Edward Shewbrooks was born in Taunton, Somerset, England in 1842 and was articled to the County Architect of Somerset in 1856 After completing his articles, he worked as an assistant to various architects including James Morant Lockyer (1823?-1865) and Augustus Hullock Morant (1831?-1863); Richard Popplewell Pullan (1825-1888); and George Somers Clarke (1825-1882). From 1869 to 1873 he was employed as managing assistant to George Bidlake (1869?-1892) in Wolverhampton, and to George Rackstrow Crickmay (1830-1870) in Plymouth.
Shewbrooks commenced independent practice in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1873. He was for a period in partnership with William Larkins Bernard (1844-1922) and from 1903 to 1910 with Henry Todd Hodges (1878-1958) as Shewbrooks & Hodges in Newcastle upon Tyne. In 1908 Shewbrooks & Hodges submitted an entry for a competition to design municipal buildings in Bethnal Green, London. Their designs are illustrated in British Competitions in Architecture vol. 2, no. 15, February 1908 (pp. 98, 110, 111).
Shewbrooks was elected a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (FRIBA) in 1881. He died in Newcastle upon Tyne on 5 February 1910
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
‘Obituary’. The Builder vol. 98, 10 March 1910 p. 332
‘Obituary’. RIBA Journal vol. 17, 1910 p. 390