Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Landscape gardener and garden architect, for whom see Ray Desmond, Dictionary of British and Irish Botanists and Horticulturalists (1994), 271. The Irish census for 1901 gives  James Garnier's birthplace as Co. Down and his age as 79, indicating a birth date of circa 1822.  His early career is not recorded,(1) but, according to an advertisement which he placed in the Irish Times in November 1883,(2) he had previously been gardener to Mitchell Henry at Kylemore Castle, Co. Galway, for seventeen years, thus presumably from the early 1860s. It was he who in about 1871 provided the designs for the remarkable and extensive range of greenhouses at Kylemore.(3)   On leaving Kylemore, he moved to Dublin and at the time of placing the advertisement was running a gardening business from 17 Grosvenor Place, Rathgar Road, Dublin.(4)  The advertisement states that he was available to enter into contracts for 'keeping gardens by the month or year';  he also stocked seeds and garden requisites and supplied bouquets to order.  A more extended and detailed advertisement appeared in the Irish Times on 29 December 1883.  By 1887 he had moved to Mount Drummond Avenue, Harold's Cross. 

The 1901 census of Ireland finds Garnier at Simpson's Hospital, 'an institution for aged and infirm gentlemen' in Parnell Street.  It was preumably here that he died in 1909.(5) 

Addresses: Kylemore Castle, Co. Galway, 1866ca-1883ca;  17 Grosvenor Place, Rathmines, Dublin, 1883;  Cullen House, Mount Drummond Avenue, Harold's Cross, Dublin, <=1887;  Simpson's Hospital, Great Britain Street, Dublin, 1901.



References



(1)   Irish Genealogy, https://churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/I (last visited, Jun 2018) records the marriage of a James Garnier to Mary Connell of Bishop Street on 16 Jun 1844 in St Peter's Church of Ireland church, Dublin,  the groom is described as a labourer of Walford (Watford?), England.
(2)   Irish Times, 24,26 Nov 1883.
(3)   IB 14, 1 Jan 187 but incorrectly dated to the 1890s.
(4) In Thom's Directory for the same year,the owner is stated to be the builder James Beckett, q.v.
(5) familysearch, https://www.familysearch.org (last visited, Jun 2018) citing Ireland Civil Registration Indexes, 1845-1958; here Garnier's age is given as 87 and his place of death as Dublin North.


1 work entries listed in chronological order for GARNIER, JAMES


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Building: CO. GALWAY, KYLEMORE CASTLE
Date: 1871ca
Nature: Greenhouse range. Roofing by Cranston of Birmingham.
Refs: IB 14, 1 Jan 1872, 1; E. Malins and P. Bowe, Irish Gardens and Demesnes from 1830 (1980), 51(illus.), dated wrongly to 1890s.