Architect born in Cradley, Worcestershire. After his apprenticeship with the Liverpool architects A. and G. Williams (begun 1839) he set up on his own, and in 1843 was involved in Joseph Paxton’s development of Princes Park. Then, in 1844, Paxton selected him to assist with the design and erection of the buildings in Birkenhead Park. But Paxton approved Hornblower’s designs for the Grand Entrance only after he had made considerable alterations to his assistant’s work. The arch was completed in 1847 and in the same year Hornblower established his own practice in Birkenhead. Six years later he moved to Liverpool. In c.1858 he designed an Italianate shop in Church Street for Elkington’s, the art metalworkers and electroplaters, and in 1867, with the Parisian landscape gardener, Edouard André, he won the competition for the layout of Sefton Park, although soaring costs meant that very few of the buildings he designed for it were erected. He died, aged 56, on 20 November 1879, at his home, 24 Clifton Park, Birkenhead.
Ancestry website source: England & Wales, National Probate Calendar … for Lewis Hornblower, 1882.
Bibliography: E. Morris and E. Roberts, Public Sculpture of Cheshire and Merseyside, Liverpool, 2012, pp. 22–23; J. Sharples, Liverpool (Pevsner Architectural Guides), New Haven and London, 2004, pp. 22, 24, 175, 281–82; C.E. Thornton, The People’s Garden: A History of Birkenhead Park, Birkenhead, n.d., pp. 23–24.
Emma Roberts, 2012; revised, Terry Cavanagh, October 2025
