Rowland Mason Ordish (11 April 1824 – 1886)[ 1] was an English engineer . He is most noted for his design of the Winter Garden, Dublin (1865),[ 2] for his detailed work on the single-span roof of London's St Pancras railway station , undertaken with William Henry Barlow (1868)[ 3] and the Albert Bridge , a crossing of the River Thames in London , completed in 1873.[ 4]
Biography
Family grave of Rowland Mason Ordish in Highgate Cemetery
The roof of St Pancras Station under construction in 1868
Born in Melbourne, Derbyshire , Ordish was the son of a land agent and surveyor. He worked with Charles (later Sir Charles) Fox , who was responsible for the construction of Joseph Paxton 's Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London , in 1851. He subsequently supervised its re-erection in Sydenham , south London.[ 5]
His other projects included:
Farringdon Street Bridge, London[ 5]
Holborn Viaduct , London (1863–69)[ 5]
Derby market hall (1866)[ 6]
Franz Joseph I Suspension Bridge , over the Vltava , Prague (1868, bombed 1941, demolished in 1947)
Cavenagh Bridge , Singapore (1869)[ 7]
Esplanade Mansions , Mumbai , India (1869)[ 8]
dome of Royal Albert Hall , London (1871)[ 9]
He died in 1886 and was buried in a family grave on the western side of Highgate Cemetery .
Bridge design
The Albert Bridge over the River Thames
In 1858 Ordish patented a bridge suspension system, which he later used in the design of bridges across several European rivers that include Neva at St Petersburg . The system, which consists of a rigid girder suspended by inclined straight chains, was known as Ordish's straight-chain suspension system .[ 5]
The Ordish–Lefeuvre Principle is named after him and his partner William Henry Le Feuvre (1832 – 1896) from Jersey (together the pair submitted plans for the department store De Gruchy's in St Helier , Jersey).[ 10]
References
International Artists People