Sydney Smirke

(b London, 1 Oct 1780; d Cheltenham, Glos, 18 April 1867). Architect, son of (1) Robert Smirke (i). One of the leaders of the GREEK REVIVAL in Regency England and a pioneer in the use of concrete and cast iron, Smirke built up what was probably the most extensive and profitable architectural practice of his time. Among his public commissions was his most impressive monument, the British Museum, London (see ENGLAND, fig. 8).

Part of the Smirke family

See the Abbreviations for further details.

English architect. He trained briefly with Soane (with whom he quarrelled) and the younger Dance before travelling in France, Greece, Italy, and Sicily (1801–5), publishing Specimens of Continental Architecture (1806) after his return in 1805. He set up in practice in London, and found favour with the Establishment. Among his first works were the castellated Lowther Castle, Westmd. (1806–11), and Eastnor Castle (also castellated), Herefs. (1812–20), but he made his reputation with Covent Garden Theatre, London (1808–9—destroyed, but rebuilt 1856–8 by E. M. Barry), the first public building in the capital to have a pure Greek Doric portico. Thereafter he became an important protagonist of the Greek Revival. In 1813, with Nash and Soane, he was appointed as one of the three Architects to the Office of Works, and he gained several important London commissions including the General Post Office, St Martin's Le Grand (1824–9—demolished), the Custom House (1825–7—a rebuilding after the failure of the foundations of Laing's building), King's College, The Strand (1830–5), and his master-piece, the prestigious British Museum, Bloomsbury (1823–46). He also designed the Royal College of Physicians (now Canada House), Trafalgar Square (1822–5—remodelled 1925), and the Oxford and Cambridge Club, Pall Mall (1835–8—with his brother Sydney).

He built or altered around 30 country-houses, and designed 8 county-halls, including those at Bristol, Carlisle, Gloucester, Hereford, Lincoln, Maidstone, Perth, and Shrewsbury, all buildings of some personality and presence, but it is as a Greek Revivalist that he produced his best work. The British Museum is one of the greatest buildings in that style in England, with its noble Greek Ionic Order, the capitals based on those of the Temple of Athena Polias, Priene (338 BC and later), and the bases on those of the Temple of Dionysus, Teos (c.130 BC), and King's Library (arguably the finest Neo-Classical interior in England). Greek Revival was admirably suited to Smirke's taste for geometrical simplicity and rationalism: a tendency to simplify further and create crisply cubical compositions was apparent at his Kinmount, Dumfriesshire (1812), The Homend, Stretton Grandison, Herefs. (1814–21), and Worthy House, Hants. (1816). One of his best buildings was the mausoleum and church at Milton, West Markham, Notts. (1831–2), for the 4th Duke of Newcastle. He was innovative in construction, pioneering concrete foundations, fireproof hollow-clay vaults, and the use of iron in architecture. Among his successful pupils and assistants were William Burn, C. R. Cockerell, Henry Roberts, Lewis Vulliamy, and his own brother, Sydney Smirke. Although a conventional designer, his office was regarded as the most progressive of its time, certainly in the 1820s and early 1830s.

Bibliography

• Architectural History, vi (1963), 91–102
• Arkansas, cxlii/847 (Sept. 1967), 208–10
• Colvin (1995)
• Crook (1972, 1972a)
• Crook & Port (1973)
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004)
• Placzek (ed.) (1982)
• Summerson (ed.) (2003)
• Jane Turner (1996)
• Trans. Newcomen Society, xxxviii (1965–6), 5–22

The full bibliography for this book is available to download as a pdf file.
Download the bibliography for A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (PDF: 1.2MB)

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, architect, (1798 – 8 December1877) was born in London, England, the younger brother of Sir Robert Smirke, also an architect. Their father, also Robert Smirke, had been a well-known 18th Century painter.

Sydney Smirke's works include:

• The Custom House, Queen Square, Bristol (1835-7)
• The Custom House, Commercial Road, Gloucester (1845)
• The dome chapel of the Bethlem Royal Hospital, St George's Fields, Southwark (now housing the Imperial War Museum) (1846)
• The nave roof of York Minster (1841)
• The Carlton Club in Pall Mall, London (1845)
• The circular reading room at the British Museum
• Derby Hall, Bury
• St John's Church, Loughton
• 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.

Among Smirke's numerous apprentices was the successful York architect George Fowler Jones.

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

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