Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Engineer-in-chief of Guinness's Brewery, Dublin, 1902-1918. Arthur Hignett was born at Cholmondeley, Cheshire, on 7 March 1857, the son of Thomas Hignett of Cholmondeley. He was educated at Cheltenham College and served his engineering apprenticeship at the Crewe locomotive works. In 1901, after twenty-seven years with the London and North Western Railway, he was appointed engineer-in-chief of Arthur Guinness, Son & Company, to take up th post in February 1902.;  this was a new post which gave its incumbent overall charge of the formerly separate structural engineering and mechanical and electrical engineering departments. During his tenure of the post, the capacity of the brewery more than doubled;  new work included the huge Market Street storehouse, which was erected to his design in 1901-1904.(1)  On 1 March 1918 he was granted leave of absence on full pay for twelve months and the following year he retired.

Hignett married in May, 1897, Dorothy Eleanor Augusta (d. 1946), daughter of Dr Thomas Lawes Rogers, of Eltham, Kent. During the First World War Dorothy Hignett distinguished herself as deputy directress of the Irish War Hospital Supply Depot. She was awarded the OBE in 1918 and the CBE in 1920.(2)   At the time of the 1911 census the Hignetts had two daughters.

Institute of Mechanical Engineers: member by 1908.

See WORKS.



References

All information in this entry not otherwise accounted for is from the entry on Hignett in E. Macdowel Cosgrave, ed., Dublin and County Dublin in the Twentieth Century (1908), 33, which is illustrated with a portrait photograph, and Michael P. Byrne, The Market Street Storehouse (Dublin, 2001), 20-21, which also reproduces a photograph of Hignett. 

(1) IB 46, 19 Nov 1904, 794; B 87, 10 Dec 1904, 612.
(2) Who was Who 1941-1950, 540.


2 work entries listed in chronological order for HIGNETT, ARTHUR HOLLAND


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Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, ROBERT STREET (& MARKET STREET), MARKET STREET STOREHOUSE (A. GUINNESS & SON)
Date: 1904
Nature: 9-storey building (fermenting house) between Robert St and Grand Canal Pl., 130 ft high erected on 'American principle of construction'. Designed by AHH, engineer-in-chief, with Prosser Arthur Haynes Shaw.  According to Casey, Sir William Arrol was also involved in the design.  Contractor: McLaughlin & Harvey, Dublin. Clerk of works: Wiggs. Contract signed 14 Oct 1903. Building completed 1904. Brewing commenced 2 Mar 1906.
Refs: IB 46, 19 Nov 1904, 794; B 87, 10 Dec 1904, 612; Daily Express, 8 Nov 1904; Irish Times, 8 Nov 1904,17 Apr 1924(illus.); Belfast News Letter, 11 Nov 1904; Michael P. Byrne, The Market Street Storehouse (Dublin, 2001),70,79,81,139; see this work for a full account of the building;  Christine Casey, The Buildings of Ireland: Dublin (2005), 649,Pl.89.

Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, VICTORIA QUAY, A. GUINNESS & SON
Date: 1914
Nature: Minor works; locomotive shed. Builder: Bolton & Son?
Refs: IAA, PKS B22/14, A09 (Sep,Oct 1914)