From 1865 to 1868, Houghton is listed in the Post Office London directories as a statuary working from addresses firstly in Albany Street and then Stanhope Street near Regent’s Park. In about 1869 he relocated to 212 Great Portland Street (later adding a second address, 10 Upper Charlton Street) advertising his business firstly as a marble, stone and granite works then, by 1879 – although still available for ‘all monumental work’ – giving priority to the manufacture of marble chimney pieces. His commissions include the architectural sculpture on Archer & Green’s 193 Fleet Street, 1883, and the pedestal for Princess Louise’s statue of Queen Victoria, 1893, Kensington Gardens.
Bibliography: T. Cavanagh, Public Sculpture of Kensington and Chelsea with Westminster South-West, Watford, 2023, pp. 365, 367; Post Office London directories, 1865–1904; P. Ward-Jackson, Public Sculpture of the City of London, Liverpool, 2003, p. 123.
Terry Cavanagh November 2022