Francis Thompson

Francis Thompson (25 July 1808–23 April 1895) was an English architect particularly well known for his railway work. Early life Thompson was born in Woodbridge in Suffolk, England, the second of seven children of George Thompson and his wife Elizabeth (née Miles). George Thompson was a builder and the Suffolk county surveyor, descended from a family of farmers in the nearby village of Bredfield. Francis' grandfather Jacob was also a builder and two of his uncles were architects. Thompson attended Woodbridge Grammar School and his family's background instilled him with an interest in architecture. He married Anna Maria Watson on 17 May 1830 in Woodbridge church. The couple soon emigrated to Montreal in British North America (now in Quebec, Canada). Their son, Francis Jacob, was born the following year. Anna died of cholera in 1832 as a result of the second cholera pandemic, a global outbreak which killed 4,000 people in Montreal. Thompson designed multiple houses, commercial buildings, courts, and a church. In 1832, he worked with John Wells (another English emigrant) to build St. Anne's Market, which was temporarily used for the pre-confederation Canadian parliament. Thompson returned to England in 1837, prompted by growing friction between French and British settlers. Railway work Although at first sight Thompson was young and inexperienced, Robert Stephenson the engineer for the North Midland Railway (NMR), recruited him to be the railway company's architect in February 1839. The North Midland was in the early stages of building its line north from Derby to Leeds. He designed many publicly acclaimed buildings, including multiple railway stations and warehouses. In Derby, he designed a compete railway town, featuring Derby Trijunct station (opened 1840), the meeting point for three railway companies. The station had a three-bay glazed train shed and a two-storey, red-brick frontage in an Italianate style, described as "the first really great station". Thompson was also responsible for a cluster of buildings around the station, including a roundhouse, terraced houses for the workers, and the Midland Hotel, which is among the most representative of his surviving works. The group was the world's first complete complex of railway buildings. The station was remodelled several times in the intervening century and almost completely rebuilt in the 1980s.