Smith was born on 28 September 1783 at
Aldenham in
Hertfordshire. before eventually setting up his own practice in the
City of London. and
Gresham College in Basinghall Street (opened in 1843). For the Mercers' Company he built the Whittington Almshouses (1822) at
Highgate, in a Gothic style;
John Summerson noted that the company had sufficient wealth to afford "a great many crockets". Smith built the
Mercers' School on the previous site of the almhouses, in College Hill in the city. At the
Royal Exchange he replaced the wooden tower and entrance with a stone one. In collaboration with A.B. Clayton he built the
New Corn Exchange in
Mark Lane (1827), with a Doric colonnade, echoing that of
George Dance's neighbouring exchange of 1749–50. At
Hornsey in 1832-3 he replaced the body of the church with a white brick Gothic structure, leaving only the medieval tower standing. His Gothic church of
St Michael and All Angels at Blackheath Park (1828–1829) on the
Cator estate was built in white brick with stone facings, and has what the
Buildings of England guide describes as "a fanciful thin east spire", sometimes called "the Needle of Kent".
Ian Nairn describes it as "far more individual than the usual run", "more than a studious crib from a pattern book", and notes "the highly successful Eastern Tower". A house called "Brooklands" (1825), designed for himself survives nearby. For the Cator family, Smith also rebuilt
Woodbastwick Hall in Norfolk, following its damage by fire in 1819. Smith later built later another house for himself, called "Newlands", at
Copthorne, in Sussex. and the
neoclassical St Albans Town Hall (1829), with a giant portico of four
Ionic columns. He was a member of the
Royal Institute of British Architects, of which he was elected a Fellow in 1834, a member of the Surveyors' Club from 1807, and a Fellow of the
Society of Antiquaries. He exhibited at the
Royal Academy between 1801 and 1829. ==Notes==