William Frame was an English architect.

Life and works

Frame was born at

Melksham Melksham () is a town and civil parish on the Bristol Avon, River Avon in Wiltshire, England, about northeast of Trowbridge and south of Chippenham. The parish population was 18,113 at the 2021 census. History Early history Excavations in ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated to Wilts) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to ...

in 1848. Training as an architect, he was articled firstly to William Smith of

Trowbridge Trowbridge ( ) is the county town of Wiltshire, England; situated on the River Biss in the west of the county, close to the border with Somerset. The town lies south-east of Bath, Somerset, Bath, south-west of Swindon and south-east of Brist ...

, he then became assistant to

John Prichard John Prichard (6 May 1817 – 13 October 1886) was a Welsh architect in the neo-Gothic style. As diocesan architect of Llandaff, he was involved in the building or restoration of many churches in south Wales. Personal history John Prichard ...

of Llandaff. In 1868, he entered the office of

William Burges William Burges (; 2 December 1827 – 20 April 1881) was an English architect and designer. Among the greatest of the Victorian era, Victorian art-architects, he sought in his work to escape from both nineteenth-century Industrial Revolution, ...

and worked with Burges at

Cardiff Castle Cardiff Castle () is a medieval castle and Victorian Gothic revival mansion located in the city centre of Cardiff, Wales. The original motte and bailey castle was built in the late 11th century by Norman invaders on top of a 3rd-century Roma ...

and

Castell Coch ; ) is a 19th-century Gothic Revival castle built above the village of Tongwynlais in Wales. The first castle on the site was built by the Normans after 1081 to protect the newly conquered town of Cardiff and control the route along the River ...

. Following Burges's death in 1881, Frame remained in the service of

John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute John Patrick Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute, (12 September 1847 – 9 October 1900) was a Scottish landed aristocrat, industrial magnate, antiquarian, scholar, philanthropist, and architectural patron. When Bute succeeded to the marq ...

and continued Burges's work at both castles, as well as designing the

Grade I listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

Pierhead Building The Pierhead Building () is a Grade I listed building in Cardiff Bay, Wales. It was built in 1897 as the headquarters for the Bute Dock Company. The Pierhead Building is part of the estate of the Senedd (Welsh Parliament; ), which also includes ...

in the docks built by Bute's father. Frame also worked on Bute's Scottish home,

Mount Stuart House Mount Stuart House, on the east coast of the Isle of Bute, Scotland, is a country house built in the Gothic Revival style and the ancestral home of the Marquesses of Bute. It was designed by Sir Robert Rowand Anderson for the 3rd Marquess in ...

, on the

Isle of Bute The Isle of Bute (; or '), known as Bute (), is an island in the Firth of Clyde in Scotland, United Kingdom. It is divided into highland and lowland areas by the Highland Boundary Fault. Formerly a constituent island of the larger County of ...

, and his home in

Falkland, Fife Falkland is a village, parish, and former royal burgh in Fife, Scotland, at the foot of the Lomond Hills. According to the 2022 census it has a population of 1,041. Etymology The earliest forms of this name include ''Falleland'' (c. 1128) and ...

, the House of Falkland. He undertook the building of the

Animal Wall The Animal Wall () is a sculptured wall depicting 14 animals in the Castle Quarter of the city centre of Cardiff, Wales. It stands to the west of the entrance to Cardiff Castle, having been moved from its original position in front of the castle ...

, in the grounds of Cardiff Castle, for which Burges had got no further than drawing the designs. Burges's favourite sculptor, Thomas Nicholls, executed the carvings. During these years he won the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House in Piccadilly London, England. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its ...

's gold medal and the Soane Medallion. Later in his life, Frame also produced a small number of very well regarded

grandfather clock A grandfather clock (also a longcase clock, tall-case clock, grandfather's clock, hall clock or floor clock) is a tall, freestanding, weight-driven pendulum clock, with the pendulum held inside the tower or waist of the case. Clocks of this styl ...

s in the village of Larkhall, Scotland. Frame's latter years were marred by alcoholism. His drinking had been problematic for some time; in 1890, Bute noted in his diary, "Frame … drunk again … had to dismiss him". He died in April 1906 and was buried on the 21st of that month in Cathays Cemetery in Cardiff. File:The Pierhead Building, Cardiff Bay - geograph.org.uk - 852953.jpg,

Cardiff Bay Cardiff Bay (; colloquially "The Bay") is an area and freshwater lake in Cardiff, Wales. The site of a former tidal bay and estuary, it is the river mouth of the River Taff and River Ely, Ely. The body of water was converted into a lake as part ...

, Frame's masterpiece File:Animal Wall (16927638357).jpg, Animal Wall File:Castell Coch (4548).jpg, Castell Coch File:Former Catholic church of St Edward, Sanday (geograph 5550755).jpg, St Edward's Church, Sanday

Footnotes

Sources

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Frame, William 1848 births 1906 deaths 19th-century English architects People from Melksham Architects from Wiltshire