William Silver Frith

William Silver Frith (1850–1924) studied at the Lambeth School of Art and the Royal Academy Schools. He taught at the South London Technical School of Art from 1880 and lectured at RIBA in 1892. His students included George Frampton, another craftsman who worked on the creation of Two Temple Place. He is the only sculptor of Two Temple Place, other than the properly famous Royal Academician Frampton, who appears in Spielmann’s 1901 survey of British sculpture. He has several works still in existence on the exteriors of buildings around Whitehall and in the City.

At Two Temple Place he was responsible for the bronze lamp standards outside the entrance. These playful designs have a very particular iconography combining Astor’s technical, historical and classical interests. We assume that they had detailed discussions on what Astor wanted in those designs. Sadly most of Frith’s other Two Temple Place work is lost due to World War 2 damage: like his exterior stonework on the portico and the now absent “courtyard” wall. He certainly carved the very personal ‘family tree’ fireplace now in Cliveden (and formerly in the Two Temple Place Library) which will have required detailed input and approval from WWA. He also produced fireplaces and the stunning tower clock face for Astor at Cliveden.