Thomas Harrison (architect)
| Thomas Harrison | |
|---|---|
 Portrait of Thomas Harrison by H. Wyatt dated 1820 |
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| Born | baptised 7th August 1744 Richmond, Yorkshire |
| Died | 29 March 1829 St Martin's Lodge, Nicholas Street, Chester, Cheshire |
| Nationality | English |
| Work | |
| Buildings | Skerton Bridge Lancaster Castle Chester Castle Grosvenor Bridge (Chester) |
Thomas Harrison (7 August (baptised) 1744 – 29 March 1829) was an English architect and engineer. He built a number of bridges, including Grosvenor Bridge in Chester. He also rebuilt parts of Chester and Lancaster castles. His building designs were mainly in the neoclassical style.
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[edit] Early life and education
Harrison was baptised in Richmond, Yorkshire, England, and was the son of Thomas Harrison, a carpenter, and Anne née Brittel. Details of his early life are not known but it is likely he was educated at Richmond grammar school. In 1769 Sir Lawrence Dundas of Aske sent him to Rome with George Cuitt, a landscape painter, to study Roman antiquities. In 1770 he submitted a design to Pope Clement XIV for converting the Vatican Cortile del Belvedere into a museum. In 1773 he entered a competition organised by the Accademia di San Luca to re-plan the Piazza del Popolo. His design was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1777. Although the design was unsuccessful he was commissioned by the pope to alter the sacristy of St Peter's but the pope died before the work started.[1]
[edit] Career
He returned to Richmond, then moved to Lancaster in 1783 after he won a competition to build Skerton Bridge over the River Lune in the city. This bridge had elliptical arches and a level road surface, which was a device which had never been used on this scale in England previously. He was subsequently commissioned to build St Mary's Bridge in Derby and Stramongate Bridge in Kendal. In 1815 he was appointed as county surveyor of Cheshire having worked on several bridges in Cheshire for the previous 15 years. His major work there was the design of the Grosvenor Bridge crossing the River Dee in Chester which when it was built was the largest single-span masonry arch in the world, which measured 200 feet (61 m) across. In 1786 Harrison won a competition to rebuild Chester Castle in a neoclassical style which took over 30 years to complete. It included work on the prison, the courts, the shire hall and offices, the armoury, the barracks and the construction of the propylaeum. During this time in 1795 he moved to Chester.[1] Also in Chester he designed the Northgate between 1808 and 1810, and between 1818 and 1821 he restored part of Chester Cathedral.[2]
In 1784 Harrison had designed the cupola for St John's Church, Lancaster and a cupola for the town hall in the city. Between 1786 and 1799 he was involved in the reconstruction of Lancaster Castle. This included the Shire Hall, the Grand Jury Room, the Crown Court, the Governor's House, the Barristers' Library and Robing Room, part of the prison, much of the external wall and an additional round tower.[2] Later buildings in neoclassical style were the Lyceum in Liverpool, and the Portico Library in Manchester.[1]
Harrison was also involved to a lesser degree in domestic architecture. These included the impressive Allerton Manor, Allerton, nr Liverpool which he designed in 1810 for Jacob Fletcher (shipping magnate) and which stood on a 150-acre (0.61 km2) estate. It burned down soon after the building works were finished but, after some modifications were made to the design, was reconstructed in 1815. Also, Hawkstone Citadel in Shropshire, Kennet House, which was demolished in 1967 and St Martin's Lodge, a house he built for himself in Chester. His largest house was Broomhall in Fife which he built for Thomas Bruce, the seventh Earl of Elgin.[1] In 1812-14 he was commissioned by Peter Marsland, a prominent industrialist in the Stockport area to build Woodbank, a villa in the Greek Revival style. [3]
[edit] Personal life
In 1785 Harrison married Margaret Shackleton at Lancaster Priory and with her he had three children who survived into adulthood. He died at his home in Chester in 1829 and was buried in the churchyard of St Bridget's Church, Chester. His estate was worth in the order of £6,000 (£440,000 as of 2012).[1][4]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e Rudolf-Hanley, Moira (2004), Harrison, Thomas (bap. 1744, d. 1829), , Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press), http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/12451, retrieved 19 November 2011. subscription or UK public library membership required
- ^ a b Norris, Peter, "Thomas Harrison, 1744-1829: Architect of Lancaster Castle", Lancaster Castle: People and Stories (Lancashire County Council), http://www.lancastercastle.com/html/people/tour.php?id=48, retrieved 2008-02-05
- ^ "WOODBANK VILLA AND ENTRANCE PORTICO". English Heritage. http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1162994. Retrieved 21 November 2011.
- ^ UK CPI inflation numbers based on data available from Lawrence H. Officer (2010) "What Were the UK Earnings and Prices Then?" MeasuringWorth.
[edit] Further reading
- Champness, John (2005), Thomas Harrison, Georgian Architect of Chester and Lancaster, 1744-1829, Lancaster: Centre for North-West Regional Studies, Lancaster University, ISBN 1-86220-169-2
