Godwin, E. W. 1833-1886

Edward William Godwin (26 May 1833 – 6 October 1886) was a progressive English architect-designer, who began his career working in the strongly polychromatic "Ruskinian Gothic" style of mid-Victorian Britain, inspired by The Stones of Venice, then moved on to provide designs in the "Anglo-Japanese taste" of the Aesthetic movement in the 1870s, after coming into contact with Japanese culture in the 1862 International Exhibition in London. Godwin's influence can be detected in the later Arts and Crafts movement. His best known early works include The Guild Hall, Northampton, which was his first notable public commission, and Congleton Town Hall, as well as restorations and neo-Gothic additions to Dromore Castle, Limerick and Castle Ashby.