W. N. Ashbee: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

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==Career==

[[File:Norwich Thorpe (6371284241).jpg|280px|thumb|upright|left|Norwich Station]]

The son of John Ashbee, who was the first stationmaster of the Great Western station at [[Gloucester railway station|Gloucester]]<ref>{{cite journal |journal=Cheltenham Chronicle |date=10 May 1919 |page=4 |access-date=20 December 2020}}</ref>, Ashbee was [[articled clerk|articled]] as an architect to Alfred Maberley, the Diocesan Surveyor for [[Gloucester]] (the place of his birth)<ref>{{cite web |url=http://search.findmypast.co.uk/results/world-records/england-and-wales-births-1837-2006?firstname=william&lastname=ashbee&eventyear=1852&eventyear_offset=0 |title=William Neville Ashbee |author=<!--Not stated--> |website=Find My Past |publisher=Find My Past |access-date=10 March 2019 }}</ref> and became his assistant in 1872. In 1874 he joined the engineering firm of [[Edward Wilson (engineer)|Edward Wilson & Co]] working on the construction of [[Liverpool Street Station]] and, while with the firm, designed most of the new [[Great Eastern Railway]] stations built in that period, working with John Wilson as engineer. In 1882 he was promoted to Head of the Architects' Department. In 1883 Wilson resigned from the firm to join the GER as chief engineer and Ashbee followed him.<ref name="Kay"/> as the head of the architectural department of the GER from 1883, a position he held until 1916.<ref name ="Burmann & Stratton">[https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ISQBAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA178&lpg=PA178&dq=W+N+ASHBEE&source=bl&ots=-Hv2lbA4TG&sig=IjzmDV4EOUM-Za5hQHy76OUBuQ0&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CDYQ6AEwBjgKahUKEwidlpSpyNPHAhWBgg0KHf0RCL0#v=onepage&q=W%20N%20ASHBEE&f=false Conserving the Railway Heritage], p178, eds Peter Burmann & Michael Stratton, accessed 31 August 2015</ref> His major early work after appointment was the elaborate [[Norwich railway station|Norwich Thorpe]] station, built in 1884–6 in a "Free Renaissance" style. He later worked with John Wilson as the architect for the 1894 expansion of [[Liverpool Street Station]], built in [[Tudor Revival architecture|neo Tudor style]].<ref name="Burmann & Stratton"/> When Liverpool Street was rebuilt in the 1980s, the quality of the original brickwork and detailing, said to be of a higher standard than characterised by Wilson's work, was praised.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wolmar |first1=Christian |title=Cathedrals of Steam |date=2020 |publisher=Atlantic Books |location=London |isbn=978-1-78649-920-2 |page=208 |edition=First |access-date=5 January 2021}}</ref>

Following his appointment to the GER in 1883 Ashbee started to adopt the "Domestic Revival" style of architecture which had been used by the [[London, Brighton and South Coast Railway]] on its new lines in Sussex in the early 1880s. His earliest work in this style was the Up Side at [[Ingatestone railway station]] in 1884/5, followed by [[Wivenhoe railway station|Wivenhoe]] and [[Frinton railway station|Frinton]] stations in 1886 and 1888.<ref name="Kay"/>