Name

John Walters

Designation
Architect
Born
1782
Place of Birth
London
Location
London
Died
1821

  • Born : 1782
  • Died : 4 October 1821 at Brighton
  • Burial : St Nicholas, Brighton

John Walters, the father of Edward Walters (qv), was educated at the Grammar School at Bishop’s Waltham, Hampshire before serving his articles in the office of Daniel Alexander. Fellow pupils included James Savage, Joseph Woods (author of “Letters of an Architect from Italy” and the architect of the Commercial Sales Rooms, Mincing Lane), Whichcord, Edward I’Anson the elder, Ashpitel the elder(?), and Suter

As was usual at the time, John Walters both resided and carried on his architectural practice at No 11 Fenchurch Buildings. His principal work was the old London Auction Mart, at the corner of Bartholomew Lane and Throgmorton Street commissioned in 1808. The Auction Mart was an imposing structure but was very much disfigured by the subsequent addition of skylights in the roof. It was demolished about 1870 by the Estates Company, to be replaced by the northern portion of the Alliance Bank. John Walters also designed Shadwell Church, with its well-proportioned tower, and St Philip’s Church Stepney, which was built on ground belonging to the London Hospital, of which institution he was surveyor. St Philips was one of the earliest attempts at the revival of Gothic architecture. In 1872 the Builder considered it “a very creditable, although, of course, a very imperfect work viewed by the light of our present knowledge of Gothic art.”  On a smaller scale, he is also credited with the enlargement of the Old Black Lion in Poplar the better to accommodate its customers – ‘lewd and indecent persons’.

He married Ann, the sister of his fellow pupil Edward I’Anson senior. They had one son, Edward, (qv) and a daughter, Annie.  Annie was born in 1806 (?) and died in Paris on 18 March 1890; like her brother she never married.

John Walters died at Brighton on 4 October 1821, at the comparatively early age of 39 years, reportedly as a result of chronic overwork. He was buried in the churchyard of St Nicholas Brighton, although the exact location of his grave is now lost.

Reference : Howard Colvin A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects.