Nicholas Wilcox Cundy (1778 – c. 1837) was an English architect and engineer. He was the son of Peter Cundy and Thomasine Wilcox and the brother of

Thomas Cundy (senior) Thomas Cundy, the elder (1765 – 28 December 1825) was an English architect. Surveyor to the Grosvenor family's London estates from 1821, he was involved in the initial stages of the development of Belgravia and Bloomsbury, and also designed cou ...

. His parents' address was Restowick House,

St Dennis, Cornwall St Dennis () is a civil parishes in England, civil parish and village in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The village is situated on the B3279 between Newquay and St Austell. St Dennis had a population of 2,696 in the 2001 census, increasing ...

Career

Nicholas Cundy was articled to a

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing i ...

in 1793. Later, he moved to London and became articled to an

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

. His best-known architectural work is the conversion of the Pantheon, London into a theatre 1811–1812. He returned to civil engineering about 1823 and became involved with

canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface ...

s and

railways Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of land transport, next to roa ...

. He made an unsuccessful bid to build a

ship canal A ship canal is a canal especially intended to accommodate ships used on the oceans, seas, or lakes to which it is connected. Definition Ship canals can be distinguished from barge canals, which are intended to carry barges and other vessel ...

from

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...

to London. In the 1830s, he became involved with railway schemes, including the Grand Southern Railway (a proposed London-

Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...

route), the Grand Northern Railway (later the

Northern and Eastern Railway The Northern & Eastern Railway (N&ER) was an early British railway company, that planned to build a line from London to York. Its ambition was cut successively back, and it was only constructed from Stratford, east of London, to the towns of Bi ...

), and the Central Kent Railway. He stood as a Member of Parliament for

Sandwich, Kent Sandwich is a town and civil parish in the Dover District of Kent, south-east England. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour and has a population of 4,985. Sandwich was one of the Cinque Ports and still has many original medieval build ...

but was not elected.

Personal life

He married Miss Stafford-Cooke. He died about 1837.

References

Bibliography

Works of Nicholas Wilcox Cundy
1778 births 1837 deaths 19th-century English architects English civil engineers Architects from Cornwall {{England-architect-stub