Charles Fowler - Life

Life

After serving an apprenticeship of seven years with John Powning of Exeter, he went to London in 1814, and entered the office of David Laing, where he assisted him on the designs for the Custom House. He then set up his own practice, working from an address in Great Ormond Street, and then, from 1830, at 1, Gordon Square.

Fowler generally worked in a classical style, often freely interpreted. Thomas Leverton Donaldson described him as "gifted with a practical rather than an imaginative turn of mind." .His first work of importance was the court of bankruptcy in Basinghall Street, finished in 1821.

In 1822 Fowler entered the competition to design the new London Bridge, and won first prize, with a proposal for five-arched bridge. However, the scheme was rejected by a committee of the House of Commons, and the commission awarded to John Rennie. Four years later he rebuilt the bridge across the River Dart at Totnes in his native Devon.

Sometime around 1826, Fowler was commissioned by the Duke of Bedford to construct buildings to house the market in the Piazza at Covent Garden, until then accommodated in sheds and hovels. There as elsewhere he used Haytor granite, partly for its strength and partly out of a desire to encourage a Devon industry. He went on to build Hungerford Market in London, the site of which is now occupied by Charing Cross station. It opened in 1833. Donaldson praised the way in which Fowler exploited the complex, multi-level site, describing the "playful picturesqueness of the group, where court rose above court, galleries above galleries, and where the series of roofs outtopped each other. " In this building, Fowler demonstrated his preference for lightweight construction. He later added an iron roof over the main courtyard. He also designed markets at Gravesend and Tavistock, and the Lower Market at Exeter where. he supervised the construction of the Higher Market, following the death of its designer.

In 1827 he designed and built a Conservatory at Syon House for the Duke of Northumberland. It was an ambitious building, composed of glasshouses of varying width and height, with a total frontage of 230 feet; with a central tropical house is in the form of a Greek cross, with a glass dome 38 feet in diameter.

At Honiton, Devon, he built the church of St Mary (1837-8 ) in what Nikolaus Pevsner described as "the Norman style, or at least with plenty of Norman motifs", using an experimental roof design involving cast-iron ribs. His other ecclesiastical work included a chapel at Kilburn, St. John's Church, Paddington; a church at Charmouth; and the rebuilding and enlargement of the church at Bickleigh, Devon (1838). All except the chapel at Kilburn were in the Gothic style.

In around 1842, after winning a competition, Fowler built the Devon County Lunatic Asylum, designed on a radial plan. He also designed the London Fever Hospital. He entered many architectural competitions, coming third in the contest for the Nelson monument in Trafalgar Square with a proposal submitted jointly with the sculptor R.W. Sievier.

He was architect and surveyor to the Amicable Society, and to the West of England Fire and Life Insurance Office. He was employed by Sir Ralph Lopes, the Bishop of Exeter, and the Courteney family for whom he executed considerable alterations and additions to Powderham Castle.

One of his last buildings, constructed in 1852 was the hall of the Wax Chandlers' Company, of which he was a member, and eventually its Master.

Fowler was a founder-member of the Institute of British Architects, and served as its honorary treasury and later vice-present.. He exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1825 and 1847.

He retired from his profession in 1853, and died at Great Marlow, Bucks, on the 26th of September 1867.

• The conservatory, Syon House

• The conservatory, Syon House

• Covent Garden Market