William Henry Crossland (

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

, 1835 – London, 14 November 1908), known professionally as W.H. Crossland, was a 19th-century English

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

and a pupil of

George Gilbert Scott Sir George Gilbert Scott (13 July 1811 – 27 March 1878), known as Sir Gilbert Scott, was a prolific English Gothic Revival architect, chiefly associated with the design, building and renovation of churches and cathedrals, although he started ...

. His architectural works included the design of three buildings that are now Grade I listed –

Rochdale Town Hall Rochdale Town Hall is a Victorian-era municipal building in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, England. It is "widely recognised as being one of the finest municipal buildings in the country",. and is recorded in the National Heritage List for Engla ...

Holloway Sanatorium Holloway Sanatorium was an institution for the treatment of those suffering temporary mental illness, situated on of aesthetically landscaped grounds near Virginia Water, Surrey, England, about south-west of Charing Cross. Its largest building ...

and

Royal Holloway College Royal Holloway, University of London (RHUL), formally incorporated as Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, is a public research university and a constituent college of the federal University of London. It has six schools, 21 academic departm ...

Early life and education

Crossland was born in 1835 to a family living in

Huddersfield Huddersfield is a market town in the Kirklees district in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confluence i ...

. Edward Law points out that as "despite extensive searches no record can be found of his baptism" his precise date and place of birth remain unknown.
Law
Part 1
Retrieved 18 February 2021. He was the younger son of Henry Crossland, who is recorded in the

1851 census The United Kingdom Census of 1851 recorded the people residing in every household on the night of Sunday 30 March 1851, and was the second of the UK censuses to include details of household members. However, this census added considerably to the f ...

as being a farmer and quarry owner, and his wife, Ellen (née Wilkinson).Law
Part 1
Retrieved 18 February 2021. He had an elder brother, James, born in 1833.Binns, p. 1. Crossland enrolled at Huddersfield College, where he excelled in writing and drawing.Binns, pp. 3–4. In the early 1850s Crossland became a pupil of George Gilbert Scott at his architectural practice in London. He worked with Scott on the design of the

model village A model village is a type of mostly self-contained community, built from the late 18th century onwards by landowners and business magnates to house their workers. Although the villages are located close to the workplace, they are generally phys ...

Akroydon The Akroydon model housing scheme is a Victorian-era model village at Boothtown, Halifax, in the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale in West Yorkshire, England. It was designed in the Gothic style by George Gilbert Scott in 1859 for the work ...

, near Halifax,

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

, commissioned by the

worsted Worsted ( or ) is a high-quality type of wool yarn, the fabric made from this yarn, and a yarn weight category. The name derives from Worstead, a village in the English county of Norfolk. That village, together with North Walsham and Aylsham ...

manufacturer,

Edward Akroyd Lieutenant Colonel Edward Akroyd (1810–1887), English manufacturer, was born into a textile manufacturing family in 1810, and when he died in 1887, he still owned the family firm. He inherited "James Akroyd & Sons Ltd." from his father in 1 ...

Principal works

Crossland, who was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher educatio ...

in 1867, developed his own architectural practice, with offices in Halifax and

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popul ...

, before moving to London and then, in 1879, opening an office in Egham, Surrey. Binns, p. 168. More than 25 of the buildings he designed are

listed Listed may refer to: * Listed, Bornholm, a fishing village on the Danish island of Bornholm * Listed (MMM program), a television show on MuchMoreMusic * Endangered species in biology * Listed building, in architecture, designation of a historicall ...

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked w ...

. Crossland's three most important commissions, all now Grade I listed, were: *

, which was built 1866–71 and is still in use as a municipal building in

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Bor ...

, now in

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tam ...

, where it functions as the ceremonial headquarters of

Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council Rochdale Borough Council is the local authority of the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale in Greater Manchester, England. It is a metropolitan district council, one of ten in Greater Manchester and one of 36 in the metropolitan counties of England ...

. Architectural historian

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, '' The Buildings of England'' ...

described the building as possessing a "rare picturesque beauty". Its

stained glass Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

windows are credited as "the finest modern examples of their kind". Historic England describe it as "an important early departure from High Victorian heaviness" and say it is "widely recognised as being one of the finest municipal buildings in the country". Following a fire, Crossland's original

clock tower Clock towers are a specific type of structure which house a turret clock and have one or more clock faces on the upper exterior walls. Many clock towers are freestanding structures but they can also adjoin or be located on top of another buildi ...

was replaced in 1887 by a stone clock tower and spire designed by

Alfred Waterhouse Alfred Waterhouse (19 July 1830 – 22 August 1905) was an English architect, particularly associated with the Victorian Gothic Revival architecture, although he designed using other architectural styles as well. He is perhaps best known ...

in the style of

Manchester Town Hall Manchester Town Hall is a Victorian, Neo-gothic municipal building in Manchester, England. It is the ceremonial headquarters of Manchester City Council and houses a number of local government departments. The building faces Albert Square to ...

. *

Virginia Water Virginia Water is a commuter village in the Borough of Runnymede in northern Surrey, England. It is home to the Wentworth Estate and the Wentworth Club. The area has much woodland and occupies a large minority of the Runnymede district. Its n ...

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 ...

, which was built 1873–85. This was a project commissioned by the

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values t ...

and

philanthropist Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private good, focusing on material ...

Thomas Holloway : Thomas Holloway (22 September 180026 December 1883) was an English patent medicine vendor and philanthropist. Early life Holloway was born in Devonport, Plymouth, Devon, the eldest son of Thomas and Mary Holloway (née Chellew), who at the t ...

. Historic England describe it as "the most elaborate and impressive Victorian lunatic asylum in England, because it was the most lavish to be built for private patients... The quality of the external design and the decoration of the principal spaces is exceptional". It is the only example of a Sanatorium to be listed at Grade I. It was restored in 1997–98 and converted to luxury homes as part of a gated residential estate known as Virginia Park. *

Egham Egham ( ) is a university town in the Borough of Runnymede in Surrey, England, approximately west of central London. First settled in the Bronze Age, the town was under the control of Chertsey Abbey for much of the Middle Ages. In 1215, Magna ...

, Surrey, which was built 1879–87. A short distance away from the Sanatorium, it was also commissioned by Thomas Holloway. Now known as Founder's Building, it is the main building of a major college of the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degr ...

; its cafe/bar is named "Crosslands". Crossland's main floor plan for the college is on display in the Royal Holloway College Picture Gallery. The Holloway Sanatorium and Royal Holloway College were inspired by the Cloth Hall of

Ypres Ypres ( , ; nl, Ieper ; vls, Yper; german: Ypern ) is a Belgian city and municipality in the province of West Flanders. Though the Dutch name is the official one, the city's French name is most commonly used in English. The municipality ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...

and the

Château de Chambord The Château de Chambord () in Chambord, Centre-Val de Loire, France, is one of the most recognisable châteaux in the world because of its very distinctive French Renaissance architecture which blends traditional French medieval forms with cla ...

in the Loire Valley, France, respectively and are considered by some to be among the most remarkable buildings in the south of England. File:Rochdale Town Hall Plan.jpg, Crossland's plan of

, published in ''

The Builder ''Building'' is one of the United Kingdom's oldest business-to-business magazines, launched as ''The Builder'' in 1843 by Joseph Aloysius Hansom – architect of Birmingham Town Hall and designer of the Hansom Cab. The journal was renamed ''Bu ...

'' in 1866 File:Rochdale Town Hall, 1874.png, Rochdale Town Hall (1874) with Crossland's original

File:Rochdale Town Hall, 2010.jpg, Rochdale Town Hall with tower as rebuilt (1887) to

's design File:HollowaySan1884front.jpg,

(1884). Wood-engraving in the ''

Illustrated London News ''The Illustrated London News'' appeared first on Saturday 14 May 1842, as the world's first illustrated weekly news magazine. Founded by Herbert Ingram, it appeared weekly until 1971, then less frequently thereafter, and ceased publication i ...

'', 5 January 1884 File:Virginia Park - geograph.org.uk - 134487.jpg, Holloway Sanatorium, now a private residential estate File:Royal Holloway Building.jpg, South Quadrangle, Founder's Building,

Royal Holloway Royal Holloway, University of London (RHUL), formally incorporated as Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, is a public research university and a constituent college of the federal University of London. It has six schools, 21 academic departm ...

University of London,

, Surrey File:Royal Holloway The quad.jpg, North Quadrangle, Founder's Building, Royal Holloway

Other significant works

In her biography of Crossland, published in 2020, Sheila Binns provides the most complete list yet of his architectural commissions, drawing on and supplementing earlier work by John Elliott,Binns, pp. 239–242. itself based on a compilation by Edward Law. Those that are listed by Historic England, many of them in

, are included here.

Berkshire

Greater Manchester

North Yorkshire

South Yorkshire

West Yorkshire

Later life

Crossland's last entry in the RIBA's records was in 1894–95. There is no record of him undertaking any work after 1900, when he ceased to be architectural adviser to Royal Holloway.Binns, p. 232.

Personal and family life

Family vault of William Henry Crossland in Highgate Cemetery

On 1 October 1859, Crossland married Lavinia Cardwell Pigot (who died in

Boulogne Boulogne-sur-Mer (; pcd, Boulonne-su-Mér; nl, Bonen; la, Gesoriacum or ''Bononia''), often called just Boulogne (, ), is a coastal city in Northern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department of Pas-de-Calais. Boulogne lies on the C ...

, France on 17 January 1876). Although other sources claim that Crosswell's wife Lavinia died in 1879, Sheila Binns' research demonstrates that this date cannot be correct. The family plot in Highgate Cemetery (at Grave no. 23287, Square 70) was not bought until 1879 and Binns concludes that she must have been interred temporarily elsewhere.
Binns, p. 159. They had one child – a daughter, Maud, who was born on 10 July 1860 and died on 8 March 1900.Binns, p. 233. Crossland also had an

illegitimate Legitimacy, in traditional Western common law, is the status of a child born to parents who are legally married to each other, and of a child conceived before the parents obtain a legal divorce. Conversely, ''illegitimacy'', also known as '' ...

son, Cecil Henry Crossland Hatt (born 1877), with his second (common-law) wife, (Eliza) Ruth Hatt (née Tilley; 1853–1892). She became a well-known actress, using the stage name Ruth Rutland,Binns, pp. 219–225. and they lived together in a

bungalow A bungalow is a small house or cottage that is either single-story or has a second story built into a sloping roof (usually with dormer windows), and may be surrounded by wide verandas. The first house in England that was classified as a b ...

on the Royal Holloway site, designed by Crossland and built in 1878 as a home for himself and his family while he oversaw Holloway College's construction. Binns, pp. 169–170. Crossland died at 57

Albert Street, Camden Albert Street, London NW1, is a street in Camden Town in the London Borough of Camden, England, near Camden Town station. It includes several listed Grade II listed 19th-century buildings. Some of the houses have had notable former residents a ...

, London on 14 November 1908 following a

stroke A stroke is a disease, medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemorr ...

.Binns, pp. 235–236. His wife Lavinia, his brother James Crossland, his common-law wife Eliza Ruth Hatt, Although there is no evidence that Crossland married Hatt, the inscription on her grave reads "Ruth, wife, companion, friend of W H Crossland...".
Law
Part 3.
Retrieved 18 February 2021. his daughter Maud Lart, his parents-in-law and his stepson Benjamin Tilley Hatt are buried in a family vault at

Highgate Cemetery Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in north London, England. There are approximately 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves across the West and East Cemeteries. Highgate Cemetery is notable both for some of the people buried there as ...

. Although Crossland's will specifically stated that he and his son should be interred there, neither of them is in the family vault.Binns, p. 236. Crossland's place of burial is unknown.Law
Part 3.
Retrieved 18 February 2021. Crossland was survived by his son Cecil (by then known as Cecil Hatt Crossland) and two grand-daughters – Maud and her husband William Lart's daughter Dorothea Maud (born 1881),Binns, p. 173. and Cecil and his wife Lucy's daughter Beryl Joan (born 1905).Binns, p. 234.

Notes

References

Sources

* Binns, Sheila (2020). ''W.H. Crossland: An Architectural Biography''.

The Lutterworth Press The Lutterworth Press, one of the oldest independent British publishing houses, has traded since the late eighteenth century - initially as the Religious Tract Society (RTS). The Lutterworth imprint, named after the small English town of Lutte ...

. 258pp. . *

External links

Crossland's biographer, Sheila Binns, talking about Crossland while giving a tour of what is now the Founder's Building at Royal Holloway, YouTube, 11 September 2020. Retrieved 19 June 2022.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crossland, William Henry 1835 births 1908 deaths 19th-century English architects Architects from Huddersfield Architects from Yorkshire Architects of Anglican churches Architecture firms based in Halifax, Yorkshire Architecture firms based in Leeds Architecture firms based in London Architecture firms based in Surrey Architecture firms of England Buildings and structures in Greater Manchester Buildings and structures in Huddersfield Buildings and structures in South Yorkshire Buildings and structures in Surrey Buildings and structures in West Yorkshire Burials at Highgate Cemetery English ecclesiastical architects Fellows of the Royal Institute of British Architects Gothic Revival architects Gothic Revival architecture in Greater Manchester Gothic Revival architecture in Surrey Gothic Revival architecture in West Yorkshire People associated with Royal Holloway, University of London William Henry Crossland buildings