This second paper on British engineers who worked in India considers how British administrations in India managed the design of public buildings in the second half of the nineteenth century. For most of the period this was a responsibility of engineers in the Public Works Departments, led by officials who had initially been trained for military service. Much of these engineers’ work was involved in the civil engineering of roads, railways, irrigation and public health, but there was also a demand for public buildings whether associated with civil engineering or not. The designers of these buildings are generally referred to anachronistically as architects, although most held engineering positions in the Indian armies or, latterly, public works departments. By looking at the careers of some of these ‘architects’, conclusions can be drawn about the professional training, architectural inspiration, structural approaches and project leadership of the creators of the buildings of empire. From this it will be suggested that, before 1900, in a meaningful sense there were no architects of empire, but a cadre of engineers whose training enabled them to take on all tasks across the built environment.