Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Monumental mason, ecclesiastical furnisher and builder of 17 Great Brunswick Street, Dublin.   According to the 1911 census of Ireland, Alfred Peter Sharp was born in Kent in 1839 or 1840.  The English census returns indicate that he was a son of Charles Sharp, stonemason, of Maidstone, Kent, and possibly an elder brother of EDMUND SHARP. EDMUND SHARP. (1)   He had come to Dublin by 1870, when  he set up a monumental masonry business at 17 Great Brunswick Street with a partner named EDWARD GOOD EDWARD GOOD . In 1874 Good withdrew from the partnership, leaving Sharp to carry on the business alone. Sharp's business flourished and diversified to include 'church building, repairs and restorations, the manufacture of church furniture, and carvings in wood stone, and marble', and by 1892 he was employing a general staff which averaged sixty men according to the season. From about 1877 the sculptural side of the business was directed by HENRY EMERY HENRY EMERY . Sharp's output was primarily ecclesiastical, but, unlike Edmund Sharp, who was or became a Catholic and had a Catholic clientèle, his work seems to have been almost entirely for the Church of Ireland. He also undertook some secular work, such as the exterior and interior carving of the Ulster Bank in College Street, Dublin. In the late 1890s he took Emery into partnership, practising thereafter as SHARP & SHARP & amp; EMERY.  EMERY.

Alfred Peter Sharp's name disappears from the directories between 1918 and 1922, presumably because he had died   His business was carried on by Emery until the early 1930s.  He married at least twice. He was already a widower when he married Ellen, daughter of William Fraser, a contractor, on 27 December 1870 at St Mark's Church of Ireland church;  by this later marriage he was the father of at least seven daughters.(2)

Addresses:(3) Work: 17 Great Brunswick Street, 1870 until >=1918.
Home: 9 Upper Erne Street, 1870; 24 Wentworth Place, 1874-1876; 7 Great Brunswick Street, 1882->=1896; Allington, Merrion Road, Ballsbridge, 1900;  66 Merrion Road, 1911.

See WORKS.



References

All information in this entry not otherwise accounted for is from the entry on Sharp's business in Dublin, Cork and South of Ireland…Review (Stratten & Stratten, London, 1892), 76.

(1) Alfred Sharp and a sculptor named Edward (i.e. Edmund?) Sharp were living at 24 Wentworth Place in 1875.   According to the Irish census of 1911, Alfred Sharp was then living with his Sussex-born widowed niece, Jane Emily Nash, who was the same age and probably the same person as Jane E. Sharp, third daughter of George Sharp, the brother and master of Edmund Sharp. 
(2) www.church records.irishgenealogy.ie (last visited Jun 2011).
(3) From Thom's directories and and www.churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie, as above.


16 work entries listed in chronological order for SHARP, ALFRED PETER *


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Building: CO. ANTRIM, CARNMONEY, CHURCH OF THE HOLY EVANGELISTS (CI)
Date: 1874
Nature: Celtic memorial cross in churchyard, for Lt. Gen. Smythe, 1881 designed by Thomas Drew. Cross & podium sculpted by A.P. Sharpe, 17 Gt Brunswick St, Dublin; Descent from the Cross sculpted by Thomas Farrell.
Refs: Design exh. RHA 1874, no. 282; IB 23, 15 Feb 1881, 59;  Paula Murphy, Nineteenth-Century Irish Sculpture: Native Genius Reaffirmed  (Yale University Press: New Haven & London, 2010), 184, Fig.257.

Building: CO. WEXFORD, ENNISCORTHY, CHURCH STREET, CHURCH OF ST MARY (CI)
Date: 1876-77
Nature: New stone pulpit, designed by James Franklin Fuller, 1876. Also reading desk, 1877.
Refs: Irish Ecclesiastical Gazette 19, no. 213, 1 Jan 1877, 20.

Building: CO. DERRY, DERRY, CATHEDRAL OF ST COLUMB (CI)
Date: 1887;1909-10
Nature: Reredos, executed by A.P. Sharp to designs by T. Drew with carving by H. Emery; pulpit also executed by APS to Drew's design, 1887.
Refs: IB 29, 1 Mar 1887, 65; 31, 1 Jan 1889, 4,5(illus.)

Building: CO. DERRY, DRAPERSTOWN, CHURCH OF ST COLUMBA (CI, BALLYNASCREEN PARISH)
Date: 1888
Nature: Font, pulpit, prayer desks, communion table by A.P. Sharp.
Refs: IB 31, 15 Mar 1889, 74

Building: CO. DONEGAL, BALLYSHANNON, GRAVEYARD, MARTIN MONUMENT
Date: 1889
Nature: Monument in polished red granite to be erected over grave of late District Inspector Martin. 13 ft high. Octagonal spire with columned die-stand & semi-circular cap with panels bearing badges & emblems of deceased's ranks in RIC.
Refs: IB 31, 15 aug 1889, 214

Building: CO. TYRONE, CLANABOGAN, CHURCH (CI)
Date: 1889
Nature: New chancel arch, marble lining to chancel walls, reredos, sedilia, cornices, credece, pulpit. rchitect: Thomas Drew.  For Galbraith family.
Refs: IB 31, 19 Dec 1889, 299

Building: CO. TYRONE, CALEDON, CHURCH OF ST JOHN (CI)
Date: 1890
Nature: Pulpit & prayer desk, for 4th Earl of Caledon, executed by APS for Thomas Drew.
Refs: IB 32, 1 Jan 1890, 12

Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, SIMMONSCOURT ROAD, CHURCH OF ST MARY (CI, DONNYBROOK PARISH)
Date: 1890
Nature: New pulpit in memory of Arthur Gore Ryder, DD.
Refs: Irish Times, 8 Jan 1890.

Building: CO. SLIGO, SLIGO, JOHN STREET, CATHEDRAL (FORMERLY CHURCH) OF ST JOHN (CI)
Date: 1890
Nature: Executes prayer desk and sedilia designed by Henry Seaver for Christopher L'Estrange as a memorial to his parents.
Refs: Irish Times, 27 Aug 1890.

Building: CO. GALWAY, CLONFERT, CATHEDRAL OF ST BRENDAN (CI)
Date: 1897
Nature: Carved oak work for chancel to designs of J.F. Fuller.
Refs: Irish Times, 26 Oct 1897,21 Oct 1898.

Building: CO. GALWAY, KYLEMORE, CHURCH (CI)
Date: 1897a
Nature: Carving, at cost of £8000. For Mitchell Henry.
Refs: Irish Times, 26 Oct 1897;  but cf.  'Angels and Monkeys', letter to  Irish Times, 10 May 1967, from Walter Mahon-Smith, who attributes carving of angels to C.W. Harrison.

Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, HOWTH ROAD (RAHENY), CHURCH OF ALL SAINTS (CI, RAHENY PARISH)
Date: 1897a
Nature: Carving, consisting of or including pulpit. For Lord Ardilaun.
Refs: Irish Times, 26 Oct 1897.

Building: CO. ARMAGH, ARMAGH, CATHEDRAL CLOSE, CATHEDRAL OF ST PATRICK (CI)
Date: 1897a
Nature: Carving.
Refs: Irish Times, 26 Oct 1897.

Building: CO. DONEGAL, RAPHOE, CATHEDRAL OF ST EUNAN (CI)
Date: 1897a
Nature: Carving.
Refs: Irish Times, 26 Oct 1897.

Building: CO. WATERFORD, LISMORE, CATHEDRAL OF ST CARTHAGE (CI)
Date: 1897a
Nature: Carving.
Refs: Irish Times, 26 Oct 1897.

Building: CO. WATERFORD, LISMORE, CATHEDRAL OF ST CARTHAGE (CI)
Date: 1897a
Nature: Carving.
Refs: Irish Times, 26 Oct 1897.