William J. Haywood was a surveyor and an engineer to the City of London Commissioners of Sewers. He was also known as an architect.

Personal life

William Haywood was born as the eldest of three children in Camberwell

Camberwell

Camberwell is a district of south London, England, and forms part of the London Borough of Southwark. It is a built-up inner city district located southeast of Charing Cross. To the west it has a boundary with the London Borough of Lambeth.-Toponymy:...

. His father was probably also called William Haywood. Nothing is known about his mother.
In the census of 1871 he was no longer alone and living in Maida Vale

Maida Vale

Maida Vale is a residential district in West London between St John's Wood and Kilburn. It is part of the City of Westminster. The area is mostly residential, and mainly affluent, consisting of many large late Victorian and Edwardian blocks of mansion flats...

.

Education

He was probably educated in Camberwell. There are records which suggest he went to Camberwell Grammar School. Later he trained with George Aitchison (1792–1861).

Work

With Joseph Bazalgette

Joseph Bazalgette

Sir Joseph William Bazalgette, CB was an English civil engineer of the 19th century. As chief engineer of London's Metropolitan Board of Works his major achievement was the creation of a sewer network for central London which was instrumental in relieving the city from cholera epidemics, while...

 he was responsible for the enormous undertaking of improving London's sewerage system which enable the growth of the city (Abbey Mills pumping station). He worked with James Bunning on the Holborn Viaduct

Holborn Viaduct

Holborn Viaduct is a bridge in London and the name of the street which crosses it . It links Holborn, via Holborn Circus, with Newgate Street in the City of London, passing over Farringdon Street and the now subterranean River Fleet.It was built between 1863 and 1869, at a cost of over two million...

.

His main work however, for which he should be remembered, is the City of London Cemetery and Crematorium

City of London Cemetery and Crematorium

The City of London Cemetery and Crematorium is a cemetery and crematorium in the north east of London. It is the largest such municipal facility in the UK and probably in Europe . It is owned and operated by the City of London Corporation.-Location:...

. The facility was built near Little Ilford (now Manor Park) as a way of relieving the appalling overcrowding of London's church burial grounds (described e.g. in Dickens's 'Bleak House'). As the City was redeveloped the remains from many of its churchyards were reinterred there. Haywood was a pioneer of cemetery reform.

There is a small Gothic mausoleum near the gates of The City of London Cemetery and Crematorium which contain his ashes.

Further reading

• The government of Victorian London, 1855-1889: the Metropolitan Board of Works, The Vestries and The City Corporation; Owen, David Edward and Roy M. MacLeod; reprinted in 1982 by the Harvard University Press. 480pp. ISBN 0674358856
• Public sculpture of the City of London; Ward-Jackson, Philip; Liverpool University Press; 2003; 680pp; ISBN 9780853239772.

References

• Victorian Literature and Culture; Volume 30; Cambridge University Press; 2002; pp 19–40
• In search of W.J. Haywood; Freeman, Eric F.; Proc Geol. Assoc. Volume 105; pp. 161–166;