Robert Williams (architect)

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Wheatsheaf Hall

Robert Williams (27 January 1848 – 16 October 1918) was a Welsh architect and
social campaigner. Born in South Wales, he studied architecture in London and
established a practice there in 1887. Williams' work showed a Gothic Revival influence
and included public and educational buildings in Wales and London
including Wheatsheaf Hall and Cowbridge Girls School. From 1914 he practiced in
Egypt, constructing Cairo's largest shop for the Davies Bryan Company, as well as a
number of other commercial and public buildings.
Williams was a member of the Independent Labour Party and sat on the executive
committees of the Land Nationalisation Society and the London Reform Union. He was
elected a London County Council councillor in 1901 and advocated for more stringent
housing standards. Williams wrote several books on housing and advocated for internal
toilets at a time when outdoor privies were the norm. His daughter Margaret Travers
Symons was also a social campaigner and suffragette.

Contents

 1Early life
 2Architecture
 3Social campaigning
 4Other interests
 5References

Early life[edit]
Williams was born in Ystradowen, Glamorgan, on 27 January 1848. He was the second
son of carpenter Rees Williams and his wife Mary (née Evans). He was educated at the
Eagle Academy, a private school on Eagle Lane, Cowbridge, before being apprenticed
to a building contractor. In 1873 he went to study architecture and building construction
at the South Kensington School of Art where he won several school prizes and a
national medal.[1]
Williams was married to Margaret Griffiths and the couple had two children, Inigo Rees
(born in Llantrisant in 1876) and Margaret Ann (born in Paddington in 1879). By 1881,
when Williams was living in Coggeshall in Essex, his wife had died. He remarried in
1883 to Elizabeth Ann Kettle, at Braintree.[1]

Architecture[edit]
Williams took an unusual route to entering the profession. Rather than being articled to
an architect's design office he worked on site as a clerk of works for James Piers St
Aubyn and Maurice Bingham Adams. For Adams Williams supervised imrpovements to
the Marquess of Lothian's Blickling Hall. Afterwards Williams worked for Waller, Son &
Wood of Gloucester.[1]
Williams was admitted to the Royal Institute of British Architects as an associate in
1887, allowing him to set up his own practice in London. His principal work was in public
structures and educational institutions. He carried out several commisions in his native
South Wales, including Pontypool Market Hall (1893–94), Cowbridge Girls
School (1895–96) and Pontypool and District Hospital (1903). Works in London include
the Wheatsheaf Hall, Vauxhall (1896) and the People's Hall, West Kensington (1901).
His work shows a Gothic Revival influence, though with an emphasis on amenity. [1]
From 1914 Williams practiced in Cairo, Egypt. He was drawn there by a commission for
the Welsh-owned Davies Bryan Company, a retailer. Williams refurbished one of the
company's shops in Alexandria and built a large shop in Cairo. [1] The Cairo shop, the
largest in the city at that time, was a large structure of red Aberdeen
granite and Somerset Doulting freestone. It had a strong Welsh influence, displaying the
emblem and motto ("Y Gwir yn Erbyn y Byd" Welsh: "Truth against the world") of
the Eisteddfod.[2]
Williams designed several other prominent buildings in Egypt such as the Bible House
in Port Said, the soldiers' home and Marconi Tower in Cairo and banks in Port Said and
Tanta. He wrote Notes on the English Bond, intended as an educational book for local
masons and published in English, French and Arabic. [1]

Social campaigning[edit]
Williams was a fervent socialist and counted Keir Hardie and Frank Smith as friends.
Williams' daughter, Margaret Travers Symons, became Hardie's secretary.
A suffragette she became the first woman to speak in the House of Commons after
bursting into the chamber during a debate.[1]
Williams stood unsuccessfully for a seat as county councillor for Woolwich in the
1898 London County Council election.[3] He was successful in winning a seat at Lambeth
North in the 1901 London County Council election, representing the Progressive Party.
[4]
 As a councillor Williams pressed for the LCC to adopt more stringent housing
standards. Williams was a member of the Independent Labour Party and sat on the
executive committees of the Land Nationalisation Society and the London Reform
Union.[3]
Williams published a series of booklets on the living conditions of the poor and on
building reform. He lamented the poor living conditions of miners, despite the fortunes
made by the mine owners. Williams published a book, The Collier's House or Every
Collier his own Architect, in 1893 (in English and Welsh) containing drawings showing
improved housing for coal miners, particularly in the Welsh valleys. He wrote More Light
and Air for Londoners - the Effect of the New Streets and Buildings Bill on the Health of
the People published in 1894, The Face of the Poor or the Crowding of London's
Labourers in 1897 and The Labourer and His Cottage in 1905. Williams' cottage
designs were unusual for the time in showing internal toilets, at a time when outdoor
privies were the norm.[1]

Other interests[edit]
Williams was also a member of the Cambrian Archaeological Association and drew
sketches of their 1897 investigations in Cardiganshire, that were published
in Archaeologia Cambrensis and The Builder. He campaigned for conservation of
historic buildings, complaining in the local press about unsympathetic modifications and
new-builds.[1]
Williams was widely travelled in Europe, Asia and North Africa. He maintained a
collection of architecture books, that now forms the core of the architecture rare book
collection at Cardiff University.[1]
Williams died on 16 October 1918 in Cairo and is buried in the city's Protestant
Cemetery.[1]