1799, 6 March: born Cawthorne village, Yorkshire. Son of master mason on Cannon Hall estate who would take him from school in summer to help him from the age of ten as labourer then stonemason. His elder half-brother Charles gave him valuable lessons in writing and drawing, and mathematical instruments were an important gift. Mason and stone-carver at St George’s church at nearby Barnsley. (source: HC)
c.1820: moved to Ashton-under-Lyne to teach drawing in a school and work as stonemason and sculptor to architect Francis Goodwin on Church Commissioners’ St Peter’s, 1821–24, ‘large and ambitious’ (NP), the first of six Commissioners’ churches he worked on. Also helped rebuild north side of Ashton’s St Michael’s and All Angels, 1821.
Clerk of works for George Basevi at St Thomas’s, Stockport (AH). Church Commissioners’ neo-Grecian church, constructed 1822–25 (NP). Drew plan and elevation for Basevi of corner mansion, Belgrave Square. (BM Library)
Clerk of works for H.E. Kendall, St George’s, Ramsgate (HC), after death of its architect, Henry Helmsley. Constructed 1824–27. Church Commissioners. Extant. (NP)
1825–27: All Saints Church, Cawthorne, Yorkshire (ICBS 00694, Folios 20ff): grant for new south aisle & chancel. Ground plan by TWA, Society of Antiquaries, 1825.
Moved to London 1827 to study architecture, then to practise it. (HC, AH, RIBA)
1829: published Gothic Ornaments selected from the different Cathedrals and Churches in England with 44 plates drawn & lithographed by himself & his half-brother, Charles, with whom then in partnership (HC), having made close study of Gothic detail, particularly in Lincolnshire churches.
1829–30: reconstructed St Margaret of Antioch, Bowers Gifford church, Essex (in partnership with his half-brother Charles). Extant. (ECRO & ICBS, via HC)
1830: Gothic altar tomb in All Saints Church, Cawthorne, in memory of Walter Spencer Stanhope (d.1821), previous squire at Cannon Hall. Exhibited at RA (HG, AG). TWA’s first work (plaque alongside) besides a fine headstone for his stepmother and, later, father; this so impressed the squire’s son, Charles, that he persuaded him to leave the village and seek his fortune, acting as quasi-patron from then on and writing TWA’s (unpublished) life story after his death.
Town house (unidentified). Design for alterations or rebuilding. Two contract drawings, on each: ‘Witness to the signature of the said Thomas Arnoll Davis (s)/T.W. Atkinson/Witness to the signature of the said Richard Deans/Willm Page clerk to/Mr Atkinson 8 Upper Stamford St/1 Sept. 1830’. (RIBA)
1830–42: eight exhibits at London’s Royal Academy (HC). See 1871 catalogue of RIBA Drawings Collection for four drawings for an unidentified house by TWA, dated 1830.
1831: Hough Hill Priory. Contract drawing, signed 15 March (RIBA). Watercolour by TWA in Astley Cheetham Art Collection, Tameside, Metropolitan Borough Council. (NF)
St Nicholas, Lower Tooting. Watercolour by TWA (engraved by C. Rosenberg) in Guildhall Art Gallery, London. Grade II listed from 1955. Extant. (WP)
1831–2: Gothic-style St George’s, Commissioners’ church, Hyde, Cheshire, in partnership with half-brother Charles. Extant. (HC)
1832: Hough Hill Priory, Stalybridge (WP), for David Cheetham, MP (NF). Gothic revival. See 1831.
Drawing of above exh. at RMI (Royal Manchester Institute). (HG)
Ibid., his second work to be exh. at RA (plus St Nicholas, Tooting, see below). 8 Upper Stamford St, London. (AH, HC)
St Nicholas, Lower Tooting, Gothic revival. View exhibited at RA (plus Hough Hill Priory, above) & RMI (AH). Saxon tower of previous church demolished. Extant. (WP)
‘Approved design for district bank at Ashton-under-Lyne exhibited, RMI’. (AH)
Barnby Hall, Cawthorne, view exhibited, RMI. ‘Now erecting for John Spencer Stanhope’, new squire at Cannon Hall. TWA to Winstanley, RMI, 2 Aug. 1832. Extant. (AH)
House designed for John Ashton Esq., entrance front view, at RMI. (AH)
Chapel, two views of, second view ‘now erecting in Wales’, RMI. (AH)
Portland House, TWA architect, view of, RMI (AH), perhaps Portland Place, Ashton-under-Lyne (TLS) for John Samuel Swire, 2nd generation of Swire conglomerate. Not evident on 1848 Ordnance Survey.
Unidentified house, view of garden front, exhibited at RMI (but TWA designed?). (AH)
26 July: TWA from 8 Upper Stamford St, ‘…obliged by your informing me when the drawings are to be sent to the Manchester Exhibition’, to RMI. (MCL, RMI)
3 Aug.: TWA from 8 Upper Stamford St to Royal Manchester Institute to which sent drawings. (MCL, RMI)
1833, 3 Jan.: TWA from 8 Upper Stamford St to RMI: ‘when does my drawing go post exhibition to London?’ (MCL, RMI)
6 Aug.: TWA from 8 Upper Stamford St to Winstanley, secretary (?) RMI. (MCL, RMI)
Twelve drawings sent to RMI for committee’s selection:
- Manchester and Liverpool District Bank, to be erected in Spring Street, Manchester.
- Manchester and Liverpool District Bank, Hanley, ‘now erecting’.
- Proposed design for the Tree Grammar School, Birmingham.
- SW view of design for Proprietary School, Wakefield, Yorks.
- Rectory Home ‘now erecting’ for Rev. F.R. Raines, Milnrow, nr Rochdale.
- Entrance gateway and cottages for Cheetham’s cotton mill, Stalybridge.
- Laurel Cottage, Hither Green, Kent, erected for F. Atkinson.
- Lodges for Charles Hindley, Dukinfield.
- Tomb for Walter Spencer Stanhope, Cawthorne Church.
- Lodge for Daniel (sic) Cheetham, Hough Hill Priory.
- Design for Kirkstall Church, Yorks.
- Lodge for Daniel (sic) Cheetham, Hough Hill Priory.
6 Aug.: TWA from 8 Upper Stamford St to Winstanley: has forwarded two cases of drawings to RMI exhibition. (MCL, RMI)
Manchester & Liverpool District Bank, Hanley, Staffs (HC). Drawing, ‘view of the Bank’, RMI. (AH)
Laurel Cottage, Hither Green, Kent, RMI (see item 7, 6 Aug. 1833, above).
Two designs of lodge for D. Cheetham (Hough Hill Priory), RMI. (AH)
Lodges for C. Hindley, Dukinfield, RMI. Not in Pevsner. (AH)
Proprietary school, Wakefield, Yorks, SW view of design, RMI. Not in Pevsner. (AH)
Tomb to W. Spencer Stanhope, Cawthorne Church, RMI. Exhibited at RA, 1830. Extant. (AH)
Design for Kirkstall Church, Yorks, RMI. (AH)
Church, perspective view of design in English style, RMI. (AH)
Rectory House for the Rev F.R. Raines, Milnrow, Rochdale, RMI. Not in Pevsner. Extant? (AH)
Entrance gateway & cottages for Cheetham’s Cotton Mill, Stalybridge, RMI. (AH)
1834: moved to Manchester 1834 February/March and opened office at 25 Piccadilly (VS citing MG). Began partnership with Alfred Bower Clayton. (VS)
Manchester and Liverpool District Bank, Spring Gardens, astylar Italianate (HC): his principal work in Manchester (RIBA), together with St Luke’s. RMI, 1833
Manchester & Liverpool District Bank, Hanley, Staffs. Demolished.
(HC). ‘Said to have raised the tone of Manchester’s architecture’, The Builder, 31 Aug. 1861. ‘The first initiative of the architectural taste for which … Manchester has since become remarkable.’ Demolished.
1835, Aug.: tenders invited for Bank and Manager’s House, Burslem, Staffordshire, for Commercial Bank of England. TWA, now at Store Street, Manchester, assumed separate commission from Manchester and Liverpool District Bank.
1835–41: St Mary the Virgin Church, Hope under Dinmore, Herefordshire (ICBS 01941 Folios 22ff). Grant for enlargement/gallery. Ground plan (before and after work); gallery (after work). (ICBS, building specs available)
1836: Crescent Terrace at Beulah Spa, Norwood (RIBA). Wrongly attrib. to TWA; John Atkinson, architect, see Colvin 3rd edn (HC), but apparently not built.
Brighton Grove Villas, Wilmslow Road, Rusholme (Prospectus). Architects: TWA and Clayton. Proposal to sell off plots around a lake, but only lodge, gates and two buildings completed. Partnership with Clayton formally dissolved 15 Oct.
Sudeley Castle, Glos., architectural work or merely a view? RMI. (WP)
1836–39: St Luke’s, Cheetham Hill, reputedly TWA’s best building, ‘probably the finest Gothic example’ of a Church Commissioners’ church in Manchester. In fact, built by subscription in fashionable area (WP). Spire and roof (dry rot) removed & redevelopment mooted. Mendelssohn played on fine organ. Grade II listed. Greater Manchester Building Preservation Trust. Shell extant.
1837: Design for altarpiece, St Luke’s, Cheetham Hill, RMI. (HC)
1837–39: Church of St Barnabas, Openshaw. TWA still in Store Street, Manchester. Foundation stone laid 5 June 1837. Opened 31 March 1839. Demolished Nov. 1959. Signed lithograph in William Salt Library, Stafford. (RIBA)
St Luke’s, Cheetham Hill, Manchester, today.
St Luke’s, generally regarded as Thomas’s best architectural project, lost its spire and its roof. It has been saved from demolition, and it is hoped to redevelop it for mixed use.
Lodges at Brighton Grove, Manchester, w/c, RMI (AH). Stone lodge post extant.
Public buildings at Derby, design for, w/c, RMI. (AH)
1838: Bankrupt: according to notice regarding meeting of his creditors, he was ‘superintending the erection of divers houses and other buildings at the time of his bankruptcy’. At some stage in Fleet Prison. Many changes of address at this period, perhaps to escape creditors.
Dwelling house, ‘in old English style’, erected nr Manchester, view of, RMI. (AH)
Roman Catholic Church, Mulberry Street (near Albert Square), Manchester. Architectural competition to rebuild it, won by Richard Lane. Three other entries inc. one by TWA ‘elicited much commendation’, but the scheme was not progressed. (MAS)
Houses at Weaste and Broughton Park, probably for Slater and Bradshaw, tendered.
3 Dec.: TWA and J.G. Irvin from 5 Oxford St: the Architectural Society about to quit their rooms, seek room at RMI for monthly meetings and exhibitions. (MCL, RMI)
1838 (or later?): Markree Castle, Co. Dublin. ‘Rough sketch elevations, poss. of alterations to an existing building’. 1838. (AH)
1839: Proposed observatory, Kersal Moor, Salford. Apparently TWA’s last commission in the Manchester area following bankruptcy (VC), but not built. Drawing by John Edgar Gregan (1813–1855), TWA’s assistant in Manchester till 1840, p. 24 in Jonathan Schofield: Illusion and Change: Manchester. The 1852 view of Manchester from close to intended site, ibid., p. 12, shows too many belching chimneys to be appropriate for an observatory.
1839: No architecture exhibited at RMI but two views of Rome, one of Athens, York Minster, Sweetheart Abbey near Dumfries, & ‘wolf & game’, RMI. (HC)
1830s: St Luke’s Place, Smedley, Manchester: perspective, colour print. RIBA Library Drawing Collection (Ref. No. RIBA 83583) with note: unclear if built or when designed, but known that TWA designed Italianate villas in Manchester area.
1840: St Luke’s Church, exh. RA. Address: ‘Manchester’. (HG)
Monument to Mrs John Wallis to be erected in Blackley Churchyard, sketch, RMI (no further exhibits at RMI). (AH)
Catholic Church, Manchester, exh. RA. Address: ‘Manchester’. (HG)
Tomb. Design in a Gothic style, side & end elevations. Designed: ‘T.W. Atkinson Archt/2 Parliament Street/2 Dec. 1840’. (HG)
J.E. Gregan, TWA’s assistant, leaves. (RIBA)
By 1840: Italianate villas in Manchester neighbourhood (WP) for Messrs Hodgson, Heelis, Slater, Bradshaw & others. (NP)
Houses at Ashton & Stalybridge for Messrs Swire, Lea (or Lees) & Harrison, probably Wm Harrison of West Hill, Stalybridge (HC), now West Hill School (TLS), ‘red-brick-and-stone Gothic’. (B)
1841: Italian-style villas, Cheadle. (HG)
(n.d.): House at Stockport for Mr John Walmsley of Wallnut Cottage, Heaton Norris.
F.T. Bellhouse & Edward Hall in TWA’s office as pupils. (HC)
1842: Palace of Nawaub Nazim at Moorshedabad, designed by Major-General Macleod, but s. & d. T.W. Atkinson 1842. A pair exhibited at RA. Fine model once in Hampton Court Palace (HC?): sold Christie’s 29 Sept. 1979. No further exhibits at RA. (C)
Address: Rutland Cottage, Downshire Hill, Hampstead, London (WP), with son John William (Jack) to whom taught art.
1843 TWA to Hamburg (AS). TWA design for 6 Berg Strasse, Hamburg, signed & dated, another design for ‘Zimmerarbeit’ signed & dated ‘July 1843’. (HC, DNB, S, H)
1844: Competition announced for St Nikolaikirche, Hamburg (WP, HC, AG, C), to replace great medieval church destroyed by fire in 1840s.
TWA’s design (elevation) for new St Nikolaikirche published in Der Freischütz (S, H)
1845: George Gilbert Scott’s design wins competition for new St Nikolaikirche (destroyed in WWII; shell remains). (S, H)
1846: TWA to St Petersburg, apparently abandoning architectural career, unless another architectural competition (?). Begins new career as artist, traveller (& author).
1857: returns to London.
1861, 13 Aug.: TWA dies, Lower Walmer, Kent. (DNB)
‘Atkinson had few pupils’: in Manchester F.T. Bellhouse and Edward Hall, F.S.A., who both moved to London; F.H. Groves, R.B. Critchlow of Southampton, J.E. Gregan (see above), a Mr Cuffley and J.W. Hance, founder and secretary in 1836 of an Architectural Society of Manchester, were all somehow connected with him. The Builder, 31 Aug. 1861, p. 590; TWA obituary.
| Sources | ||
| AG | Algernon Graves, comp. A Dictionary of Artists who have exhibited works in the principal London exhibitions of oil [sic] paintings from 1760 to 1880 | |
| AH | Arnold Hyde, compiler of biographical files, Manchester City Art Galleries | |
| AS | Allgemeines Sauer, Künstler-Lexicon, Vol. 5 (compilation of all entries of all countries) | |
| B | The Builder, 31 Aug. 1861 | |
| C | Christie’s sale catalogue | |
| ECRO | Essex C.R.O. D/P 387/6/1 | |
| HG | H. Graves, Royal Academy of Arts. A Complete Dictionary of Contributors and Their Work from its Foundation in 1769 to 1904, London, 1905 | |
| HC | H. Colvin, Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, 1000–1840, 2nd, 3rd and 4th edns | |
| ICBS | I.C.B.S. plan in Society of Antiquaries’ Library | |
| LG | London Gazette | |
| MAS | Report of Manchester Architectural Society Conversazione in Manchester Guardian, 18 July 1838, p. 2 | |
| MCAG | Manchester City Art Galleries. Typescript biog. of A.B. Clayton, rec’d 19/2/99 | |
| MCL, RMI | Manchester Central Library, TWA letters to Royal Manchester Institute | |
| NF | Nick Fielding, South to the Great Steppe, 2015 | |
| NP | Nikolaus Pevsner, The Buildings of England series: | |
| Cheshire, 1971 | ||
| Kent: North-East & East (John Newman, ed.), 3rd edn, 1983 | ||
| South Lancashire (Lancashire 1, The Industrial and Commercial South), 1969 | ||
| (no ref to TWA or CA in Yorkshire volumes) | ||
| RIBA | Catalogue of the Drawings Collection of the Royal Institute of British Architects, London 1968 | |
| RMI | Royal Manchester Institute. Signifies TWA exhibited at RMI, according to AH. TWA letters to RMI submitting works for exhibition | |
| CS | Cecil Stewart, The Stones of Manchester, London, 1956 | |
| JS | Jonathan Schofield, Illusion & Change: Manchester: Dreams of the city & the places we have lost, n.d. See ‘The amazing Mr Atkinson’, pp. 20–25, ‘plan after plan for Manchester all to no avail’, p. 21 | |
| TLS | Tameside Local Studies Library | |
| VS | Victorian Society: Architects of Greater Manchester 1800–1940, Neil Darlington notes, 13 Feb. 2018. Dates etc from contemporary sources | |
| W | Wikipedia | |
| WP | Wyatt Papworth, Dictionary of Architecture, Architectural Publications Society, 1892 |
Another view of the half-demolished St Luke’s, Cheetham Hill, Manchester