Barry, SIR CHARLES, R.A.

Barry, SIR CHARLES, R.A., architect, was born at Westminster in 1795, and educated at private schools in Leicestershire and Bedfordshire. In 1810 he was indentured to a firm of Lambeth surveyors; in 1817 he went to Italy. A wealthy countryman of his own, attracted by the beauty of his drawings, took him with him to the East as his companion, defraying his expenses. Returning to England in 1820, he three years later became the successful competitor for the design of a church at Brighton. He was also the architect of the Manchester Athenæum, a building in the Grecian style; and of the Grammar-school of King Edward VI. at Birmingham; the latter esteemed the most beautiful of his works. In London, he designed the Travellers' Club and the Reform Club, both in Pall Mall, and the College of Surgeons, Lincoln's Inn Fields. After the burning of the old Houses of Parliament in 1834, on a public competition Barry's design for the new building was adjudged the best. The work was commenced in 1840; and on 3d February 1852, Her Majesty opened the Victoria Tower and Royal Gallery in state, and on the occasion knighted the architect. Chosen a Royal Academician in 1841, Sir Charles was also a Fellow of the Royal Society, of the Society of Arts, &c. He died at Clapham, May 12, 1860, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. See WESTMINSTER, and the Life by his son, Bishop Barry (1867).