THE HOUSE MASTER

To frequenters of London’s Belgravia, the name of Thomas Cubitt will doubtless be familiar – albeit for the fact that he shares it with an upmarket pub, from which revellers spill out onto the streets into the shadow of the area’s signature stucco-fronted edifices. The connection is apposite; as a Victorian master builder, Cubitt was heavily involved in the creation of this achingly smart district of the British capital and, indeed, those very houses.

Though he may be gratified to know that his name lives on in such a convivial manner, Cubitt was, in fact, much more than an inspirer of good quality watering holes in fancy parts of town. Rather, he was a towering and trailblazing figure on the ever-industrious Victorian landscape. Indeed, Queen Victoria herself, upon learning of his death in 1855, said, “In his sphere of life, with the immense business he had in hand, he is