was awarded a Telford Medal; and in 1849
a second paper 'On Fire-Proof Buildings.' In 1856, a paper
on 'Fires: the best means of preventing and arresting them;
with a few words on Fire-Proof Structures,' was read by him
before the Society of Arts.

"He took great interest in the passing of Acts of Parliament
for regulating buildings in the metropolis, was consulted by
the framers of these Acts, and used his utmost influence to
prevent the endangering a whole neighbourhood by the
erection of monster warehouses for private profit. He
strongly contended for the principle of dividing buildings
by party-walls carried through the roof, and restricting
these divisions to a moderate cubic content. Writing to Lord
Seymour, Commissioner of Woods and Forests, on the 28th
June, 1851, he said 'that no preparations for contending
with such fires will give anything like the security that
judicious arrangements in the size and construction of
buildings will do.' The wise provisions introduced through
his instrumentality into these Acts of Parliament were
continually being evaded, and clusters of warehouses quickly
rose which he saw would, if on fire, defy all his means of
extinction. In a letter to Sir W. Molesworth, First
Commissioner of Public Works, dated 10th February, 1854, on
the subject of a proposed warehouse in Tooley-street, he
wrote 'The whole building, if once fairly on fire in one
floor, will become such a mass of fire that there is now no
power in London capable of extinguishing it, or even of
restraining its ravages on every side, and on three sides it
will be surrounded by property of immense value.' How
literally this was realized, and at what cost, was shown by
the great warehouse fire in Tooley-street, on the 22nd June,
1861, at which Mr. Braidwood lost his life."

The great fire at Cotton's Wharf; Tooley-street, broke out on
Saturday, June 22nd, 1861, and continued to burn for more than a
fortnight, consuming Scovell's, and other large warehouses, and, in
all, upwards of two millions' worth of property. The fire is believed
to have originated in the spontaneous combustion of hemp, of which
upwards of 1000 tons were consumed, together with 3000 tons of sugar,
500 tons of saltpetre, nearly 5000 tons of rice, 18,000 bales of
cotton, 10,000 casks of tallow, 1100 t