Architect. Son of Benjamin Lewis Vulliamy, clockmaker to the king, and nephew of the architect, Lewis Vulliamy, his immediate male antecedents over several generations had been clockmakers of Swiss origin. He was educated at Westminster School (1826–33), and was then articled to Joseph Bramah & Sons, engineers. In July 1836 he entered the office of Sir Charles Barry. In 1841 he set out on extensive travels through France, Italy, Greece, Asia Minor and Egypt, his drawings in Italy forming the basis for illustrations to Henry Gally Knight’s Ecclesiastical Architecture of Italy (1842–44). He returned to England in 1843 and resumed his practice as an architect, assisting his uncle during work on Dorchester House. In March 1861, he was elected superintending architect to the Metropolitan Board of Works (MBW), a post which he occupied until ill-health forced him to resign in 1886. Perhaps his most visible works for the MBW are his ‘dolphin’ design lamp standards, erected along London’s Victoria and Albert Embankments from 1870, and the sphinxes and architectural setting for Cleopatra’s Needle at Adelphi Steps, Victoria Embankment (erected 1878). He was a fellow and member of the council of the Royal Institute of British Architects.
Bibliography: T. Cavanagh, Public Sculpture of Kensington and Chelsea with Westminster South-West, Watford, 2023, pp. xxxv, 19, 449; T. Cavanagh, Public Sculpture of South London, Liverpool, 2007, p. 22; Illustrated London News, 19 March 1870, pp. 303, 304 (Vulliamy’s design for Thames Embankment lamp standards – with engraved illus.); R. Smith, ‘Vulliamy family (per. c. 1730–1886)’, ODNB (online edn), (2004), 2015; P. Ward-Jackson, Public Sculpture of the City of London, Liverpool, 2003, pp. 418, 419, 426; P. Ward-Jackson, Public Sculpture of Historic Westminster. Volume 1, Liverpool, 2011, pp. 316, 320, 325.
Philip Ward-Jackson, 2011; revised, Terry Cavanagh, January 2025
