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Thomas Cubitt ( 1788 - 1855 ) was the leading master builder in London in the second quarter of the 19th century, and also carried out several projects in other parts of England. The son of a Norfolk farmer, he journeyed to India as ship's carpenter from which he earned sufficient funds to start his own building firm in Gray's Inn Road , London where he was the first builder to have a 'modern' system of employing all the types of sub-contractors internally, on permanent wages, instead of outsourcing the tradeswork as had been done previously. Cubitt's first major building was the London Institution in Finsbury Circus , built in 1815 . After this he worked primarily on speculative housing at Camden Town , Islington , and especially at Highbury Park , Stoke Newington (now part of Islington). His development of areas of Bloomsbury , including Gordon Square and Tavistock Square , began in 1820 , for a group of landowners including the Duke Of Bedford . He was commissioned in 1824 by Richard Grosvenor , the 2nd Marquess Of Westminster , to create a great swathe of building in Belgravia centred around Belgrave Square and Pimlico , in what was to become his greatest achievement in London. Notable amongst this development are the north and west sides of Eaton Square , which exemplify Cubitt's style of building and design. Cubitt was also responsible for the east front of Buckingham Palace . He also built and personally funded nearly a kilometre of the Thames Embankment . He also was employed in the large development of Kemp Town in Brighton , and Osborne House on the Isle Of Wight , completed in 1851 . Cubitt's public works included work on the provision of public parks, including being an organiser of the Battersea Park Scheme and a guarantor of the Great Exhibition of 1851 , and contributing to the Metropolitan Buildings Act of 1855 . His son by his wife Mary Anne Warner , George , was created Baron Ashcombe in 1892 , the great-grandfather of Camilla Parker Bowles . After his death, Queen Victoria said "In his sphere of life, with the immense business he had in hand, he is a real national loss. A better, kindhearted or more simple, unassuming man never breathed." Cubitt's younger brother Lewis was an architect, and designed many of the houses built by his elder brother. |
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