London office

By the time of his marriage aged 23, Wardell was already independently practicing as an architect. Between 1846 and 1858 he designed, restored or re-ordered about 30 churches in the UK, a rapid success. As this was an era of massive church restoration (Nikolaus Pevsner has said many churches were "over-restored" during this time) it is possible that this high figure may include churches Wardell only redesigned or restored. Whatever the true number of churches he designed in England, this was a period not only of church restoration but also building of many new Roman Catholic Churches. Wardell's work wasn't just limited to England though. He was commissioned by Robert Hope-Scott and his wife, of Abbotsford, Melrose, to build a church for the growing Roman Catholic community in the nearby town of Galashiels, Scotland. The designs drawn, work began in 1856 and wouldn't be completed for another 20 years. Our Lady & Saint Andrew's is still in use as the Parish Church to this day. Wardell and John Newman were by no means the only converts to Catholicism; a large number of notable intellectuals too changed their faith. This, coupled with the greater freedom Catholics obtained by the Catholic Emancipation Act which restored the hierarchy and removed some of the prohibitions on Catholics which had prevailed since the time of the reformation, led to the Catholic Church having a revival in Britain. Thus the newly converted Pugin and his protégé Wardell were well placed to receive the numerous commissions which came flooding in.

The heritage-listed Church of St Birinus in Bridge End, Dorchester-on-Thames, Oxfordshire was constructed between 1846 and 1849. This church was one of the first Roman Catholic churches built following the passing of the 1839 Catholic Emancipation Act. The small and simple building is an almost exact replica of a 14th-century Gothic chapel. It is constructed of Littlemore stone with a Caen stone porch. The interior has rectangular nave leading in the traditional fashion through a rood screen to a smaller and lower ceilinged chancel. The nave has a vaulted ceiling supported by wooden strapwork. Lit by stained glass windows, the whole structure hardly differs from the design of Anglican churches constructed in the same period. The expected paraphernalia of the more ritualistic Catholic worship is absent; side chapels and numerous secondary altars are conspicuous by their absence. The only contemporary jarring feature not found in an English country church is the set of late Byzantine style gilt chandeliers.^[6]

He designed several London churches. Another heritage-listed church is Our Ladye Star of the Sea, Greenwich, a Gothic Revival church begun in 1846 and completed c. 1851. It is surmounted by a tower completed by an ornate spire which in turn is complemented by the smaller spire of the adjacent stair turret.^[7][8][9] The church has remarkable architectural similarities to Wardell's later and largest work, St. Patrick's Cathedral in Melbourne.^[10] Also heritage-listed is Our Immaculate Lady of Victories (also known as St. Mary's Church), situated in Clapham Park Road, Clapham, South London, constructed between 1848 and 1851,^[11][12][13] the same year that Wardell completed Holy Trinity, Hammersmith. Other Grade II* listed heritage buildings designed in part or full by Wardell include the Church of St Mary and St Michael in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets;^[14] the Roman Catholic Church of St Peter and St Edward in Palace Street, Westminster;^[15] the Gate Lodge and Gateway, the Training College, the Priory, the former convent building, and the chapel at the former convent of the Holy Child Jesus on Magdalen Road in Hastings;^{[16][17][18][19][20][21]} Ellingham, a house in Thanet, Kent;^[22] the Old Lodge and Chapel of the Sacred Heart of Digby Stuart College;^[23] a lodge at Grove House in the London Borough of Wandsworth;^[24] the Spode Pottery including buildings around the north west courtyard, including the entrance gate, gate piers and remains of the bottle kiln at Stoke-on-Trent;^[25] and a chantry chapel for family burials commissioned by Lord Petre at Thorndon Park, near Brentwood, Essex, his last completed work in England.

By 1858, aged 35, Wardell was in poor health, and felt that the warmer climate of Australia would be more beneficial to his health.^[4] Obtaining the position of "Government Architect" to the city of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia, Wardell and his family emigrated.

In Melbourne

Melbourne in the early 1850s was a rough and primitive place with potholed roads. Robbery was commonplace, and the poverty caused by the soaring inflation, and streets that were in 1854 described as open sewers ensured that disease was rife. It was into this environment came men seeking fortunes digging for gold. Within ten years the gold rush had transformed Melbourne from a provincial outpost of the British Empire to a wealthy and rapidly expanding city.^[26] Between 1853 and 1854 Melbourne doubled in size, however many of its new and expanding population lived in tented villages within the city. This need for building coupled with available funding drew aspiring young architects from around the world, among them John James Clark, Peter Kerr and in William Wilkinson Wardell.

As the newly arrived and appointed Government Architect, Wardell immediately began work on St Patrick's Cathedral, a task which was to occupy him for much of his life. In 1867 the Wardell Family moved into a large new house known as Ardoch, at 226 Dandenong Road, St Kilda, at the time one of the smartest and most expensive residential areas of Melbourne.^[27] The 13-roomed two-storied house in an Italianate style was built for £225 in 1864. The Wardell family purchased it in 1867 and moved from their previous home in Powlett Street, East Melbourne.^[28] Wardell designed both the Catholic churches dedicated to St Mary in St Kilda East where he personally worshipped. The first was completed in 1859 and its larger replacement completed in 1897.

In Melbourne, Wardell was not only the state-employed Government Architect, but also had a flourishing private practice as well, building houses, shops, and business premises for all who could afford him. He did not work in any one exclusive style, and could design in any architectural form his patrons required - Palladian, Neoclassical plus the various forms of Gothic, including notably at the ANZ Bank the floral Venetian Gothic.

In 1877 Sir Graham Berry became the premier of Victoria. His mission, considered radically left wing at the time, was to redistribute the grazing land of Victoria, and to introduce a bill providing for the payment of members of the Legislative Assembly, which would enable working-class candidates to be elected. When his aims were rejected by the Legislative Council, he embarked on a public campaign of "coercion". "We coerce madmen," he said, "we put them into lunatic asylums, and never was anything more the act of madmen than the rejection of the Appropriation Bill." On 8 January 1878, known afterwards as "Black Wednesday", his "coercing" began. Using the reasoning that without his bill civil servants could not be paid, Berry began to dismiss public servants, starting with police and judges. Wardell's was one of the many heads which fell - dismissed from office, he left Melbourne to seek employment in Sydney.

During his time in Melbourne, Wardell designed numerous buildings, including 14 parish churches, in both the private and public sectors. While St Patrick's Cathedral is the largest and best known, other notable buildings are listed below.

In Sydney

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Wardell arrived in Sydney in 1878. He designed many buildings, the most notable being St Mary's Cathedral and St John's College at The University of Sydney.