Sydney Smirke

Sydney Smirke
Born	1798 London, England
Died	8 December 1877
Nationality	English
Occupation	Architect
Awards	RIBA Royal Gold Medal
Buildings	the circular reading room at the British Museum

Sydney Smirke (1798 – 8 December 1877) was a British architect who 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:

• Customs House (refronting,) Quayside, Newcastle upon Tyne, (1833)
• The Custom House, Queen Square, Bristol (1835–57)
• Wellington Pit Surface Buildings (Whitehaven) (1840)
• The nave roof of York Minster (1841)
• The Carlton Club in Pall Mall, London (1845)
• 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 Frewen Mausoleum at St Mary's Church, Northiam, East Sussex (1846)
• The Derby Hall, Derby Hotel and Athenaeum in Bury (1849–52; the latter two now demolished)
• The circular reading room at the British Museum (1857)
• Exhibition galleries at Burlington House, home of the Royal Academy (1868)
• Hall of Inner Temple (1870)
• St John's Church, Loughton
• Landscaping of Brookwood Cemetery, near Woking, Surrey (with William Tite)
• Toll House, Lower Sandgate Road, Folkestone

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 0-500-34070-6
• Gentleman's Magazine, 1841, Part 1, p91
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography