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Thomas Cubitt (1788-1855) was an architect and
builder who specialised in the late Georgian
architecture|Georgian and early Regency
architecture|Regency styles. He is commonly
regarded as the best 19th century London master
builder.

The son of a Norfolk farmer, he journeyed to India
as ship's carpenter from which he earned
sufficient funds to start his own building firm in
Gray's Inn Road, London where he was the first
builder to have a 'modern' system of employing all
the types of sub-contractors internally, on
permanent wages, instead of outsourcing the
tradeswork as had been done previously.

Cubitt's first major building was the London
Institution in Finsbury Circus, built in 1815.
After this he worked primarily on speculative
housing at Camden Town, Islington, and especially
at Highbury Park, Newington, London|Newington (now
part of Islington).

His development of areas of St. Pancras, including
Gordon Square and Tavistock Square, began in 1820,
for a group of landowners including the Duke of
Bedford.

He was commissioned in 1824 by Richard Grosvenor,
the 2nd Marquess of Westminster, to create a great
swathe of building in Belgravia centred around
Belgrave Square and Pimlico, in what was to become
his greatest achievement in London. Notable
amongst this development are the north and west
sides of Eaton Square, which exemplify Cubitt's
style of building and design. 

Cubitt was also responsible for much of
Bloomsbury, London|Bloomsbury, and the east facing
of Buckingham Palace. He also built and personally
funded nearly a kilometre of the Thames
Embankment.

He also was employed in the large development of
Kemp Town in Brighton, and Osborne House on the
Isle of Wight, completed in 1851.

Cubitt's public works included work on the
provision of public parks, including being an
organiser of the Battersea Park Scheme and a
guarantor of the Great Exhibition of 1851, and
contributing to the Metropolitan Buildings Act of
1855.

His son by his wife Mary Anne Warner, George
Cubitt, 1st Baron Ashcombe|George, was created
Baron Ashcombe in 1892, the great-grandfather of
Camilla Parker Bowles.

After his death, Queen Victoria said "In his
sphere of life, with the immense business he had
in hand, he is a real national loss. A better,
kindhearted or more simple, unassuming man never
breathed."

Cubitt's younger brother Lewis Cubitt|Lewis was an
architect, and designed many of the houses built
by his elder brother.