W. N. Ashbee

William Neville Ashbee (1852 – 30 April 1919 ) was an English railway architect notable for stations on the Great Eastern Railway, including the London terminus at Liverpool Street Station.

Career

The son of John Ashbee, who was the first stationmaster of the Great Western station at Gloucester, Ashbee was articled as an architect to Alfred Maberley, the Diocesan Surveyor for Gloucester (the place of his birth) and became his assistant in 1872. In 1874 he joined the engineering firm of 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. His major early work after appointment was the elaborate 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 neo Tudor style.

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 and Frinton stations in 1886 and 1888. The brick and gables often featured also on the cottages built close to stations for their staff.

His smaller stations of the 1890s were however plainer in style, although red brick remained a feature, while other stations of this decade, such as Chappel and Buckhurst Hill, were quite different. He returned however to the more elaborate style closely related to the New Essex style for his work in the early 1900s on the Yarmouth–Lowestoft Line and Fairlop Loop.

He became an associate in 1881 and a fellow in 1890 of the Royal Institute of British Architects.

Stations by Ashbee Notable stations Ashbee was responsible for many stations on the Great Eastern Railway, some of which are now listed buildings. His more notable works include:

Personal Ashbee was living at Rose Valley House in Brentwood, Essex at the time of his death in April 1919.