William Wigginton

Wigginton was born at Eton on 22 August 1826, the son of W.L. Wigginton.[1] He worked an architect in Derby[2] and Dudley[3][4] before moving to London in 1860,[5] where he ran his practice from in Cornhill in the City.[6] He was the Derby agent of the British Fire and Life Assurance Company.[7] He became an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1854 and a Fellow in 1857.[8]

He was the author of Sanitary Reform: Model Town Dwellings for the Industrious Classes (1850)[9] and a 36-page pamphlet entitled The Late Archidiaconal Visitation of Bromsgrove and the Injustice and Illegality of Visitation Fees.[10] A two volume work called England's Operative Home was announced in 1851.[3] His plans for houses for the working classes, as exhibited at a bookseller's in Derby in 1850, envisaged a block built around three sides of a quadrangle, with three storeys, each accommodating fifteen families. The dwellings were designed to be entirely fireproof, and ventilated by a system of Wigginton's own invention. Access to the upper floors was to be via two stone staircases, leading to open balconies which were carried around the quadrangle at each level.[11]

He was one of six candidates shortlisted for the post of architect and surveyor to the London School Board in 1871. The post went to E.R. Robson.[12]

Wigginton was a freemason, and a member of the Volunteer Corps,[1] receiving a commission as Lieutenant-Colonel of the 1st Tower Hamlets Artillery, which he resigned on 29 October 1873.[13] He died at his home, Buckhurst, Forest Hill, on 8 January 1890 and was buried in the family vault at Dudley.[1]

• Chapels at Smethwick Cemetery (1857).[14]
• New Model Dwellings, Block Lane, Dudley (1854).[15]
• Rose Hill Schools, Dudley, for the New Connection Methodist Church (1859).[16]
• Drinking fountain, Oswestry (1862).[17][18]
• Design for the Wedgwood Institute, Burslem (unbuilt), shown at the International Exhibition in South Kensington, 1862.[19]
• St. Paul, Virginia Row, Bethnal Green (1863–64). Stock brick building, with bands of red and black, seating 900. Chancel, aisled nave, north-east tower. Damaged by bombing during the Second World War and demolished in 1951.[20]
• St James' Church, Hampton Hill (1863–64). Yellow stock brick Gothic Revival building with red brick and stone dressing. Enlarged by Wigginton himself in 1878–9.[21][22] The tower was added by Romaine Walker and Tanner in 1888.[21]
• All Saints, Leyton (1864).[23]
• Plans for a church school at Cressing, Essex (1865).[6]
• St. Paul, Old Charlton (1865–67))[22] Damaged during the Second World War and later demolished.[24]
• St Barnabas, Grove Road, Bow (1865). Built as a Baptist chapel but consecrated for the Church of England in 1870. Gothic, built in yellow brick, banded with red and black. Damaged during the Second World War; the steeple was later removed and the church rebuilt, retaining the tower and north and south walls.[20]
• St Mary's National Schools, Walthamstow (1866).[25]
• Dutch Church Almshouses, Charlton (1868).[26]
• St. John the Baptist, Cleveland Road and Downham Road, Islington (1871–72). A brick and stone church, in an early Decorated Gothic style. Aisled nave and chancel, with a semi-octagonal apse; designed to accommodate more than 700.[27] Damaged during the Second World War, declared redundant in 1971 and demolished by 1981.[28]
• Christ Church, Rendlesham Road, Clapton (1871). A brick building with stone dressings in the Decorated Gothic style, seating around 700; chancel, north and south chapels, aisled nave with clerestories, bellcote; interior of variegated brickwork. Demolished following bomb damage during the Second World War.[29]
• Christ Church, Gore Road, South Hackney (1871). A brick building with stone dressings in the Decorated Gothic style, seating 850; apsidal chancel, aisled nave with clerestories. Demolished following bomb damage during the Second World War.[29]
• Warehouse for Cohen, Jacobs & Co, Ely Place, Holborn, London (1872)[30]
• St. Mary's vicarage, Hinckley, Leicestershire (1872–73).[31]
• Holy Trinity, Hatford, Berkshire (1873–74).[32]