William Henry Lynn
Encyclopedia
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
-born architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
with a practice in Belfast
Belfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...
and the north of England. He is noted for his Ruskinian Venetian Gothic
Gothic Revival architecture
The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...
public buildings, which include Chester Town Hall
History of Chester
The history of Chester extends back nearly two millennia, covering all periods of British history in between then and the present day. The city of Chester was founded as a fort, known as Deva, by the Romans in AD 79...
(completed 1869) and Barrow-in-Furness Town Hall
Barrow-in-Furness Town Hall
Barrow-in-Furness Town Hall is a Victorian-era, neo-gothic municipal building in Barrow-in-Furness, England. The building serves as the base of Barrow Borough Council and houses a number of local government departments. The building was constructed in a four year period entirely from local sandstone...
(completed 1886).
In 1846 Lynn was articled
Articled clerk
An articled clerk, also known as an articling student, is an apprentice in a professional firm in Commonwealth countries. Generally the term arises in the accountancy profession and in the legal profession. The articled clerk signs a contract, known as "articles of clerkship", committing to a...
to Sir Charles Lanyon
Charles Lanyon
Sir Charles Lanyon DL, JP was an English architect of the 19th century. His work is most closely associated with Belfast, Northern Ireland.-Biography:Lanyon was born in Eastbourne, Sussex in 1813...
in Belfast; under Lanyon he prepared the drawings for the original building housing Queens College, Belfast. He and Lanyon formed a partnership
Partnership
A partnership is an arrangement where parties agree to cooperate to advance their mutual interests.Since humans are social beings, partnerships between individuals, businesses, interest-based organizations, schools, governments, and varied combinations thereof, have always been and remain commonplace...
in 1854; in 1860, with Charles' son John Lanyon as junior partner, they incorporated
Corporation
A corporation is created under the laws of a state as a separate legal entity that has privileges and liabilities that are distinct from those of its members. There are many different forms of corporations, most of which are used to conduct business. Early corporations were established by charter...
as Lanyon, Lynn and Lanyon
Lanyon, Lynn and Lanyon
Lanyon, Lynn & Lanyon, Civil Engineers and Architects was a 19th-century firm working mainly in Dublin and Belfast, and the leading architectural firm in Belfast during the 1860s. Its partners were Charles Lanyon, William Henry Lynn, and Charles' son John Lanyon.Charles Lanyon was the head of the...
. The partnership dissolved
Dissolution (law)
In law, dissolution has multiple meanings.Dissolution is the last stage of liquidation, the process by which a company is brought to an end, and the assets and property of the company redistributed....
in 1872, when Lynn struck out on his own.
For their first joint projects (1855), Lynn and the elder Lanyon produced bank buildings at Newtownards, County Down
Newtownards
Newtownards is a large town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It lies at the most northern tip of Strangford Lough, 10 miles east of Belfast, on the Ards Peninsula. Newtownards is the largest town in the Borough of Ards. According to the 2001 Census, it has a population of 27,821 people in...
, and at Dungannon, County Tyrone, which are two of the earliest Irish examples of the Venetian Gothic
Venetian Gothic architecture
Venetian Gothic is a term given to an architectural style combining use of the Gothic lancet arch with Byzantine and Moorish architecture influences. The style originated in 14th century Venice with the confluence of Byzantine styles from Constantinople, Arab influences from Moorish Spain and early...
style that was being championed by John Ruskin
John Ruskin
John Ruskin was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, also an art patron, draughtsman, watercolourist, a prominent social thinker and philanthropist. He wrote on subjects ranging from geology to architecture, myth to ornithology, literature to education, and botany to political...
. In Belfast
Belfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...
the firm produced urbane Italianate commercial structures, in Dublin, the Church of St Andrew (1860) and the Unitarian Church, St Stephen's Green was "justly described as the best example extant of a modern Gothic church on a narrow street frontage, the treatment being quite original and altogether admirable". In Jordanstown, Co. Antrim, they designed the Romanesque Revival Church of St Patrick (1865–8) and, in England, the Chester Town Hall, following a public competition (1863–9), should be mentioned. In the 1860's a second Shane's Castle
Shane's Castle
Shane's Castle is a ruined castle near Randalstown in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. The castle is on the north-east shores of Lough Neagh. Built in 1345 by a member of the O'Neill dynasty, it was originally called Eden-duff-carrick...
was designed with Charles Lanyon for 1st Lord O'Neill (burned 1922), and in 1870 Castle Leslie
Castle Leslie
Castle Leslie, home to an Irish branch of Clan Leslie, is located on the 4 km² Castle Leslie Estate adjacent to the village of Glaslough, north-east of Monaghan town in County Monaghan, Ireland.-Architecture:...
was designed for Sir John Leslie, 1st Baronet.
A project that was never realised was the remodelling and expansion of Clandeboye House
Clandeboye Estate
The Clandeboye Estate is a country estate located in Bangor, County Down, Northern Ireland, outside Belfast. Covering , it contains woodlands, formal and walled gardens, lawns, a lake, and of farmland...
for the young Lord Dufferin and Claneboye, though correspondence continued over three decades, concerning the plans but also ranging over a projected new house at Grey Point; a seaside resort at Helen's Bay; a water tank to be sited below Helen's Tower; and projects in Canada, where Lord Dufferin was Governor General. A letter from Lynn to Lord Dufferin in March 1869 referring to alterations then under way at Calandeboye, some interior alterations of the time were designed by Lynn, perhaps in the dining-room, drawing-room, library and gallery.
Among Lynn's most prominent designs working on his own were his work at Queen's University, Belfast, the Carlisle Memorial Methodist Church, Carlisle Circus, Belfast (1872–5; now derelict) and the Ruskinian "Venetian" Gothic Belfast Bank on College Green, Dublin (1892), now housing a grand pub. Among his other later public commissions in Belfast were the Central Library (1883–8), the Bank Buildings (1895–1900), and Campbell College (1891–4). In part on the success of the Chester Town Hall he was commissioned to produce designs for town halls in Paisley, Scotland (1875–82), and Barrow-in-Furness, North Lancashire (1882–87), as well as the extension (1891–95) to the Italianate Harbour Office, Belfast.
One of his last designs was for the baptistry of Belfast Cathedral (1915).