1. Sir Charles Barry was a British architect, best known for his role in the rebuilding of the Palace of Westminster in London during the mid-19th century, but responsible for numerous other buildings and gardens.
49 Facts About Charles Barry
1. 2.
Charles Barry is known for his major contribution to the use of Italianate architecture in Britain, especially the use of the Palazzo as basis for the design of country houses, city mansions and public buildings.
3.
Charles Barry developed the Italian Renaissance garden style for the many gardens he designed around country houses.
4.
Charles Barry was baptised at St Margaret's, Westminster, into the Church of England, of which he was a lifelong member.
5.
Charles Barry's father remarried shortly after Frances died and Barry's stepmother Sarah would bring him up.
6.
Charles Barry exhibited drawings at the Royal Academy annually from 1812 to 1815.
7.
Charles Barry visited France and, while in Paris, spent several days at the Musee du Louvre.
8.
On 18 June 1819, Charles Barry parted from Baillie at Tripoli, Lebanon.
9.
Charles Barry then travelled on to Cyprus, Rhodes, Halicarnassus, Ephesus and Smyrna from where he sailed on 16 August 1819 for Malta.
10.
Charles Barry then sailed from Malta to Syracuse, Sicily, then Italy and back through France.
11.
Charles Barry remained a lifelong supporter of the Liberal Party, the successor to the Whig Party.
12.
Charles Barry was invited to the gatherings at the house, and there met many of the prominent members of the group; this led to many of his subsequent commissions.
13.
Charles Barry set up his home and office in Ely Place in 1821.
14.
Probably thanks to his fiancee's friendship with John Soane, Charles Barry was recommended to the Church Building Commissioners, and was able to obtain his first major commissions building churches for them.
15.
Charles Barry designed three churches for the Commissioners in Islington: Holy Trinity, St John's and St Paul's, all in the Gothic style and built between 1826 and 1828.
16.
The next church he designed was St Andrew's Hove, East Sussex, in Waterloo Street, Brunswick, ; the plan of the building is in line with Georgian architecture, though stylistically the Italianate style was used, the only classical church Charles Barry designed that was actually built.
17.
Also in north-west England, he designed Buile Hill House in Salford this is the only known house where Charles Barry used Greek revival architecture.
18.
Thomas Attree's villa, Queen's Park, Brighton, the only one to be built of a series of villas designed for the area by Charles Barry and the Pepper Pot, whose original function was a water tower for the development.
19.
Charles Barry designed the Gothic King Edward's School, New Street, Birmingham, demolished 1936, it was during the erection of the school that Barry first met Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, he helped Barry design the interiors of the building.
20.
Charles Barry's favourite building in Rome, the Farnese Palace, influenced the design.
21.
Between 1834 and 1838, at Bowood House, Wiltshire, owned by Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne, Charles Barry added the tower, made alterations to the gardens, and designed the Italianate entrance lodge.
22.
Again Charles Barry used the Italianate style, with a three-storey tower over the entrance porte-cochere.
23.
At Duncombe Park, Yorkshire, Charles Barry designed new wings, which were added between in 1843 and 1846 in the English Baroque style of the main block.
24.
Between 1844 and 1848, Charles Barry remodelled Dunrobin Castle, Sutherland, Scotland, in Scots Baronial Style, for George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 2nd Duke of Sutherland for whom he had remodelled Trentham Hall.
25.
Between 1850 and 1852, Charles Barry remodelled Gawthorpe Hall, an Elizabethan house situated south-east of the small town of Padiham, in the borough of Burnley, Lancashire.
26.
Charles Barry's remodelling was again on behalf of the 2nd Duke of Sutherland.
27.
Charles Barry remodelled Trafalgar Square he designed the north terrace with the steps at either end, and the sloping walls on the east and west of the square, the two fountain basins are to Charles Barry's design, although Edwin Lutyens re-designed the actual fountains.
28.
Charles Barry was commissioned to design the facade of Pentonville prison, that was designed by Joshua Jebb, he added a stuccoed Italianate pilastered frontage to Caledonian Road.
29.
The building would have been in a Classical style incorporating Charles Barry's existing Treasury building.
30.
Charles Barry's design was parallel to the River Thames, but the surviving buildings were at a slight angle to the river, so Charles Barry had to incorporate the awkwardly different axes into the design.
31.
The House of Commons was finished in 1852, where later Charles Barry would be created a Knight Bachelor.
32.
The full Charles Barry design was never completed; it would have enclosed New Palace Yard as an internal courtyard, and the clock tower would have been in the north-east corner, with a great gateway in the north-west corner surmounted by the Albert Tower, continuing south along the west front of Westminster Hall.
33.
Charles Barry was appointed architect to the Dulwich College estate in 1830, an appointment that last until 1858.
34.
Charles Barry served on the Royal Commission developing plans for the Great Exhibition of 1851; in 1851, he was a co-founder of what became the Royal Architectural Museum.
35.
In 1853 Charles Barry was consulted by Albert, Prince Consort on his plans for creation of what became known as Albertopolis.
36.
Charles Barry was an active fellow of the Royal Academy, and he was involved in revising the architectural curriculum in 1856.
37.
In 1858 Charles Barry was appointed to the St Paul's Committee, whose function was to oversee the maintenance of the Special Evening Service in St Paul's Cathedral and carry out redecoration of the cathedral.
38.
Charles Barry was an early riser, usually between four and six o'clock in the morning; he only needed four or five hours sleep.
39.
Charles Barry preferred to do his thinking and designing in the morning, but was happy to have company while at work, liking to read to or join in conversation.
40.
Charles Barry had a dislike of public display, considering it hollow and lacking in conviction.
41.
Charles Barry preferred science to literature, he frequently attended the Friday night lectures held at the Royal Institution.
42.
Charles Barry was engaged to Sarah Rowsell in 1817, they married on 7 December 1822 and had seven children together.
43.
Eldest son Charles Barry designed Dulwich College and park in south London and rebuilt Burlington House in central London's Piccadilly; Edward Middleton Barry completed the Parliament buildings and designed the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden; Godfrey Walter Barry became a surveyor; Sir John Wolfe-Barry was the engineer for Tower Bridge and Blackfriars Railway Bridge.
44.
Edward and Charles Barry collaborated on the design of the Great Eastern Hotel at London's Liverpool Street station.
45.
Charles Barry was headmaster of Leeds Grammar School from 1854 to 1862 and of Cheltenham College from 1862 to 1868.
46.
Charles Barry later became the third Bishop of Sydney, Australia.
47.
Charles Barry was the author of Railway Expansion in China and the Influence of Foreign Powers in Its Development and is noted for significant infrastructure projects in India, China, Thailand and Egypt.
48.
Charles Barry was the final generation of the Barry architectural and engineering dynasty.
49.
From onward 1837 Charles Barry suffered from sudden bouts of illness, one of the most severe being in 1858.