Architectures of Authority in the Eighteenth Century

  • Robin Usher
Chapter
Part of the Early Modern History: Society and Culture book series

Abstract

In 1708, the Surveyor General of Ireland, Thomas Burgh, was granted a larger salary because of the ‘encrease of Publick Buildings in Our said kingdom’.1 As with the city’s statues, the principal difference between the institutional buildings of Restoration Dublin and those of the early 1700s was quantity. Burgh’s career certainly illustrates the dramatic increase in the capital’s stock of public architecture since the Glorious Revolution: before his death in 1730, he had designed a custom house, a barracks, a linen repository, and a fortress, and he had made alterations to the Castle. His non-state oeuvre includes churches (seen in Chapter 2), a hospital, and the library of Trinity College. Much to Burgh’s chagrin, the prize commission for the new Parliament House fell to the otherwise obscure interloper Edward Lovett Pearce.

Keywords

Eighteenth Century Privy Council Glorious Revolution Exhibition Room Public Architecture 
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Notes

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© Robin Usher 2012

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  • Robin Usher

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