Robert William Billings

Robert William Billings (London 25 July 1812 – 14 November 1874 London) was a British architect and author. He trained as a topographical draughtsman, wrote and illustrated many books early in his career, before concentrating on his architectural practice.

Life

Billings was born in the Bayswater area of London in 1812. At the age of thirteen he was apprenticed to the topographical draughtsman John Britton for seven years. In 1837 he illustrated George Godwin's History and Description of St. Paul's Cathedral, and two years later, with Frederick Mackenzie, the two volumes of Godwin's Churches of London. He assisted Sir Jeffry Wyattville on drawings of Windsor Castle, and prepared many views of the ruins of the old Houses of Parliament after the fire. which contained 240 illustrations, with explanatory text. Anderson wrote in the foreword of it being "in the front rank of Architectural publications, and from this position it has yet to be displaced."

His other published works were An Attempt to define the Geometric Proportions of Gothic Architecture, as illustrated by the Cathedrals of Carlisle and Worcester (1840) Illustrations of Geometric Tracery, from the panelling belonging to Carlisle Cathedral 1842; The Infinity of Geometric Design exemplified (1849) and The Power of Form applied to Geometric Tracery (1851). The Attempt to Define the Geometric Proportions of Gothic Architecture has been the subject of scholarly interpretation. A reviewer in The Art Journal explained that Billings had deduced that the architect of Carlisle Cathedral: had been guided by the repetition of a circle whose diameter was the extreme width of the building; that the distribution and even the substance of the columns were settled by some subdivision of the same circle; and lastly, that a circle regulated by the width of the compartments thus formed, was the basis upon which the heights of the various portions of the building were framed.

Eventually, he gave up authorship and devoted himself entirely to his architectural practice. He was employed on the restoration of the chapel of Edinburgh Castle (a government commission); the Douglas Room in Stirling Castle; Gosford House, Haddingtonshire, for the Earl of Wemyss; the restoration of Hanbury Hall, Worcestershire; Crosby-on-Eden Church, Cumberland and Kemble House and Vicarage, Wiltshire.

From 1865 Billings lived at Putney, where he purchased the Moulinère, a house once occupied by the Duchess of Marlborough. He died there 14 November 1874. Illustrations of the architectural antiquities of the County of Durham (first published 1845) The baronial and ecclesiastical antiquities of Scotland (1845–1852) The power of form applied to geometric tracery (1851)