Sam Hanna Bell Samuel Beckett John Hewitt Bernard (Barney) Hughes James Joseph Magennis VC Frances Elizabeth Clarke Stewart Parker William Carleton Rosamond Praegar

Charles Lanyon (1813 - 1889):
Architect and engineer


Charles Lanyon was born in Sussex on 6 Jnauary 1813 but came to Ireland as a young man. He was apprenticed to Jacob Owen of the Board of Public Works in Dublin, was appointed Surveyor of Kildare, and then of County Antrim in 1835. In 1836 he built the Gledun Road viaduct from local stone, and 'The Frosses' road between Ballymena and Ballymoney, where avenues of fir trees were planted so that their roots would support the road and prevent it from sinking into the bog. In addition to being County Surveyor, he undertook private commissions and designed at least fourteen churches.

At the age of twenty-six he designed the palm house in the Botanic Gardens, Belfast, and in 1846 built Crumlin Road Gaol. He became one of Belfast's leading architects. Among other buildings in the city designed by him are Queen's College (now Queen's University) in 1849, the Presbyterian Theological College in College Park, the Custom House, Sinclair Seamen's Church, Corporation Square and the Ulster Club. In 1846 the Mayor of Belfast, leading linen producer Andrew Mulholland, commissioned him to design Ballywalter House in County Down. In 1865, Lanyon and WH Lynn built the Old Library at Queen's University.

In 1866 he was elected member of parliament for Belfast, and in 1867, President of the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland. He was knighted in 1868. He died on 31 May 1889.



Born: 6 January 1813
Died: 31 May 1889
Kate Newmann
Acknowledgements:

Additional material, Richard Froggatt, 12/2014