Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Architect, active in Ireland in the 1840s.    According to an article which appeared in the Northern Standard on 30 October 1841, William Walker 'was for many years, a pupil of the celebrated Mr Blore, architect to her Majesty' and had been 'for some time engaged in carrying into effect the magnificent plans of Mrssrs. Rickman, in the erection of Mr. Shirley's mansion at Loughfea, in Farney, with alterations and additions from his own designs.'(1)    The latter, according to the same article, included the designs for the great hall and chapel at Lough Fea.  The great hall was completed in collaboration with GEORGE SUDDEN  GEORGE SUDDEN by 1848.(2)   In 1848 Walker designed the market house at Ballybay, Co. Monaghan, and, according to Mulligan he was 'involved with' Drumreaske, the property of Henry Mitchell in the same county.(3)  Other proposals appear to have remained unexecuted: these included a bell tower for Errigal Truagh Catholic chapel (1844);(5) a house for W.B. McClintock (later McClintock-Bunbury) on the shores of Lough Erne (1845);  plans for Bangor Castle, Co. Down (1845).(6)     He may be the 'Mr Walker, architect' who was involved in the design and erection of the Gillespie monument at Comber, Co. Down, completed in June 1845.(7)

During the 1840s, while he was working on Lough Fea Castle, Walker lived in Glaslough Street Monaghan,(8) though by 1846 he also appears to have had a presence in Co. Down., appearing in Slater's Directory for Bangor for that year..  His wife is recorded as giving birth to birth to a child in Belfast in April 1846.(9).  He still appears, however, in Slater's 1848 Directory for Monaghan, but on 10 June 1848 the Northern Standard annouinced an auction of 'splendid new household-Furniture, chiefly in their original packages, the property of William Walker, Esq., architect, at the Literary Society-House, Glasslough Street, Monaghan',(10) which suggests that Walker was leaving - or had already left - Monaghan permanently.  He appears again in Slater's Directory for Bangor in 1856.

See WORKS.



References



(1) Information given to David Griffin by Eamon Fitzsimons, 2017
(2) Kevin V. Mulligan, 'The Hall at Lough Fea, county Monaghan' in William Laffan, ed., Painting Ireland: topographical views from Glin Castle (Tralee, 2006), 159-162(illus.)
(3) Mulligan, loc. cit., above, 162,n6.
(4) PRONI, DIORC/1/7/11 (see PRONI e-catalogue). 
(5) 3 signed drawings, dated 1845, in collection of Lord Rathdonnell, Lisnevagh, Co. Carlow.
(6) Marcus Patton, Bangor: an historical gazetteer (UAHS, 1999), 35.
(7) IB 16, 1 Aug 1874, 219 (but cf. B 3, 26 Jul 1845, 356, which says that 'Brother' Johnston was the architect).
(8) See note 1, above. 
(9) See note 1, above.
(10) See note 1, above. 


8 work entries listed in chronological order for WALKER, WILLIAM


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Building: CO. ARMAGH, GOSFORD CASTLE
Date: 1821
Nature: A 'William Walker' was clerk of works for building of oubuildings for second Earl of Gosford. (Is this a different William Walker?)
Refs: Kevin V. Mulligan, The Buildings of Ireland: South Ulster (2013), 345-6.

Building: CO. MONAGHAN, LOUGH FEA HOUSE
Date: 1841-1848?
Nature: Planning and execution of great hall with George Sudden for Evelyn John Shirley. Tudor-style lodges probably also by Walker and Sudden (Mulligan, 2013).
Refs: Kevin V. Mulligan, 'The Hall at Lough Fea, county Monaghan' in William Laffan, ed., Painting Ireland: topographical views from Glin Castle (Tralee, 2006), 159-162;  Kevin V. Mulligan, The Buildings of Ireland: South Ulster (2013), 412-3,416.

Building: CO. MONAGHAN, BALLYOSION, CHURCH OF THE HOLY FAMILY (RC, ERRIGAL TRUAGH PARISH)
Date: 1844
Nature: Proposal to build tower, for Rev. Charles MacDermott.
Refs: PRONI, DIORC/1/7/11 (see PRONI e-catalogue);  Kevin V. Mulligan, The Buildings of Ireland: South Ulster (2013),

Building: CO. FERMANAGH, ?, HOUSE (PROPOSED)
Date: 1845
Nature: Proposed house on shore of Lough Erne for W.B. McClintock. (Not built).
Refs: 3 signed drawings, dated 1845, in collection of Lord Rathdonnell, Lisnevagh, Co. Carlow.

Building: CO. DOWN, BANGOR, BANGOR CASTLE
Date: 1845
Nature: Set of Jacobethan designs for same, for Robert Ward. Not executed.
Refs: Signed, dated drawings in PRONI, D1529/2/8 (photocopies of ground plan and perspective view in Jones file W9A; Marcus Patton, Bangor: an historical gazetteer (UAHS, 1999), 35

Building: CO. DOWN, COMBER, GILLESPIE MONUMENT
Date: 1845
Nature: 'Mr Walker, architect', perhaps WW, said to have collaborated with John Fraser on monument. 
Refs: IB 16, 1 Aug 1874, 219 (but cf. B 3, 26 Jul 1845, 356, which says that 'Brother' Johnston was the architect).

Building: CO. MONAGHAN, BALLYBAY, MARKET HOUSE
Date: 1848
Nature: New market house. Classical.  Contractor: Clarke & Co., Monaghan.
Refs: Kevin V. Mulligan, The Buildings of Ireland: South Ulster (2013),154-5.

Building: CO. MONAGHAN, DRUMREASKE
Date: ?
Nature: Tudor Gothic house and stable yard for Alexander Mitchell, agent to the Shirley estate.
Refs: Kevin V. Mulligan, The Buildings of Ireland: South Ulster (2013), 188-9.