William Owen of Warrington

• Born                      27 August 1846 Latchford, Warrington
• Death                    5 April 1910
• Death place        Appleton, Warrington, Cheshire

NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH WILLIAM OWEN OF MANCHESTER AND ALTRINCHAM

William Owen, FRIBA (1846-1910) was born in Latchford, Warrington, Cheshire, and trained as an architect under John Lowe of Manchester, becoming his assistant, and later, for a few years, assistant to another Manchester architect, James Redford (c.1836-1911). He travelled in Europe, taking in Belgium and Holland as well as France and Switzerland. An accomplished draughtsman he also received training from the Bolton artist Selim Rothwell.  In 1869 he commenced independent practice in Warrington where he developed a successful practice undertaking domestic industrial and commercial buildings.  He carried out work at Lever Brothers Warrington factory and became a close friend of W H Lever, accompanying him in his search for a site for his proposed new factory and model village on the banks of the Mersey. Owen was the first architect employed at Port Sunlight and was closely involved in its early development. In 1896 he took the elder of his two architect sons, Segar Owen, (1874-1929) into partnership. Their partnership was still based in Warrington but continued to include significant works for Lever Brothers at Port Sunlight. Works at Warrington included St Barnabas Church (Bank Quay, 1879), the School of Art (Museum Street, 1883), Parr Hall, an important concert and theatre hall (Palmyra Square South, 1895), St Clement's Chapel and mission buildings (Bank Street, 1897, since demolished) and Warrington Technical School (Palmyra Square South, 1900-02).

William Owen died suddenly at Warrington in 1910, the practice being continued by Segar Owen and subsequently Geoffrey Owen under the same name.

Some confusion has arisen regarding the works for which William Owen of Warrington was actually responsible. His namesake, William Owen of Manchester (qv) was in practice at the same time working almost exclusively in Manchester and Altrincham. Works by the firm of “William and Segar Owen” after 1910 were the entire responsibility of his sons.