A London-based architect who, after training with his brother in the Hackney Estates Office, was articled to John Whichcord in 1868 and became a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1885. His best known buildings are probably the Ipswich Museum and Library extension (opened 1881 and 1887 respectively) both with terracotta decorations by Doulton, the former including panels with three-quarter head portraits of Isaac Newton (representing Science) and William Hogarth (Art), and the latter, a panel with a profile head of Queen Victoria. From 1892 to 1913 he was in partnership with his former assistant, Joseph Craddock Perkin (the former London and Counties Bank, Wimbledon, 1895, is theirs). Cheston was the surveyor for the Bethlem Royal Hospital, Southwark, in 1903.
Bibliography: H. Birkin (ed.), Dictionary of Architects of Suffolk Buildings 1800–1914. A Working Document Compiled from a Variety of Sources, Ipswich, 1991; R. Cocke, Public Sculpture of Norfolk and Suffolk, Liverpool, 2013, pp. 171–72, 249.
Richard Cocke, 2013; revised, Terry Cavanagh, April 2025