Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

County surveyor for Co. Kildare, 1865-1869. Thomas Brazill appears to have been a pupil, assistant or partner of Hamilton Connolly of the Royal Engineers, whose addresses he shared from 1849 or earlier until 1863 or later. He was appointed county surveyor for Co. Kildare in October 1865 following the resignation of CHARLES PHILIP COTTON. CHARLES PHILIP COTTON. (1) After coming under strong criticism from some members of the Grand Jury for his lax attitude towards his road contractors, he resigned in July 1869. He was succeeded by JOHN HENRY BRETT JOHN HENRY BRETT . He disappears from the Dublin directories during the 1870s, but a Thomas Brazill 'C.E. and architect' resurfaces in the city in 1880-1882, initially with an address at 6 Bachelor's Walk and then at 14 Charlemont Mall 'and Manchester'.

O'Donoghue notes that Brazill was the first person to suggest that a reservoir at Poulaphouca would provide the best solution to the question of Dublin's water supply. His proposal, set out in his Report to the Corporation of Dublin on the Proposed Supply of the City and Suburbs with Pure Water at High Pressure (1854),(2) was turned down on grounds of cost, but the idea was revived and carried into practice with the construction of the Poulaphouca dam and Blessington reservoir in 1938-45.

ICEI: associate by 1849; transferred to class of member, 1856;(3) auditor, 1855-1862; member of council, 1863-1865; no longer on list of members for 1870.

Addresses: 15 Wentworth Place, 1849; 12 Holles Street, 1852->=1863; 6 Bachelor's Walk, 1880; 14 Charlemont Mall & Manchester, 1881-1882.

See WORKS.



References

All information in this entry not otherwise attributed is from ICEI membership lists TICEI, from Thom's directories and from Brendan O'Donoghue, The Irish County Surveyors 1834-1944 (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2007), 109-10, which gives the fullest account of Brazill's career.

(1) Leinster Express 2 Sep, 21 Oct 1865 (B.O'D.).
(2) Published in Civil Engineer and Architect's Journal 18 (Jan 1855), 13-14. 
(3) ICEI admissions applications, I, 1 (NLI microfilm Pos. 9383).


1 work entries listed in chronological order for BRAZILL, THOMAS


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Building: CO. DUBLIN, BRITTAS, WEIR
Date: 1861
Nature: New weir and artificial watercourse.
Refs: DB 3, 15 Sep 1861, 697

Author Title Date Details
Brazill, Thomas Report to the corporation of Dublin on the proposed supply of the city and suburbs wit pure water at high pressure 1854 Dublin, 1854.