George Wilkinson (architect)

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George Wilkinson (1814-1880) was a British architect who practiced largely in Ireland. He was the elder brother of William Wilkinson (1819-1901), who practiced in Oxford.

George Wilkinson, born at Otley, Oxfordshire, won a competition in 1835 for workhouses at Thame, Oxfordshire (now Ryecote Wood College). and went on to design other workhouses, including those at Witney and Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, which are built in the form of a Greek cross with a lantern at the crossing. His only double courtyard workhouse (dating from 1837) still exists in Tenbury Wells. About 1840 he went to Ireland, selected as the architect of the Poor Law Commission. Besides numerous workhouses, he built the Harcourt Street Railway Station, Dublin (1858-59) and published a Practical Geology and Ancient Architecture of Ireland (1845).

He retired to England about 1888.

[edit] Source

• Colvin, Howard, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, 1600-1840 3rd ed. (Yale University Press) 1995, s.v. "George Wilkinson"

[edit] Links

Tenbury Workhouse website - http://www.tenburyworkhouse.co.uk