Pevsner notes that the plans were drawn up by Alfred Burges's two sons, "one of whom was the architect William Burges". The purpose of Alfred Burges's "professional visits" to Spurn Point is unclear, but his partner in the engineering firm of Messrs. Walker and Burgess, James Walker, was Chief Engineer for Trinity House, the body with responsibility, then and now, for lighthouse construction in Great Britain. In the 1850s, Trinity House funded the construction of a new lighthouse at Spurn Point, the Low Lighthouse.
