1. Sir Charles Lanyon DL, JP was an English architect of the 19th century.
27 Facts About Charles Lanyon
1. 2.
Charles Lanyon's work is most closely associated with Belfast, Northern Ireland.
3.
Charles Lanyon's father was John Jenkinson Lanyon, a purser in the Royal Navy, and his mother was Catherine Anne Mortimer.
4.
Charles Lanyon was county surveyor[2] in Kildare briefly, before moving on to Antrim in 1836.
5.
Charles Lanyon remained county surveyor of Antrim until 1860 Before the American Civil War when he resigned from the post to concentrate on private work and other interests.
6.
Charles Lanyon was elected Mayor of Belfast in 1862, and Conservative MP for the city between 1865 and 1868.
7.
Charles Lanyon lost his Belfast parliamentary seat in 1868 to William Johnston but continued to 1871 to serve as a Belfast Town councillor.
8.
Charles Lanyon served as Deputy Lieutenant for County Antrim and was appointed High Sheriff of Antrim in 1876.
9.
Charles Lanyon was made director of the Northern Counties Railway in 1870, but resigned in 1887 because of ill-health.
10.
Charles Lanyon lived at 'The Abbey' a grand house in Whiteabbey, which eventually became a sanitorium during World War I and is part of Whiteabbey Hospital.
11.
Charles Lanyon died there on 31 May 1889 and is buried in Knockbreda Cemetery.
12.
Charles Lanyon's will is recorded in the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland:.
13.
Charles Lanyon was the County Surveyor for part of this time and would have had a considerable supervisory role.
14.
Charles Lanyon planted 1500 large Scots pine trees in two lines so that the roots would intermingle, and would create a surface for a road to be built.
15.
The palm house was probably Charles Lanyon's only building of this type.
16.
Charles Lanyon built this large redbrick building on the Lisburn Road, on the site currently occupied by the Medical Biology Centre, Queen's University of Belfast on which he based Queens College.
17.
The main atrium of the Charles Lanyon building houses a marble statue of Galileo.
18.
Charles Lanyon designed the Crumlin Road Gaol and, opposite it, the Crumlin Road Courthouse between 1846 and 1850.
19.
Charles Lanyon married into the Brown family who provided the site for The Desmesne in the village.
20.
Charles Lanyon designed Falls Road Methodist Church, Divis Street, Belfast, which was opened in 1854 and closed in 1966 when it was replaced by Divis Tower.
21.
Outside of Belfast, Charles Lanyon is famous for planting the Frosses Trees in 1839.
22.
Charles Lanyon planted approximately 1,500 Scots Pine trees along the edge of what is the A26 road, just north of the town of Ballymena.
23.
The Campanile of the University of Dublin, Trinity College, was designed by Charles Lanyon and completed in 1853.
24.
Charles Lanyon designed an extension to the east side of The Royal St George Yacht Club in Kingstown in 1865 which was accepted in principle.
25.
Charles Lanyon redesigned Killyleagh Castle and designed Drenagh Estate, bridges, viaducts and mausoleums and over 50 churches in Belfast and throughout Ireland.
26.
Alongside William J Barre, Lanyon is considered Belfast's most important architect of the Victorian era.
27.
Charles Lanyon formed a partnership in 1854 with his former apprentice William Henry Lynn.