Thomas Harrison (architect)

Thomas Harrison (August 7 (baptised) 1744 – 29 March 1829) was an English architect and engineer. He built a number of bridges, including Grosvenor Bridge in Chester. He also rebuilt parts of Chester and Lancaster castles. His building designs were mainly in the neoclassical style.

Early life and education

Harrison was baptised in Richmond, Yorkshire, England, and was the son of Thomas Harrison, a carpenter, and Anne née Brittel. Details of his early life are not known but it is likely he was educated at Richmond grammar school. In 1769 Sir Lawrence Dundas of Aske sent him to Rome with George Cuitt, a landscape painter, to study Roman antiquities. In 1770 he submitted a design to Pope Clement XIV for converting the Vatican Cortile del Belvedere into a museum. In 1773 he entered a competition organised by the Accademia di San Luca to re-plan the Piazza del Popolo. His design was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1777. Although the design was unsuccessful he was commissioned by the pope to alter the sacristy of St Peter's but the pope died before the work started.Rudolf-Hanley, Moira 'Harrison, Thomas ("bap". 1744, "d". 1829)', "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography", Oxford University Press, 2004; [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/12451] , accessed 5 February 2008.]

Career

He returned to Richmond, then moved to Lancaster in 1783 after he won a competition to build Skerton Bridge over the River Lune in the city. This bridge had elliptical arches and a level road surface, which was a device which had never been used on this scale in England previously. He was subsequently commissioned to build St Mary's Bridge in Derby and Stramongate Bridge in Kendal. In 1815 he was appointed as county surveyor of Cheshire having worked on several bridges in Cheshire for the previous 15 years. His major work there was the design of the Grosvenor Bridge crossing the River Dee in Chester which when it was built was the largest single-span masonry arch in the world, which measured
*cite book | last =Pevsner | first =Nikolaus | authorlink =Nikolaus Pevsner | coauthors = | title =The Buildings of England: North Lancashire |edition= | publisher =Yale University Press | date =2002 | origyear=1969 | location = New Haven| pages = | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = 0 300 09617 8
*cite book | last =Pevsner | first =Nikolaus | authorlink =Nikolaus Pevsner | coauthors =Edward Hubbard | title =The Buildings of England: Cheshire |edition= | publisher =Yale University Press| date =2003| origyear=1971| location =New Haven| pages = | url = | doi = | id = | isbn =0 300 09588 0
*cite book | last =Pollard| first =Richard | authorlink = | coauthors =Nikolaus Pevsner | title =The Buildings of England: Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West |edition= | publisher =Yale University Press | date =2006 | location =New Haven & London | pages = | url = | doi = | id = | isbn =0 300 10910 5

Further reading

*cite book | last = Champness| first =John | authorlink = | coauthors = | title =Thomas Harrison, Georgian Architect of Chester and Lancaster, 1744-1829 |edition= | publisher =Centre for North-West Regional Studies, Lancaster University | date = | location = Lancaster| pages = | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = 1-86220-169-2

External links

* [http://www.priory.lancs.ac.uk/skerton_bridge.html Photographs of Skerton Bridge]