Career
Frederick Thomas was one of several children to Thomas Pilkington and Jane Butterworth of Stamford, England. The family moved to Edinburgh in 1854. After an illustrious but troubled professional life he returned to England in later life and died in Pinner.
In 1883, Pilkington moved to London and began work on the Army and Navy Hotel on Victoria Street and started to design residential flats for both the Artisans, Labourers & General Dwellings Company and for the middle-classes.
This second category of flats include Campden Hill Court in Kensington and York Mansions in Battersea. Pilkington did not see the completion of York Mansions, his last commission, as he died before its completion in 1901.