Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Architect specializing in theatre design and playwright, of London, for whom see Howard Colvin, A Biographical dictionary of British architects 1600-1840 (4th edn., 2008), 113-4, and Görel Garlick, To Serve the purpose of the drama: the theatre designs and plays of Samuel Beazley 1786-1851 (Society for Theatre Research, 2003).. Beazley was frequently in Dublin during 1820 in connection with work for the theatrical entrepreneur Henry Harris, who had bought the royal patent for the Theatre Royal in Crow Street in 1819, producing a report on the condition of the buildings in March.(1) After being stalled in his intention to buy the theatre itself from the former patentee, Harris then decided to build a new Theatre Royal elsewhere in Dublin. While he was negotiating for a suitable site, he commissioned Beazley to convert the Rotunda attached to the Lying-In Hospital on Rutland Square into a theatre,(2) which opened in June 1820. He then commissioned Beazley to design his new theatre on the site which he had acquired in Hawkins Street. The theatre opened in January 1821. During the spring and summer of 1820 Beazley was also supervising the erection of the Theatre Royal in Birmingham, whose proprietors became exasperated by his frequent disappearances to Dublin. Harris may well have been equally annoyed by Beazley's disappearances to Birmingham; among the Chief Secretary's papers for 1820, there is a letter from Beazley informing the Chief Secretary that he must go to England for a few days.(3)

While he was over in Dublin, Beazley was asked to examine GEORGE SEMPLE' GEORGE SEMPLE' s plan for the Custom stores with FRANCIS JOHNSTON. FRANCIS JOHNSTON. (4) JOHN LEE ARCHER  JOHN LEE ARCHER was a pupil of Beazley's,(5) and WILLIAM DEANE BUTLER  WILLIAM DEANE BUTLER is said to have served part of his apprenticeship with him.(5) GEORGE OSTELL LEICESTER  GEORGE OSTELL LEICESTER may have been another of his pupils.

See WORKS, for Irish work only.



References

All information in this entry not otherwise accounted for is from Görel Garlick,  op. cit., above, 43-52.

(1) NA/CSO/RP/1821/1872.
(2) Signed, undated drawing in Harvard Theatre Collection, Houghton Library, pf MS. Thr 344 no 14 (information from Dr Görel Garlick).
(3) NA/SPO CSORP 1820 S118 (IAA, Edward McParland files, Acc. 2008/44).
(4) NA/SPO CSORP B138 (IAA, Edward McParland files, Acc. 2008/44).
(5) Roy S. Smith, John Lee Archer: Tasmanian Architect and Engineer (Tasmanian Historical Research Association, 1962), 4.
(6) B 15, 5 Dec 1857, 710; Directory of British Architects 1834-1900, 145.


4 work entries listed in chronological order for BEAZLEY, SAMUEL #


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Building: CO. OFFALY, CASTLE BERNARD (ALIAS KINNITTY CASTLE)
Date: 1811
Nature: Designs for park entrance and school exhibited at RA 1811.  For Thomas Bernard, MP.
Refs: RA 1911, Nos. 847 (park entrance), & 854 (school)

Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, PARNELL STREET (& CAVENDISH ROW), ROTUNDA (ROUND ROOM)
Date: 1820
Nature: Conversion of Round Room into temporary theatre for Henry Harris prior to opening of Theatre Royal, Hawkins St. Opened 19 Jun 1820.
Refs: Plan in Harvard Theatre Collection, Houghton Library, pf MS. Thr 344 no. 14 (repr. in Görel Garlick, To Serve the purpose of the drama: the theatre designs and plays of Samuel Beazley 1786-1851 (Society for Theatre Research, 2003), 45;  Garlick, op. cit., 44-45.

Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, HAWKINS STREET, THEATRE ROYAL
Date: 1820-21
Nature: New theatre, for Henry Harris. FS laid 14 Oct 1820.  Lord Lieutenant taken on tour of building 'conducted by the Patentee and Architect', 10 Jan 1821. Opened 18 Jan 1821. Destroyed by fire in 1880
Refs: Drawing in RIA secretary's office (inf. from E. McParland); 'Annals of Dublin' in Pettigrew & Oulton's Dublin Almanac (1847); G.N. Wright, Historical Guide to Dublin (1821), 271;  Freeman's Journal, 12 Jan 1821;   Görel Garlick, To Serve the purpose of the drama: the theatre designs and plays of Samuel Beazley 1786-1851 (Society for Theatre Research, 2003), 45-51(illus.).

Building: CO. TIPPERARY, CAHIR CASTLE
Date: 1838ca-1840
Nature: Alterations for 2nd Earl of Glengall
Refs: Copy & tracings of preliminary designs by SB made by George Ostell Leicester, in Victoria & Albert Museum, RIBA Drawings Collection PB107/17(1-2), see British Architectural Library Catalogue, http://riba.sirsidynix.net.uk/uhtbin/cgisirsi/OSyL8TSpVw/MAIN_CAT/192650084/13 (last visited May 2009) and Catalogue of the Drawings Collection of the Royal Institute of British Architects B (RIBA, 1972), 61; RA Exhibition 1838, nos.1174,1205; Mary Cecilia Lyons, Illustrated Incumbered Estates Ireland, 1850-1905 (1993), 71(illus.)72(illus.)