Edward Lapidge (1779–1860) was an English architect, who held the post of

county surveyor A county surveyor is a public official in the United Kingdom and the United States. United Kingdom Webb & Webb describe the increasing chaos that began to prevail within this same period in field of county surveying in England and Wales, with c ...

of Surrey and designed Kingston Bridge.

Life and career

Edward Lapidge was the eldest son of Samuel Lapidge, the head gardener at

Hampton Court Palace Hampton Court Palace is a Grade I listed royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, southwest and upstream of central London on the River Thames. The building of the palace began in 1514 for Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, the chie ...

and one-time assistant of

Capability Brown Lancelot Brown (born c. 1715–16, baptised 30 August 1716 – 6 February 1783), more commonly known as Capability Brown, was an English gardener and landscape architect, who remains the most famous figure in the history of the English la ...

. The Lapidge family lived in a house called The Grove, which still exists, in Lower Teddington Road. In Surrey Lapidge built

Esher Place Esher Place is a Grade-II listed country house, since 1953 used as a college by the trade union Unite, in Esher, Surrey, United Kingdom. The building is at least the fourth on approximately the same site and mainly dates to the 1890s. It incor ...

, a brick house, stuccoed in imitation of stone, with an Ionic portico on each side, for John Spicer. He showed a view of the garden front of the house at the Royal Academy in 1808. At Norbiton Place he carried out considerable additions and alterations for its owner,

Charles Nicholas Pallmer Charles Nicholas Pallmer (1772 – 30 Sept. 1848) was an English politician, West Indies estate owner and a supporter of slavery. He twice served as a Member of Parliament (MP), with his later career overshadowed by high debts and bankruptcy. ...

, including a dairy in the style of an Indian temple. In 1807 he built Hildersham Hall in Cambridgeshire for Thomas Fassett (formerly of Surbiton Hall, Surrey). He showed a drawing for the house, a stuccoed villa incorporating a former farmhouse in one wing, at the Royal Academy in 1814. In 1811 he was engaged by the Rev. John Kirby of Mayfield, Sussex, to rebuild the vicarage there. Lapidge was appointed surveyor to the

County of Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant ur ...

in 1824. The next year he was given the job of replacing the bridge at Kingston upon Thames, after the Kingston corporation dropped its plan to build a cast iron structure due to a rise in cost of the metal. Lapidge designed a five-arched stone bridge in a Classical style, which was opened in 1828. He designed a number of churches: St John,

Hampton Wick Hampton Wick, formerly a village, is a Thames-side area of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, and is contiguous with Teddington and Kingston upon Thames. It is buffered by Bushy Park, one of the Royal Parks of London from Hampton and ...

(1829–30), St Mary, Hampton (1829–31), and

St Andrew's Church, Ham St Andrew's Church, Ham, is a Grade II listed Church of England church on Church Road, Ham Common in Ham in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Architecture The church was built in grey brick in 1830–31; the architect was Edward Lapi ...

(1830–31) all of brick, in the Gothic style, and St Peter's, Hammersmith in a Greek Ionic style, in brick finished with Bath stone dressings. The ''Gentleman's Magazine'' described St Peter's as "a very fair specimen of modern Grecian architecture", adding that "the tower has considerable merit. The design is novel and pleasing, and the proportions are harmonious. The interior is however chaste and formal, displaying even a presbyterian nakedness". Lapidge himself donated the site of the church at Hampton Wick. As well as these buildings on the west side of London he built St James, Ratcliffe (1837–38), in the East End, in the Early English style, in brick with stone dressings. Further afield he built the church of St John in the park of Doddington Hall, Cheshire (1837). He entered designs for the competitions for a new range of buildings for

King's College, Cambridge King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the city ...

in 1824, in which he came third; for the new Houses of Parliament in 1836; and for the

Fitzwilliam Museum The Fitzwilliam Museum is the art and antiquities museum of the University of Cambridge. It is located on Trumpington Street opposite Fitzwilliam Street in central Cambridge. It was founded in 1816 under the will of Richard FitzWilliam, 7th Vis ...

at Cambridge in 1837, proposing a domed building, ornamented with sculpture. In 1830, he was invited by the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University, William Chafy, to design a new botanic garden for the university. The expense of acquiring the necessary land caused the plan to be shelved, and Lapidge waited for more than ten years for his bill to be paid. The gardens were eventually laid out in the mid-1840s, but not under his supervision. In 1836–37 he made considerable alterations to St. Mary's Church, Putney, repairing the tower and rebuilding the body of the church in yellow brick with stone dressings and Perpendicular windows, and in 1839–40 restored

All Saints' Church All Saints Church, or All Saints' Church or variations on the name may refer to: Albania *All Saints' Church, Himarë Australia * All Saints Church, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory * All Saints Anglican Church, Henley Brook, Western Aust ...

at Fulham. In around 1838-41 he oversaw the construction of the Surrey County Lunatic Asylum (now Springfield Hospital), a grand Tudor-style composition designed by William Moseley (then County Architect for Middlesex) making minor changes to the original design. Lapidge was elected a fellow of the

Royal Institute of British Architects The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three suppl ...

in 1838.

Pupils

George Wightwick George Wightwick (26 August 1802 – 9 July 1872) was a British architect based in Plymouth, and possibly the first architectural journalist. In addition to his architectural practice, he developed his skills and the market for architectural ...

, articled to Lapidge in 1817, later became a leading architect in Plymouth. In 1846 Lapidge paid for the patenting of a new type of suspension bridge, invented by another pupil, Henry Heathcote Russell.

Death

He died on 19 February 1860 at Hampton Wick. He is buried at St Mary's Parish Church, Hampton.

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lapidge, Edward 1779 births 1860 deaths 19th-century English architects Architects from Surrey Fellows of the Royal Institute of British Architects