Online Encyclopedia

SIR CHARLES BARRY (1795-1860)

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 444 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:
SIR CHARLES BARRY (1795-1860)  ,
See also:
English architect, was born in
See also:
London on the 23rd of May 1795, the son of a stationer . He was articled to a
See also:
firm of architects, with whom he remained till 1817, when he set out on a three years' tour in
See also:
Greece and Italy,
See also:
Egypt and
See also:
Palestine for the purpose of studying architecture . On his return to England in 182o he settled in London . One of the first
See also:
works by which his abilities as an architect became generally known was the church of St Peter at
See also:
Brighton, completed in 1826 . He built many other churches; but the marked preference for
See also:
Italian architecture, which he acquired during his travels, showed itself in various important undertakings of his earlier years . In 1831 he completed the Travellers' Club in
See also:
Pall Mall, a splendid
See also:
work in the Italian style and the first of its kind built in London . In the same style and "on a grander scale he built in 1837 the Reform Club . He was also engaged on numerous private mansions in London, the finest being Bridgewater House (1847) .
See also:
Birmingham possesses one of his best works in King
See also:
Edward's grammar school, built in the Tudor style between 1833 and 1836 . For Manchester he designed the Royal Institution of
See also:
Fine Arts (1824) and the
See also:
Athenaeum (1836); and for Halifax the
See also:
town-hall . He was engaged for some years in reconstructing the
See also:
Treasury buildings,
See also:
Whitehall . But his masterpiece, notwithstanding all unfavourable criticism, is the Houses of Parliament at Westminster (184o-186o) .

Barry was elected A.R.A. in 184o and R.A. in the following
See also:
year . His genius and achievements were recognized by the representative
See also:
artistic bodies of the
See also:
principal
See also:
European nations; and his name was enrolled as a member of the
See also:
academies of
See also:
art at Rome, Berlin, St
See also:
Petersburg, Brussels and
See also:
Stockholm . He was chosen F.R.S. in 1849 and was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1852 . He died suddenly at Clapham near London on the 12th of May 186o, and his remains were interred in Westminster Abbey . As a landscape gardener he was no less brilliant than as an architect, and in connexion with the
See also:
building of the Houses of Parliament he formed
See also:
schools of modelling, stone and wood
See also:
carving,
See also:
cabinet-making, metal-working, glass and decorative
See also:
painting, and of encaustic tile-making . In 1867 appeared a
See also:
life of him by his son Bishop
See also:
Alfred Barry . A claim was thereupon set up on behalf of Pugin, the famous architect, who was dead and who had been Barry's assistant, to a much larger share in the work of designing the Houses of Parliament than was admitted in Dr Barry's narrative . The controversy raged for a time, but without substantiating Pugin's claim . His second son, ALFRED BARRY (1826— ), was educated at King's College, London, and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was 4th wrangler and gained a first-class in the classical tripos in 1848 . Ile was successively sub-
See also:
warden of Trinity College,
See also:
Glenalmond (1849—1854), head-master of Leeds grammar school (1854—1862), principal of
See also:
Cheltenham College (1862—1868), and principal of King's College, London (1868—1883) . He was
See also:
canon of Worcester from 1871 to 1881, and of Westminster from 1881 to 1884 . From 1884 to 1889 he served as bishop of
See also:
Sydney and primate of
See also:
Australia, and on his return to England he was assistant bishop in the diocese of Rochester from 1889 to 1891, and rector of St James's, Piccadilly, from 1895 to 1900 .

He was appointed canon of

Windsor in 1891 and assistant bishop in West London in 1897 . Besides the life of his
See also:
father mentioned above, he published numerous theological works . Another son, EDWARD MIDDLETON BARRY (1830-1880), was also an architect . He acted as assistant to his father during the latter years of
See also:
Sir Charles's life . On the
See also:
death of his father, the duty of completing the latter's unfinished work devolved upon him . Amongst other buildings thus completed were the Houses of Parliament at Westminster (see ARCHITECTURE, fig . 91, and
See also:
Plate X. fig . 118), and Halifax town-hall (Id. fig . 9o) . In 1861 he was elected an associate of the Royal Academy; and in 1869 a full academician . From 1873 till his death he held the Academy's professorship of architecture . Among other buildings designed by him were Covent Garden theatre, Charing
See also:
Cross and Cannon Street hotels, the Birmingham and Midland Institute, new galleries for the
See also:
National Gallery and new chambers for the Inner Temple .

He died on the 27th of

See also:
January, 1880 . The youngest son, SIR JOHN WOLFE WOLFE-BARRY (1836- ), the eminent engineer, who assumed the additional name of Wolfe in 1898, was educated at Glenalmond, and was articled as
See also:
engineering pupil to Sir John Hawkshaw, with whom he was associated in the building of the railway bridges across the
See also:
Thames at Charing Cross and Cannon Street . In 1867 he began to practise on his own account, and soon gained an extensive connexion with railway companies, both in
See also:
Great Britain and in other countries . Among the works on which he was engaged were extensions of the Metropolitan
See also:
District railway, the St Paul's station and
See also:
bridge of the London, Chatham & Dover railway, the Barry Docks of the Barry railway
See also:
company near
See also:
Cardiff, and the Tower and new
See also:
Kew bridges over the Thames . On the completion of the Tower Bridge in 1894, he was made a C.B., becoming K.C.B. three years later . He served on several royal commissions, including those on Irish Public Works (1886—189o), Highlands and Islands of Scotland (1889—189o), Accidents to Railway Servants (1899—1900),
See also:
Port of London (1900-1902), and London
See also:
Traffic (1903—1905) . He was elected president of the Institution of
See also:
Civil Engineers in 1896, and published books on Railway Appliances (1874), and, with Sir F . J . Bramwell, on
See also:
Railways and Locomotives (1882) .

End of Article: SIR CHARLES BARRY (1795-1860)
[back]
JAMES BARRY (1741—1806)
[next]
SIR REDMOND BARRY (1813-188o)

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click and select "copy." Paste it into a website, email, or other HTML document.