway stations and cemetery projects.

The son of a Russian merchant, Tite was born in London in February 1798. From 1817 to 1820 he assisted David Laing in rebuilding the church of St Dunstan-in-the-East in the City of London, and in compiling its history. Between 1827 and 1828 he built the Scottish church at Regent Square in St Pancras, London, for Edward Irving, and ten years later collaborated with Charles Robert Cockerell in designing the London & Westminster Bank building in Lothbury, also in the City.

However, the rebuilding of the Royal Exchange, opened in 1844, was Tite's greatest undertaking.

He also designed many of the early railway stations in England, including:

• The termini of the London and South Western Railway at Vauxhall (Nine Elms) and Southampton;
• The termini of the London and Blackwall Railway at Minories and Blackwall (1840)
• Carnforth station, and the Citadel station at Carlisle (1847–1848)
• The majority of the stations on the Caledonian and Scottish Central railways, including Edinburgh (1847–1848)
• Chiswick railway station (1849)
• Windsor (1850)
• Stations between Yeovil and Exeter, including Axminster

Overseas, the railway stations on the line from Le Havre to Paris in France are also his work.

Between 1853 and 1854, for the London Necropolis Company, with Sydney Smirke he landscaped Brookwood Cemetery near Woking in Surrey (maintaining his associations with railways, this cemetery was served by a dedicated line from London Necropolis railway station, next to Waterloo station, in central London). He also planned the layout of West Norwood Cemetery (and was later laid to rest in its catacombs).

Between 1858 and 1859 he built a memorial church in the Byzantine style at Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire.

Tite's active work ceased about twenty years before his death (in recognition of his contributions, however, he was awarded the RIBA Royal Gold Medal in 1856).

In 1851 he visited Italy after a grave illness. In 1854 he contested Barnstaple unsuccessfully as a Liberal, but in the following year was returned as Member of Parliament for Bath, which he represented until his death. He keenly opposed Sir George Gilbert Scott's proposal to build the new Foreign and Commonwealth Office and other government buildings adjacent to HM Treasury in Whitehall in the Gothic style. In 1869 he was knighted, and in 1870 was made a Companion of the Bath. Tite had a wide knowledge of English literature and was a good linguist; he was an active citizen and a lover of old books.

He died on 20 April 1873. Tite Street, which runs north-west from London's Chelsea Embankment, is named after him. Tite was a member of the Metropolitan Board of Works, largely responsible for the construction of Chelsea Embankment.

[edit] References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.