James Bunstone Bunning

James Bunstone Bunning (6 October 1802 – 2 November 1863) was an English architect. He held the post of architect to the City of London from 1843 until his death, and is probably best remembered for his design for the Coal Exchange.

Life Bunning was born in London on 6 October 1802. He was trained in the office of his father, the surveyor Daniel James Bunning, from the age of thirteen. He was then articled to George Smith. He was a fellow of the Institute of British Architects, and of the Society of Antiquaries. (where he built the workhouse in 1840-2), and, from around 1825, surveyor to the Foundling Hospital estates. He went on to hold the same post with the Haberdashers' Company, the London and County Bank, the Thames Tunnel, the Victoria Life Office and the Chelsea waterworks.

He also won the competition to build the new City of London School on the site of Honey Lane Market in Cheapside. Begun in October 1835, it was a Gothic building more than 180 feet long, accommodating 400 pupils. He also entered the competitions to rebuild the Royal Exchange and the Houses of Parliament. and laid out Nunhead Cemetery (1840) and designed its gates and lodges.

Among the last works he did in private practice, before taking up his appointment with the Corporation of the City of London were the towers and parts of the approaches for Brunel's Hungerford Suspension Bridge. In this role he built the Coal Exchange in Thames Street (1849); the City Prison at Holloway, Billingsgate Market (1853), in red brick and stone, in an Italianate style, with a central campanile; the Freemens' Orphans' Schools in Brixton, also Italianate and in red brick and stone (1852–54), and the Metropolitan Cattle Market in Islington, opened in 1855. He had previously made a design for remodeling the market on its existing site at Smithfield. The central clock tower, in what is now Caledonian Park, and two sets of railings are all that remain following the market’s closure and demolition in the early 1960s.

In 1856, he built two law courts at the Guildhall, and in 1858 began the complete reconstruction of Newgate prison, leaving only George Dance's outer walls intact. In 1858 he built Rogers' almshouses at Brixton and the Pauper Lunatic Asylum at Stone in Kent, both in a "domestic Gothic" style. He also surveyed and planned many road improvements, including the building of New Cannon Street (opened in 1854). His unexecuted projects included one for the widening of London Bridge.

Family In 1826, he married Esther Basan, who was of Italian origin. She survived him and they had no children.

Death Bunning died at his home in Gloucester Terrace, Regent's Park,