Biography
Emden was the second son of William S. Emden, lessee of London's Olympic Theatre, and was born in the vicinity of the theatre in The Strand. Originally studying as a civil engineer, he joined architects Kelly and Lawes in 1870 in the burgeoning construction of theatres. He was immediately given the commission of designing the Globe Theatre. Emden also became a member of the Strand District Board of Works, a forerunner of local councils, and for seven years acted as chair. In 1890, he was elected to the London County Council.
In 1880, W. G. R. Sprague, a former pupil of Frank Matcham, joined Emden's practice as an apprentice for three years. From 1889, Emden entered a partnership with Charles J. Phipps building the Tivoli, Garrick Theatre and Duke of York's. His most important work, The Tivoli, in the Strand became the archetype for music hall and variety theatre architecture.
His worked extended to hotels, restaurants and, as it became popular, cinemas. He also had a younger half–brother, Henry (1852–1930), who was a leading scenic artist, painting the stage curtain for Walter's Trafalgar Theatre in 1892.
In 1903 Walter Emden became the Mayor of Westminster, before becoming the Mayor of Dover in November 1907 under somewhat unusual circumstances. He was the first Mayor not to be a member of the Town Council, and was elected under a special provision of the Municipal Corporations Act enabling a duly qualified Burgess to take the position.
An energetic Mayor, he was a driving force in promoting the Dover Pageant of 1908, and it was around this time that he bough a controlling interest in A.L Thomas & Sons Ltd, an Iron foundry based in Dover that specialised in the manufacture and supply of fencing, pipes and manhole covers. Emden put his nephew, Vivian Elkington, in charge of the firm which was renamed The Dover Engineering Works Ltd on September 3, 1909, and eventually became famous for the manufacture of iron gas and airtight inspection covers, still manufactured and supplied across the globe by the same company today, although under a different name (Gatic).
Read more about this topic: Walter Emden
Famous quotes containing the word biography:
“The death of Irving, which at any other time would have attracted universal attention, having occurred while these things were transpiring, went almost unobserved. I shall have to read of it in the biography of authors.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“A great biography should, like the close of a great drama, leave behind it a feeling of serenity. We collect into a small bunch the flowers, the few flowers, which brought sweetness into a life, and present it as an offering to an accomplished destiny. It is the dying refrain of a completed song, the final verse of a finished poem.”
—André Maurois (1885–1967)
“The best part of a writer’s biography is not the record of his adventures but the story of his style.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)