Charles Fowler

Education and early work[edit]

Fowler was born at Cullompton, Devon on 17 May 1792, and baptised on 26 December 1800, also at Cullompton. He was educated at Taunton Grammar School^[1] After serving an apprenticeship of seven years with John Powning of Exeter,^[2][3] he moved to London in 1814, and entered the office of David Laing, where he assisted him on the designs for the Custom House.^[2] He then set up his own practice, working from an address in Great Ormond Street, and later, from 1830, at 1, Gordon Square.^[4]


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.".^[2] An important early work was the Court of Bankruptcy in Basinghall Street, completed in 1821.^[2] This was a substantial brick building, raised over a granite basement and stuccoed in imitation of rusticated stonework.^[5] It had a courtyard, two sides of which had open arcades, supported on square granite columns.^[5]


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.^[2]