Thomas Witlam Atkinson

Thomas Witlam Atkinson (1799–1861) was an English architect, artist and traveller in Siberia and Central Asia. Between 1847 and 1853 he travelled over 40 000 miles through Central Asia and Siberia, much of the time together with his wife Lucy and son Alatau, who was born during their travels. He also painted and documented his travels in two books that are today regarded as travel classics. His and Lucy's son, Alatau Tamchiboulac Atkinson, born on 4 November 1848 in what is now Eastern Kazakhstan, was named after a famous spring in the town of Kapal at the foot of the Djungar Alatau mountains.

He was born in Cawthorne, near Barnsley, West Riding of Yorkshire in 1799. He began to learn his trade at the age of eight, working alongside his father, who was a stonemason at Cannon Hall, home of the Spencer Stanhope family. By the time he was twenty he was a stone-carver, and in that capacity executed some good work on churches at Barnsley, Ashton-Under-Lyne and elsewhere. At the last-named town he settled for a while as a teacher of drawing. Soon after he became clerk of works to a string of important Victorian architects, including George Basevi, who designed much of Belgrave Square in London.

About this time he devoted himself to the study of Gothic architecture, and in 1829 published a folio volume entitled Gothic Ornaments selected from the different Cathedrals and Churches in England. In 1827, he went to London, and established himself as an architect in Upper Stamford Street, Blackfriars. Among his works at this time was the church of St. Nicholas, at Lower Tooting, erected about 1831. A little later he obtained many important commissions in and around Manchester, including the Manchester and Liverpool District Bank in Spring Gardens, in 1834. About 1835, he moved to Manchester, where he began his principal work as an architect, St. Luke's church, Cheetham Hill. This building, designed in a modified perpendicular style, together with his Italian villas and other structures, had a marked effect in improving the architectural taste of the district. He remained at Manchester until 1840, when he fell into debt, an occupational hazard in those days for an architect. He continued to exhibit drawings and paintings at the Royal Academy.

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