Ipswich-based architect, the nephew of the painter, John Sell Cotman, whose drawings of the late French Gothic of Normandy influenced some of T.W. Cotman’s buildings. He was born in Bermondsey, London, but moved with his family to Ipswich where he set up as an architect in 1869. He designed mostly for Ipswich and Felixstowe, his most important commissions including, for Ipswich, a bank for Bacon, Cobbold, Tollemache & Co (now Lloyd’s Bank) in Tavern Street (1889–90), Commemoration Buildings in Fore Street (1897), the Crown and Anchor Hotel in Westgate Street (1897) and Parr’s Bank (now Ipswich Building Society) in Princes Street (1901); and for Felixstowe, another bank for Bacon, Cobbold (now TSB) in Hamilton Road (1893), the Felix Hotel in Cobbold Road (1900–03) and the White Horse pub in Church Road (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. 162, 171.
Richard Cocke, 2013; revised, Terry Cavanagh, April 2025