Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Civil engineer and architect with the Board of Works, Dublin. Frederick Clarendon, third son of Thomas Clarendon,(1) linen draper and estate owner of Westmoreland Street, was born in Dublin on 8 November 1820.  He was admitted to Trinity College at the age of fourteen on 17 October 1834 and graduated BA in 1839.(2) He was taken on by the Board of Public Works in October 1839 as an assistant for the erection of the Kenmare suspension bridge, and in 1841 he was engaged by the Board as an architectural assistant.  On 19 February 1846 he was appointed to the permanent post of Clerk of Works.  Eight years later, in 1854, he was regraded as Surveyor of Works and Buildings,(3) a position which he held until his retirement in August 1887.(4)

After his retirement Clarendon devoted himself to charitable works. He died after a few days' illness at his home in Mountjoy Square on 17 October 1904, aged nearly eighty-four.(5) On 28 July 1853 he had married Margaret Jane Slacke (1836-1904), daughter of the Rev. William Randal Slacke, curate of Magheralin, Co. Down, by his wife, Mary, who was a daughter of JACOB OWEN JACOB OWEN . Margaret Clarendon's brother, Captain Sir Owen Randal Slacke, married another of Jacob Owen's granddaughters, Katherine Anne, daughter of Sir CHARLES LANYON. CHARLES LANYON. (6) The Clarendons had at least seven children. Their eldest son, the Rev. Thomas William Clarendon, rector of Magheralin, and daughter Lavinia erected a memorial to his parents in Magheralin parish church.(7)

ICEI: secretary and treasurer, 1847-1853.(8)
RIAI:(9) council member 1850-1861, 1864-1867, 1869-1879; vice-president 1868; fellow 1868;(9) reads three papers: on the ancient architecture of Ireland, 21 February 1850, on the use of brickwork as lining to the inner face of external walls of public buildings, 16 May 1850, and on the present condition of the arts in connection with architecture in Ireland, 20 March 1851; resigned 1887.
RIA: 1848-1852.(10)
RSAI: proposed as member by SAMSON CARTER  SAMSON CARTER and elected 16 March 1853.(11)

Addresses:(12) 11 Blessington St 1855-1873; 1 Belvidere Pl, 1874-1881 (also Hillside, Howth, 1880-1885); 36 Mountjoy Square S, 1882-1904.

See WORKS and BIBLIOGRAPHY. BIBLIOGRAPHY.



References

All information in this entry not otherwise attributed is from F. O'Dwyer's account of Clarendon in his essay 'The architecture of the Board of Public Works 1831-1923' in Public Works: The Architecture of the Office of Public Works 1831-1987 (1987), 9-32.   See also the entry on Clarendon by Helen Andrews in Dictionary of Irish Biography, ed. by James McGuire and James Quinn, 9 vols. (Cambridge University Press, 2009), II, 534-5. 

(1) Alumni Dublinenses;  his mother appears to have been Ann, daughter of Samuel Alker,who had a china and  glass warehouse in Westmoreland Street  (www.familysearch.org).
(2) See note 1, above.
(3) Jones, citing Board of Works records; according to F. O'Dwyer, 'Building empires: architecture, politics and the Board of Works 1760-1860', Irish Architectural and Decorative Studies 5 (2002), 164, this regrading opened the way for James Higgins Owen to succeed Jacob Owen as the Board's architect rather than Clarendon.
(4) Obituary of Clarendon in TICEI 32 (1904-5), 30-31.
(5) Building News 87, 21 Oct 1904, 575. In the census return of 31 Mar 1901 his age is wrongly given as 80. 
(6) Information from Clarendon's great-grandsons Paul Ward, 5 Belgrave Pl, Bath, England, and Philip Randal Desmond Clarendon of Downpatrick.
(7) Information from Richard Carruthers-Zurowski, Vancouver, British Columbia, who also provided further genealogical details.
(8) Jones, transcripts from Thom's directories..
(9) RIAI membership lists and minutes, pp. 70,77,92.
(10) Jones transcripts from Pettigrew & Oulton's and Thom's directories.
(11) JRSAI 2 (1852-53), 353.
(12) See note 9, above.


7 work entries listed in chronological order for CLARENDON, FREDERICK VILLIERS


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Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUNDRUM, DUNDRUM ROAD, CRIMINAL LUNATIC ASYLUM
Date: 1847-1851
Nature: With Jacob Owen
Refs: Drawings in OPW (A.2.2,3)

Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, DAWSON STREET, NO. 019 (ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY)
Date: 1853
Nature: Addition of museum and library at rear of existing building.
Refs: Drawings in OPW (F.5.4);  Christine Casey, The Buildings of Ireland: Dublin (2005), 477.


Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, MERRION STREET UPPER, NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM
Date: 1856-7
Nature: New 'granite palazzo conceived to harmonise with Leinster House' (O'Dwyer).
Refs: Designs in National Gallery of Ireland, nos. 18,001-18,004;  F.O'Dwyer, 'The architecture of the Board of Public Works 1831-1923' in Public Works: The architecture of the Office of Public Works 1831-1987 (1987), 17;  Christine Casey, The Buildings of Ireland: Dublin (2005), 560-561.


Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, KILDARE STREET, LEINSTER HOUSE (ROYAL DUBLIN SOCIETY, AGRICULTURAL HALL)
Date: 1858;1861
Nature: Gallery for exhibition of arts & manufactures erected in hall, 1861. (Hall moved to Ballsbridge site in 1880. See Irish Times, 10 Dec 1880, 7.)
Refs: B 16, 6 Feb,10 Apr,22 May 1858, 93,250,351-2; 19, 12 Jan 1861, 3

Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, HOWTH, HOUSE
Date: 1861
Nature: 'Neat and commodious dwelling' erected by FVC on new road up hill (did he design it?)
Refs: DB 5, 15 Jul 1863, 120

Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, HOWTH, WEST PIER, MARINERS' HALL
Date: 1864
Nature: Gothic. FVC gave services gratis
Refs: DB 6, 1 Jul 1864, 134

Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, GEORGE'S PLACE NORTH, NO. 029-34 (ST GEORGE'S PAROCHIAL HALL)
Date: 1878
Nature: Foundation stone laid, 2 Jun 1878. Contractor: G.F. Tyrrell, Fitzgibbon St.
Refs: Irish Times, 4 Jun 1878;  Irish Ecclesiastical Gazette 20, no. 232, 1 Jul 1878, 196.

Author Title Date Details
Clarendon, Frederick Villiers 'Observations on the construction of roads through bog'
1843 Civil Engineer and Architect's Journal 6 (Jul 1843), 273-274.
Clarendon, Frederick Villiers 'Some observations on the ancient architecture of the Egyptians'
1843 Civil Engineer and Architect's Journal 6 (Dec 1843), 412-414.
Clarendon, Frederick Villiers 'On the transverse rollers and pivots of dock gates' 1847 TICEI 2 (1846-7),117.
Clarendon, Frederick Villiers 'Repairs to the Galway Dock Gates' 1847 TICEI 2 (1846-7), 54-70.
Clarendon, Frederick Villiers 'An account of a carriage carrying its own rails for carrying soil upon bogs' 1848 TICEI 3 (1847-8), 83-4.