William Haywood
William Haywood (1821(?)-1894).
1894 Obituary [1]
WILLIAM HAYWOOD, who died on the 13th of April, 1894, at his house in Hamilton Terrace, Maida Vale, was not one of those originators in constructive mechanics whose novel achievements have been so fruitful of social changes and developments in the present century. He was, however, a master of the science of civil engineering, who by working on ascertained principles carried out improvements in something like half the streets and places in the City of London, at an expenditure of some millions of money, and in doing so produced at least one work which will hand him down to posterity as one of the improvers of the British capital.
In a letter written to the Lord Mayor, only eight days before his death, Haywood spoke with mingled pride and modesty of the Holborn Viaduct as a work 'which, small as it may be, is an historic work'; and no fair critic of the high-level way over the Holborn Valley will suggest that in these words the architect and engineer exaggerated the importance of his greatest achievement. The elder son of Mr. William Haywood of Camberwell,....
.... 1845, when the appointment of Assistant Engineer to the Commissioners of Sewers for the city of London was offered to him, the young architect was too desirous of the security and other advantages of a sure income in quarterly payments to decline the post. In 1846 he became the Commissioners’ Chief Engineer, with a salary which rose gradually to the maximum of £2,400. That the number and diversity of the duties devolving on the holder of this important office may be realised, it should be understood that, besides being charged with the task of contriving the sewers and other subterranean passages of the city, the engineer-in-chief was required to design and execute countless works above ground, such as the better paving and lighting of the city, and all the details of multifarious provisions for health and comfort in homes and offices and for the convenience of passengers through the public ways.
In 1851 Haywood, in conjunction with the late Mr. Frank Forster, then Engineer to the Metropolitan Commissioners of Sewers, proposed a scheme for diverting the sewage from the northern side of the Thames. In 1853 he designed and laid out the City of London Cemetery at Ilford. In 1854, in conjunction with the late Sir Joseph Bazalgette, he prepared designs for an extension of the earlier scheme for diverting the sewage from the northern side of the river which was eventually executed by the Metropolitan Board of Works. In 1861 he built the offices and court room of the Commissioners of Sewers. From 1863 to 1870 he was carrying out his designs for the Holborn Viaduct, which ....[more]
1894 Obituary [2]