Rowland Plumbe was born in Whitechapel, London on 2 February 1838. He studied at University College, London after which he was articled to Nockalls Johnson Cottinghan (1823-1954) and Frederick Peck (1827?-1875). He then worked in the office of Frederick Clarke Withers (1828-1901) in New York City from 1858 to 1860.
Following his return to England in 1860, he established his own architectural practice in the City of London. He was District Surveyor of South Islington from 1875, and West Hampstead until 1891.
He was in partnership with Frank Morrish Harvey (1846-1932) as Rowland Plumbe & Harvey from 1903 to 1908; and with Charles Lionel Fleming-Williams (1879-1919); and with John Charles Stephen Mummery (1862-1949) as Rowland Plumbe & Partners from 1913 to 1919.
Plumbe specialised in the design of churches particularly in the Gothic Revival style. He also designed hospitals, country houses and large residential schemes for artisans.
Plumbe died on 2 April 1919. His address at the time of his death was Ashleigh, 29 Brondesbury Park, Willesden, Middlesex, and 34 Bloomsbury Square, Middlesex
Congregational Church and Schools, Woodford, Essex (1874); warehouse, Ray Street, London (1875); Hillcroft College, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey (1877); 12 and 14 Old Street, St. Luke's, London (1879); Noel Park, an estate of 2,200 houses for the Artizans, Labourers & General Dwellings Company in Wood Green, London (1881); The Grange, Walton on Thames, Surrey (1884); expansion and remodelling of the London Hospital in Whitechapel, London (1884-1919); St. John's Church in Loxwood, Sussex (1896); Nile Street council flats in Shoreditch, London (1896); Middlesex County Asylum, Napsbury, Middlesex (1900); Metropolitan Convalescent Institution, Bexhill, Sussex (with Harvey, 1905); Fieldgate Mansions in Whitechapel, London (1907); remodelling of Woodlands Park House in Cobham, Surrey (1907); and the YMCA building on Great Russell Street, London (1911).
Directory of British Architects 1834-1914. Compiled by Antonia Brodie, et al. Volume 2: L-Z. London; New York: British Architectural Library, Royal Institute of British Architects/Continuum, 2001
Smith, Amy. ‘The Expansion and Remodelling of the London Hospital by Rowland Plumbe, 1884–1919’. The London Journal. A Review of Metropolitan Society Past and Present vol. 45, no. 2, 2020 pp. 270-279
‘Obituary’. The Builder vol. 116, 11 April 1919 p. 358
‘Obituary’. The Builder vol. 116, 18 April 1919 p. 381
‘Obituary’. RIBA Journal vol. 26, 1919 pp. 140-141