George Wilkinson (architect)

George Wilkinson, FRIBA was an English architect, who practised largely in Ireland. He was born at Witney, Oxfordshire in 1814. He was the elder brother of the architect William Wilkinson (1819–1901), who practised in Oxford.

George Wilkinson
Born1814[1]
Witney
Died1890[1]
Twickenham
NationalityBritish
OccupationArchitect
BuildingsHarcourt Street Railway Station in Dublin
Harcourt St station, 1910

Career

George Wilkinson won a competition in 1835 to design a workhouse for the Thame Poor Law Union.[2] The building is now a campus of Oxford and Cherwell Valley College. Wilkinson went on to design a total of two dozen workhouses in England, including those at Northleach (1835)[3][4] Stow-on-the-Wold (1836)[5] and Woodstock (1836–1837),[6] each with wings laid out in an H-plan. Wilkinson built Tenbury workhouse (1837)[7] on a double courtyard plan. For two workhouses, Witney (1835–1836)[8] and Chipping Norton (1836), he used an unusual design of a saltire of four wings radiating from an octagonal central block.[9] For Wolverhampton he adapted this layout to six wings.[10] In 1839 George Wilkinson was invited to Ireland as the architect of the Poor Law Commission.

Wilkinson published a Practical Geology and Ancient Architecture of Ireland (1845). He also designed the railway station in Multyfarnham, Co. Westmeath, an Italianate station at Crossdoney in Co. Cavan (c. 1855),[11] the Cavan town terminus (1862) for the Midland Great Western Railway, and Harcourt Street Railway Station, Dublin, (1858–1859) for the Dublin Wicklow and Wexford Railway.

Wilkinson married Mary Clinch in Witney on 18 December 1850. Mary was a daughter of John Williams Clinch (1788–1871) the Witney brewer, banker and landowner. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1878.[1]

Wilkinson retired to England in about 1888, and died at Ryde House, Twickenham on 4 October 1890.[12][13]

References
  1. Brodie, 2001, page 991
  2. The Workhouse: Thame
  3. The Workhouse: Northleach
  4. Verey, 1970, p. 343
  5. The Workhouse: Stow-on-the-Wold
  6. The Workhouse: Woodstock
  7. The Workhouse: Tenbury
  8. The Workhouse: Witney
  9. The Workhouse: Chipping Norton
  10. The Workhouse: Wolverhampton
  11. "Crossdoney Railway Station, County Cavan". Buildings of Ireland, National Inventory of Architectural Heritage. Retrieved 27 March 2017.
  12. Higginbotham, Peter. "George Wilkinson – Workhouse Architect". The history of the workhouse. Retrieved 27 March 2017.
  13. "Ryde House". Twickenham Museum. Retrieved 27 March 2017.

Sources
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