Building bridges

The list of accomplishments of Sir John Fowler (1817–98) and Sir Benjamin Baker (1840–1907) extends far beyond the Forth Bridge. Fowler designed the Grosvenor Bridge (also known as the Victoria Railway Bridge), which, when it opened in 1860, was London’s first railway bridge over the Thames. He designed the elegant, twospan train shed that still survives today as part of the oldest (eastern) side of Victoria

station. He was also the brains behind the former Manchester Central Station, with its massive, single-train span shed, among several other termini.

Fowler began working on the Metropolitan Railway in London, the world’s first underground line, several years before Baker joined his practice in 1862. He promoted Baker to chief assistant in 1869, making him a full partner in 1875. Together, they acted as consulting engineers on London’s first Tube-style tunnels.

Much of their work would be as consultants on overseas projects, including the Aswan Dam, the Sudan Railway, bridges that crossed the Nile in Cairo and Khartoum and the Hudson River Tunnel.

Fowler’s relatively modest family grave is in Brompton Cemetery, Kensington, London SW10. Baker’s is a rather more ostentatious affair, in the shape of a Celtic cross supported by flying buttresses, in St Nicholas’ churchyard in the village of Idbury, Oxfordshire.