King's was only brought slowly out of this backward-looking denominational approach that gradually came to be perceived as belonging to a bygone age. Hosking served on the Council of the Institute of British Architects 1842-3 while contributing to the standard work of the period: "The Theory, Practice and Architecture of Bridges of Stone, Iron, Timber, and Wire; with examples on the principle of suspension", 1843. In its day, this multi-volume work was the most comprehensive book of bridge construction. Many of the bridges depicted no longer exist, such as the long, covered bridge over the Patapsco River in Maryland. Others do, including some of the London bridges. Today the book is a major and unique source of information. More than fifty of the steel engraving plates are fold-out, a number of them quite large, some unfolding to more than two feet in length. At about the same time as contributing to the epic bridge book, Hosking and medievalist antiquarian John Britton were commissioned by the Vestry of Bristol to report on the fabric of a much-admired thirteenth-century church, St. Mary Redcliffe. The studies were preparatory to an appeal for restoration of the church. Hosking's contribution is recorded in the Vestry's appeal publication, "Restoration of the Church of Saint Mary, Redcliffe, Bristol: an appeal by the vicar, churchwardens, and vestry; with an abstract of reports by Messrs. Britton and Hosking and engraved plan and views of the church", by the Rev. M. R.Whish et al., 1842. In the early 1840s Hosking also designed the Trinity Independent Chapel east of London at Poplar (1840-1). It dominated the streetscene with its prominent classical frontage, a combination of Grecian and Italian Renaissance styles. Unfortunately this building (also known as Trinity Chapel, Trinity Congregational Church, and Green's Chapel after its philanthropic benefactor, the shipyard owner George Green) at the corner of East India Dock Road and Augusta Street, is no longer standing. It was destroyed in the bombing of the East End in 1944. Its replacement, in a very modern style (the New Trinity Congregational Church) formed part of the "Exhibition of Live Architecture" for the Festival of Britain, 1951, at the Lansbury Estate development. Fortunately the original church bell could be incorporated into the new church, having been recast and repaired following its salvage from the bombsite.