Also known as AUSTIN COOKE, Edwin.
Was born in Maidstone in Kent, England and was educated in London. He was articled to A & WH Lockwood, Adelphi in London for five years from about 1873 to 1878 after which he spent a year in the office of Alfred Waterhouse and various other offices in London and elsewhere. These included those of Sir Banister Fletcher and Saxon Snell. Cooke married in 1880 and left for Tasmania in 1884 where he worked for eleven years as assistant engineer on railway construction and with the Public Works Department in Tasmania from 1885 until 1896. In 1896 he came to the Cape with the intention of going to Johannesburg but 'owing to the Jameson Raid' (Afr Archt Sep 1913:252), stayed in Cape Town. He practised briefly with A DE WITT and then, according to Johnson (1987:366), with one PRESHAW (cf. COOKE & PRESHAW) between 1896 and 1898, entering practice on his own account in 1898. In about June 1898 the council of St Saviour's Church asked him to submit plans for a new chancel but nothing exists in the parish records to show that he did so. In about 1903 he designed a number of houses in Cape Town and although his work appears to have been minor domestic work at this point, he was responsible for the design of a grain store for D Mills & Sons in Longmarket St which had 'the largest span roof in Cape Town' (SAWW 1908; AB&E Sep 1922:1). In 1922 the Cape Institute of Architects made Cooke a special presentation in recognition of his services to the Institute. When he retired in 1936 he was living at Montana Vista in Aliwal Road, Cape Town (once the home of Anthony DE WITT). FK KENDALL credited Cooke with founding the Cape Institute's Year Book circa 1907 (?) (AB&E Jun 1931:10-12). He died in at his home, his wife Margaret Elizabeth having predeceased him, survived by their seven children, five boys and two girls.
MCQS; ISAA 1927. (AB&E Sep 1922:1; Afr Archt Sep 1913:252; Cape Times dir 1933, 1936; SAWW 1908, 1935:39) 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
* Indicates buildings on the Pryce-Lewis list
1-4, Hudson Cottages: 1895/1903. Cape Town, Western Cape - Architect
| 2 Double-Storey Houses and Shops: 1900. District Six, Cape Town, Western Cape - Architect *
| 2 Double-Storey Residences: 1900. Gardens, Cape Town, Western Cape - Architect *
| 2 Double-Storeyed Houses: 1898. Gardens, Cape Town, Western Cape - Architect *
| 2 Shops, Dwelling, Store and Stable: 1902. Cape Town, Western Cape - Architect *
| 2 Single-Storey Cottages: 1899. Tamboerskloof, Cape Town, Western Cape - Architect *
| 24 Napier St: 1903. De Waterkant, Cape Town, Western Cape - Architect
| 3 Single-Storey Cottages: 1897. Tamboerskloof, Cape Town, Western Cape - Architect *
| 3 Single-Storey Cottages: 1901. Bo-Kaap, Cape Town, Western Cape - Architect *
| 3 Single-Storey Houses: 1902. Earls Court Estate, Cape Town, Western Cape - Architect *
| 4 Double-Storey and 4 Single-Storey Dwellings: 1900. Gardens, Cape Town, Western Cape - Architect *
| 4 Double-Storey Houses, one with shop: 1901. Cape Town, Western Cape - Architect *
| 4 Dwelling Houses: 1900. Oranjezicht, Cape Town, Western Cape - Architect *
| 5 Double-Storey Houses: 1902. Central, Cape Town, Western Cape - Architect *
| 5 Shops and 20 Rooms etc.: 1902. Central, Cape Town, Western Cape - Architect *
| 6 Three-Storey Houses and 1 Shop: 1902. Central, Cape Town, Western Cape - Architect *
| Apartments: 1900. District Six, Cape Town, Western Cape - Architect *
| Bakery with 4 Dwellings over: 1902. District Six, Cape Town, Western Cape - Architect *
| Bashew Bros. Soft Drink Factory: 1913. Woodstock, Western Cape - Architect
| Cape Town City Municipal Workshops: 1900. Cape Town, Western Cape - Architect *
| Cottage for J Sherlock: 1900. Tamboerskloof, Cape Town, Western Cape - Architect *
| Cottage Residence for M Kaiser: 1901. District Six, Cape Town, Western Cape - Architect *
| Double-Storey House: 1902. Rosebank, Cape Town, Western Cape - Architect *
| Double-Storeyed House for JH Cartwright: 1902. Gardens, Cape Town, Western Cape - Architect *
| Double-Storeyed Residence for AH Jeffrey: 1902. Oranjezicht, Cape Town, Western Cape - Architect *
| Grain Store for City Flour Milling Company: 1900. Cape Town, Western Cape - Architect *
| House for PJ Momsen: 1900. Tamboerskloof, Cape Town, Western Cape - Architect *
| House FR Jesse: 1902. Oranjezicht, Cape Town, Western Cape - Architect *
| House, Fowl House and boundary wall: 1899. Gardens, Cape Town, Western Cape - Architect *
| Multi-Storey Dwellings: 1902. Cape Town, Western Cape - Architect *
| Palmerston Hotel - Regent's Palace - Hotel Louis Botha: 1890; 1904. Cape Town, Western Cape - Architect 1902, 1904 *
| Pyott's Mill and Bakery: n.d.. Woodstock, Western Cape - Architect
| Residence for E Fitzpatrick: 1902. Oranjezicht, Cape Town, Western Cape - Architect *
| Residence for JE Cornwell: 1898. Gardens, Cape Town, Western Cape - Architect *
| Residence for RG Murray: 1899. Tamboerskloof, Cape Town, Western Cape - Architect *
| Residence for TG Clarke: 1900. Gardens, Cape Town, Western Cape - Architect *
| Shops and 6 Dwellings over: 1901. Cape Town, Western Cape - Architect *
| Shops and Boarding House: 1902. Gardens, Cape Town, Western Cape - Architect *
| Shops and Offices: 1902. Central, Cape Town, Western Cape - Architect *
| Shops and Rooming House: 1902. Green Point, Cape Town, Western Cape - Architect *
| Shops and stables with 3 houses above: 1899. Cape Town, Western Cape - Architect *
| Shops for W Cohen: 1900. Cape Town, Western Cape - Architect *
| Shops, Store, Bakery and Dwellings: 1902. Woodstock, Western Cape - Architect *
| Single-Storey House for SE Roberts: 1902. Gardens, Cape Town, Western Cape - Architect *
| Single-Storey Residence for J Asherson: 1902. Earls Court Estate, Cape Town, Western Cape - Architect *
| Station Hotel: pre 1889 : 1900 : 1901 : 1912. Newlands, Cape Town, Western Cape - Architect 1912 *
| Store: 1902. Cape Town, Western Cape - Architect *
| Swimming Baths: 1900. Zonnebloem, Cape Town, Western Cape - Architect *
| Tenements and Baths: 1899. District Six, Cape Town, Western Cape - Architect *
| Triple-storeyed store: 1902. De Waterkant, Cape Town, Western Cape - Architect *
| Villa for AJ van der Lith: 1899. Welgemoed, Cape Town, Western Cape - Architect *
| Warehouse for Messrs Caporn and Co Ltd: 1902. Cape Town, Western Cape - Architect *
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Books citing COOKE CPIA Committee. 1983. The Buildings of Cape Town 1983 : Phase Two. Volume Three : Catalogue and Classification. Cape Town: Cape Provincial Institute of Architects. pp
| Fransen, Hans. 2004. The old buildings of the Cape. A survey of extant architecture from before c1910 in the area of Cape Town - Calvinia - Colesberg - Uitenhage. Johannesburg & Cape Town: Jonathan Ball Publishers. pp 81
| ISAA. 1927. Register of Members the Institute of South African Architects. Johannesburg: ISAA (Unpublished Record). pp C12c
| Johnson, Brian Andrew. 1987. Domestic architecture at the Cape, 1892-1912 : Herbert Baker, his associates and his contemporaries. Cape Town: Unpublished Thesis UNISA. pp 366
| Langham-Carter, RR. 1979. Nineteenth century architects etc. in the Western Cape. Cape Town: Unpublished MS, UCT Library. pp
| Martin, Desmond. 2007. Walking Long Street. Cape Town: Struik. pp 80
| 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
| Walker, Michael. 2010. A Statement In Stone. Cape Town: Privately published by Michael Walker. pp 14-17
| Walker, Michael. 2015. Old hotels of Cape Town (1890-1911), The : A history long forgotten, seldom told. St James: Published Privately. pp 57, 58
| Walker, Michael & Stuart-Findlay, Derek. 2011. St James, a place of dreams: Bicentenary Edition 1810-2010. St James: Kalk Bay Historical Association. pp 155
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