Neville, Parke (1812–86), civil engineer, architect, and land surveyor, was born in Dublin, son of Arthur Neville, engineer and surveyor; his mother's name is not known. The Neville family had been associated with engineering and surveying in Ireland for at least four generations. His great-great-uncle was Jacob Nevill of Co. Wicklow, a professor of mathematics and land surveyor in both Dublin and Wicklow (1773–82); his grandfather Arthur Richards Nevill surveyed the counties of Carlow, Cork, Monaghan, Wicklow, and Wexford, and Yorkshire in England, eventually settling in Dublin, where he was city surveyor for Dublin corporation (1801–28) and ran a private surveying and valuing business (1807–23) with his son Arthur Neville. It was Parke's father who added the ‘e’ to the surname. As well as working as a surveyor with his father, Arthur junior was an engineer and worked on the Grand Canal; on his father's death, he assumed the role of Dublin city surveyor (1828–57).
Neville served part of his apprenticeship under his father, who taught him the technique of surveying. He was later a student of Charles Blacker Vignoles (qv), civil engineer and one of the fathers of British railway engineering, and completed his training under the tutorship of William Farrell, architect to the ecclesiastical commissioners for Ireland. As a result, he was a fully qualified surveyor, engineer, and architect, and he combined all three professions with remarkable success. His early endeavours included surveying Co. Louth, Co. Wicklow, and Co. Dublin, working on the Dublin & Kingstown, Great Southern & Western, and Midland Great Western railways, and assisting on several projects in England. He aided in the design and construction of various prisons, asylums, houses, and churches across Ireland, including the enlargement of Woodbine Cottage, Blackrock (1838), alterations to Glenart Castle, Co. Wicklow (1846–7), and a new hotel in Malahide (1853). In 1836 he settled in Dublin to take up private practice with his father (1836–57) and was eventually appointed joint city surveyor (1846) alongside Arthur, but his engineering skills meant that he proved himself useful beyond his post – in 1848 he was asked to design a new waterworks scheme for the city, using the Royal Canal.
His career really got under way when he was appointed Dublin's first city engineer in 1851, a post he held for thirty-five years. He served the city faithfully and capably, and from his first day approached the improvement of Dublin with characteristic proficiency and energy. He made paving the streets a priority, organised and rationalised the street cleansing system, and – ignoring Victorian sensibilities – ensured the erection of many public urinals. He surveyed the city's entire sewerage system, and in 1853 drew up complex plans for a main drainage scheme; in order to fund the endeavour, it was Neville who pushed the implementation of a sewer rate. In 1869, with the help of eminent London engineer J. W. Bazalgette, he finalised the sewerage plans, but owing to lack of finances the main drainage scheme was not completed until the 1880s. He was perhaps best known for the central role he played in the history of Dublin's waterworks. At the corporation's request, he surveyed and designed seven separate plans, utilising a variety of water sources from the canals to the Liffey and Dodder rivers (1848–60). When the city council finally decided to promote a scheme using the Vartry water, it was Neville who drafted the parliamentary plans (1860). He designed the entire Vartry scheme, including the reservoirs at Roundwood and Stillorgan, and served as chief engineer on the project. Although it was a difficult process and met with vehement opposition, it was eventually completed in the early 1870s and ultimately proved to be one of the cheapest and most successful water schemes ever built in the British Isles. Sir John Gray (qv), chairman of the waterworks committee, often publicly stated that its achievement was due in large part to Neville's commitment and hard work. He later designed a smaller waterworks for the city's brewers and distillers, using the Grand Canal.
Neville was responsible for many lesser improvements that nonetheless had lasting repercussions beyond his lifetime. His 1853 plans for two intercepting sewers to prevent refuse from flowing into the Liffey were eventually completed in 1906. The Bohernabreena water reservoirs, constructed in 1887 for Rathmines and Rathgar, were based on his earlier designs. He also designed and supervised the construction of the Dublin corporation cattle market on the North Circular Rd (1862–3), which convinced him of the need for a new general market in the city. He spent many years researching markets, scouting locations, and urging the corporation to fund the endeavour; the Dublin corporation market on Mary's Lane is the culmination of his labours. He took a great interest in Dublin's scientific and literary community and was a member of the RIA (1854) and the RDS. On 2 March 1840 he was elected an associate member of the RIAI, eventually becoming a fellow (elected 30 June 1843) and serving as honorary secretary (1853–61), vice-president (1867–70; 1874–5), and on the council (1846–51, 1864–5). He was elected to London's Institution of Civil Engineers (5 December 1865) and was a member (from 1846) and president (1882) of the ICEI.
While touring Great Britain's civic markets in October 1886, Neville became ill. He returned home to die at his residence on Pembroke Road on 30 October 1886, and was buried in Mount Jerome cemetery. He never married and was survived by his two nephews.