Sir Charles Lanyon DL, JP (6 January 1813 – 31 May 1889) was an English architect of the 19th century. His work is most closely associated with Belfast, Northern Ireland.Ulster History Circle
Biography Lanyon was born in Eastbourne, Sussex (now East Sussex) in 1813. His father was John Jenkinson Lanyon, a purser in the Royal Navy, and his mother was Catherine Anne Mortimer.
Following his education, he became an apprentice civil engineer with Jacob Owen in Portsmouth. When Owen was made senior Engineer and Architect of the Irish Board of Works and moved to Dublin, Lanyon followed. In 1835, he married Owen's daughter, Elizabeth Helen. They had ten children, including Sir William Owen Lanyon, an army officer and colonial administrator.
Charles Lanyon was briefly a county surveyor in County Kildare in Ireland, before moving north to County Antrim. He remained county surveyor of Antrim until 1860.
Lanyon was elected Mayor of Belfast in 1862, and as a Conservative was elected to Parliament in 1866. He stood again for two-seat borough constituency in the 1868 elections alongside John Mulholland, the owner of the York Street Spinning Mill. But an unprecedented understanding between William Johnston, the candidate of "Protestant Workingmen", and the largely Catholic-supported Liberal candidate,Thomas McClure, ensured a Conservative defeat. Johnston topped the poll.
Lanyon, who was knighted in 1868, continued to serve as a Belfast Town councillor and on the Belfast Harbour Commission. He served as president of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland,https://www.riai.ie/the-riai/past-presidents as High Sheriff and Deputy Lieutenant for County Antrim and, for many years, as a Justice of the Peace.
His business interests included being director of the Blackstaff Flax Spinning Company and chairman of several railway companies. He was made director of the Northern Counties Railway in 1870, but resigned in 1887 because of ill-health.
Alongside his business activities he was an active Freemason and served as Provincial Deputy Grand Master of Belfast and North Down between 1863 and 1868, Provincial Deputy Grand Master of Antrim between 1868 and 1883 and Provincial Grand Master of Antrim between 1883 and 1889.
Lanyon lived at 'The Abbey' a grand house in Whiteabbey, which eventually became a sanitorium during World War I and is now part of Whiteabbey Hospital. He died there on 31 May 1889 and is buried in Knockbreda Cemetery. His will is recorded in the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland: 8 August 1889, LANYON, Sir Charles, Effects £53,785 1s 3d. The will (with 5 codiciles) of Sir Charles Lanyon, late of the Abbey, Whiteabbey, Co. Antrim, Knight, to died 31 May 1889 at the same place, was proved at Belfast by John Lanyon of Lisbreen, Fortwilliam Park Belfast, CE Herbert Owen Lanyon of Castletown Terrace, Belfast, Merchant, and Elizabeth Helen Lanyon of the Abbey, Whiteabbey, Spinster.
Notable works
Antrim Coast Road (1832–1842) The north Antrim coast was difficult to reach for many years. The Irish Commissioners of Public Works promoted the construction of the Antrim Coast Road between 1832 and 1842 by civil engineer William Bald. Lanyon was the County Surveyor for part of this time (1836–1842) and would have had a considerable supervisory role. The route runs from Larne up through Ballygalley, Glenarm, Carnlough, Glenariff to Ballycastle. Its construction involved removingthousands of tonnes of rock using explosives, and building sea walls. Part of this route included the Glendun Viaduct.
Ballymoney Court House (1838) Ballymoney Court House, one of Charles Lanyon's earlier buildings, was completed in 1838. It cost £1,125, plus £40 for the bench and fitting up. It is made mostly of basalt blocks with brick dressings. The main doorway is surrounded by a thick stone frame. Many of the window frames and sills are made of brown basalt. Strangely enough it is not currently a listed building.
Frosses Road (1839) When a road was needed from Ballymena to Ballymoney, the straightest route was over the large Frosses Bog. 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.
Glendun Viaduct, Glendun (1839) This huge arch-shaped viaduct was finally completely built in 1839.
Palm House, Botanic Gardens, Belfast (1840) The palm house was probably Lanyon's only building of this type. It is a curvilinear iron and glass structure, and is one of the oldest surviving examples in the world.
St. John's Church, Whitehouse (1840) This Church of Ireland church was opened in 1840, by licence. It cost £716.16.0 to build. This was and still is one of the most successful churches in the Carnmoney Parish. It was designed for free by Lanyon who was a member of Carnmoney Parish. At the side of the church Lanyon built a small school hall for £300, which was used as a school until 1930. It was used as a NAAFI mess for the troops in the Second World War, but it was demolished in 1965 to make way for a new church hall.
St John's, Glynn (1841) This was built in 1841 for a cost of £800.
Raloo Parish Church, Glenoe (1842) This church was built in 1842 for the cost of £436 and was designed to hold the entire population of the village (less than 200).
Gills Almshouses, Carrickfergus (1842) These almshouses were designed to replace the old charity houses in 1842 which were in very bad repair. The front of the building is symmetrical on either side, with black bricks on the edge. It is made of normal sandstone, and is currently painted white. The building was not always white. The original sandstone was crumbling away, so it was rendered. This explains why the white walls stand out from the cornerstones instead of the other way around.
Gill's Almshouses: A : 1842; Charles Lanyon, architect. The charitable endowment of Henry Gill who, dying in 1761, bequeathed "to fourteen aged men, decayed in their circumstances, £10 each per annum and also houses and gardens", in Ellis Street (see No. 23a). Later this further block was built facing the harbour. The pretty Tudor revival style is reminiscent of contemporary churches and schools designed by the same architect, then County Surveyor of Antrim. The middle and wing bays of the symmetrical five-bay front project slightly and have tall double-shouldered gables with curious finials like inverted gate posts. Beneath the datestone the central front doorway has a four-centred arch, recessed surround, and a hood moulding with big cabbage-like bosses all dulled by dark paint. The intermediate bays have square windows with plain chamfered frames. Each wing bay has a triple window, the centre light taller than its neighbours, embraced by a label moulding which echoes the stepping of the gables. Single pointed lancets with mouldings akin to that on the front door light the gables. Above the steep tiled roof rise two chimneys with a pair of diagon¬ally set stacks apiece. Nowadays it appears that the almshouses rival the inmates in their decayed circumstances, for, while the black and white paint-work is tidy, the facade shows an alarming inclination to land at the feet of those who stand in front to admire it. This is a good little build¬ing, adding much to the town's seafront, and worthy of careful renovation. Happily the James Butcher Housing Association is now undertaking this work.Ulster Architectural Heritage, Social Historic Buildings, Groups of Buildings and Areas of Importance in the Town of Carrickfergus (undated)
Ulster Institute for the Deaf, Dumb and Blind, Lisburn Road, Belfast (1845) Lanyon built this large redbrick building on the Lisburn Road, on the site currently occupied by the Medical Biology Centre (MBC), Queen's University of Belfast on which he based Queens College. Unlike Queen's, it was not kept well and it was demolished in 1965 by Queens University Belfast.
Randalstown Viaducts, Randalstown (1847) Of these two bridges, only the taller, newer one – a four-arch viaduct – was designed by Lanyon..
Queen's University (1849) Lanyon designed the main building of Queen's University of Belfast in 1847–1849, The design for the central tower was based on Magdalen College in Oxford, and is repeated in the smaller towers. The back of the building is not as intricate as the front, as the college had problems with funding. The building is famous for its Gothic Revival facade and Great Hall.
The main atrium of the Lanyon building houses a marble statue of Galileo. Most notable for his advances in physics, he was also a deep thinker and philosopher, resulting in the statue portrayed seated.
The Great Hall underwent an extensive £2.5m renovation in 2002, restoring it to Lanyon's original plans. The restoration was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and the hall was reopened by The Prince of Wales. Lanyon also designed the nearby Union Theological College.Queen's University Belfast
The Abbey, Whiteabbey (1850)
Whiteabbey, a village in the parish of Carnmoney, Barony of Lower Belfast, County of Antrim and province of Ulster, 4 miles (N.) from Belfast on the shore of Belfast Lough; containing 71 houses and 391 inhabitants. It takes its name from an old abbey whose picturesque ruins consist of a chapel, the remains of which denote the early English style of architecture, but at what time or name or by whom founded it is not known. Lewis, Samuel, A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, vol.II, London: S Lewis & Co., 1837, p712
This house was designed and built in 1850 for Richard Davison MP, on the site of another MP, Samuel Getty, who had a gentleman's cottage on the site. It was named "The Abbey" because it was on the site of an ancient Cistercian abbey which stood nearby from 1215 to 1925. Its entrance is very like Abbeydene, but with no pillars.
Abbey, the residence of William Getty Esquire, is a spacious and handsome residence, possessing much taste in its style of construction and presenting a handsomely ornamented and stone-finished front. It is situationed in a handsome lawn of about 10 acres, which is well laid out and planted. Abbey was erected in 1835. Ordnance Survey, Memoirs of Ireland, Parishes of County Antrim, 1, 1838–9
In 1897 the house was purchased by the Granville Hotel Company for use as a tuberculosis hydrotherapy centre, employing Sebastian Kneipp's naturopathy technique.
The residence of Sir Charles Lanyon at Whiteabbey near Belfast has been purchased by a syndicate for conversion into a hydropatholic establishment. It stands on 33 acres and in a most picturesque situation. The Irish Builder, 15 April 1897
Whiteabbey – At Whiteabbey near Belfast, the mansion known as "The Abbey" formerly the seat of Sir Charles Lanyon was purchased by Granville Hotel Company and converted into a Hydro with all the latest improvements. Ranges of baths had been inserted and a new wing will shortly be built. The Irish Builder, 1 December 1899, p200
The private treatment centre became Whiteabbey Sanatorium during the First World War, then developed into Whiteabbey Hospital in the 1930s, with the construction of the Lanyon Building. It is currently a non-acute medical and surgical hospital.
Crumlin Road Gaol and Courthouse (1848/1850)