Sydney Smirke

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sydney Smirke
Personal information
Name	Sydney Smirke
Nationality	English
Birth date	1798
Birth place	London, England
Date of death	8 December 1877
Work
Significant buildings	the circular reading room at the British Museum
Awards and prizes	RIBA Royal Gold Medal

Sydney Smirke (1798 - 8 December 1877) was London born English architect during the 19th century. His older brother Sir Robert Smirke was also an architect and his father, also called Robert Smirke, had been a well-known 18th-century painter.

His works include:

• the Custom House, Queen Square, Bristol (1835-7)
• the Bethlem Royal Hospital, St George's Fields, Southwark (now housing the Imperial War Museum) (1838)
• the nave roof of York Minster (1841)
• the Carlton Club in Pall Mall, London (1845)
• the circular reading room at the British Museum
• the Derby Hall, Bury
• landscaping of Brookwood Cemetery, near Woking, Surrey (with William Tite)
• exhibition galleries at Burlington House, home of the Royal Academy (1868)
• hall of Inner Temple (1870)
• Wellington Pit Surface Buildings (Whitehaven) (1840)

He received the RIBA Royal Gold Medal in 1860. He became an associate of the Royal Academy in 1847 and was elected a full Academician in 1859. He served as RA Treasurer from 1861 to 1874, and was professor of Architecture from 1860 to 1865.

He married Isabella Dobson, daughter of Newcastle upon Tyne architect John Dobson on 8 December 1840 at Newcastle upon Tyne.

[edit] References

• Fawcett, Jane (Editor), Seven Victorian Architects, Thames and Hudson, 1976. ISBN 0500340706
• Gentleman's Magazine, 1841, Part 1, p91
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography