WHITE, William

Architect

Responsible for some architectural work in South Africa, was a London-born architect who trained in the offices of Mr Squirrell in Leamington. On completion of articles he worked in London in the office of Giles Gilbert Scott, becoming friendly with GE Street and GF Bodley. In 1844 he opened practice on his own account in Truro, Cornwall, but returned to London in 1852. A keen ecclesiastical architect, he was a member of the Professional Committee of Incorporated Societies for Building and Enlarging Churches and served on the RIBA Council in 1865/ 1866, was President of the Architectural Association (1868-1869) and wrote several articles for 'The Ecclesiologist'; he designed the (Anglican?) Cathedral of Madagascar (n.d.). His link with South Africa was through his brother Henry Master White, principal of the newly founded school at 'Woodlands' (the Diocesan College - Bishop's) at Rondebosch in the Cape, who enlisted his brother's skills to design the first formal school buildings on the site. The buildings, based on those of Radley College in England, were begun in 1852 and form part of the Founders' Quadrangle. He was also apparently responsible for the first plans of the Anglican Cathedral in Pretoria in about 1857. In 1880 White added a chancel and side chapels to St Paul's Anglican church in Rondebosch.

(White was apparently the nephew of Gilbert White of Selbourne.)

FRIBA 1859; FSA. (Eastlake (date?):291-94; RIBA Jnl Feb 10 1900:145-46)

See also Wikipedia.

All truncated references not fully cited in 'References' are those of Joanna Walker's original text and cited in full in the 'Bibliography' entry of the Lexicon.

List of projects

With photographs
With notes

Anglican Cathedral, designs for: 1857. Tshwane (Pretoria), Gauteng - Architect

Bishops Diocesan College: 1853. Rondebosch, Cape Town, Western Cape - Architect

St Paul's Church - Second: 1849 : 1854 : 1880. Rondebosch, Cape Town, Western Cape - Architect *

St Philip's Anglican Church: 1860. Fingo Village, Makhanda (Grahamstown), Eastern Cape - Architect

Books citing WHITE

Brown, SM. 1969. Architects and others: an annotated list of people of South African interest appearing in the RIBA Journal 1880-1925. Johannesburg: Unpublished dissertation, University of the Witwatersrand. pp

Greig, Doreen. 1971. A Guide to Architecture in South Africa. Cape Town: Howard Timmins. pp

Greig, Doreen. 1970. Herbert Baker in South Africa. Cape Town: PURNELL. pp

McIntyre, Donald G. 1950. The Diocesan College, Rondebosch, South Africa: a century at Bishop's. Cape Town: Juta. pp

Radford, D. 1979. The architecture of the Western Cape, 1838-1901. A study of the impact of Victorian aesthetics and technology on South African architecture. Johannesburg: Unpublished Ph.D thesis. Dept of Arch. University of the Witwatersrand. pp