Edward Gyfford

• Name — Edward Gyfford • Born — 1772 • Birthplace — Middlesex • Died — After 1851 • Education — Royal Academy Schools • Occupation — Architect • Known for — Designs for small buildings • Illustration — Plate 8 from Gyfford's Designs for Small Picturesque Cottages and Hunting Boxes, 1807 • Illustration — Belle Vue House, Hale End, Walthamstow, drawn by Edward Gyfford and engraved by Ambrose Warren, for Hughson's description of London. Published by J. Stratford, Holborn, 1809 • Illustration — King's Bench Prison from The Microcosm of London, 1809

Edward Gyfford was born in Middlesex in 1772. He was a pupil at the Royal Academy Schools and was awarded a gold medal by the academy in 1792. He married Janet and they had children Samuel, Mary, and John, all born in Fulham. Mary married the Quebec merchant Matthew H. Warren in 1856.

Gyfford designed Belle Vue House, also known as Cooke's Folly, in Hale Brinks Woods, Walthamstow, for the bookseller Charles Cooke. It was built around 1803 in the Regency style and featured a semi-circular portico with Ionic columns and landscaped grounds with an artificial lake. It was demolished around 1937. He is remembered for his architectural drawings. He contributed several to David Hughson's description of London, including his own Belle Vue House, which were engraved on copper plates and published in the six volume work from 1805 to 1809. He also published two volumes of his designs for small buildings, Designs for Elegant Cottages and Small Villas, Calculated for the Comfort and Convenience of Persons of Moderate and of Ample Fortune (1806) and Designs for Small Picturesque Cottages and Hunting Boxes (1807). (see Hunting box.) He may have held a commission in the West London Militia. In April 1832, a notice in The Times announced a meeting of Gyfford's creditors on his discharge from the King's Bench Prison where he had been held for debt. His former addresses were given as 38 William Street, Hampstead Road, and 4 Brasset Place, North End, Fulham, both in the county of Middlesex.

Gyfford is included in the 1851 British census when he is recorded as living at Bloomfield Place, Middlesex, with his wife and three children. His year of death is unknown.