Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Architect, of Dublin. George Lynes was born in Stratford, Essex, in 1868. By the time he was three his father had died, and his mother, Jane (née White), was working as a dressmaker in Bromley, Kent(1). From 1885 to 1890 he was a pupil in the office of Potts, Sulman & Hennings, of London, remaining as an assistant for a further year. During this time he attended the Architectural Association's schools and the Bromley and Birkbeck schools of art. From 1892 to 1895 he was an assistant to William Watson of Wakefield, then to F.J. Commin of Exeter.

Lynes came to Dublin in 1898 to work as in assistant in the office of WILLIAM HENRY BYRNE. I WILLIAM HENRY BYRNE. I n 1900 he joined the staff of the Office of Public Works as a temporary assistant surveyor,(2) moving in 1902 to the architects' department of Guinness & Son. In 1906 he became an assistant to GEORGE PATRICK SHERIDAN GEORGE PATRICK SHERIDAN , with whom he remained until 1910.  During these years he had travelled in Germany, France, Italy and Spain. The 1911 census records him as having been married for a year to his wife, Elizabeth, from Kinsale, and as having a two-month-old daughter, Jane.   From 1911 onwards he worked in the office of CHARLES JOHN DUNLOP.& CHARLES JOHN DUNLOP.& #160;  He was still living in Dublin in 1919 but by 1927 he had emigrated to New Zealand.(3)  

Lynes does not appear to have practised independently while he was in Ireland, and no architectural works by him are recorded in the Irish Builder, but his watercolour sketches drew favourable comment from that journal in 1906 and 1911, when they were shown at meetings of the AAI,(4) as did the measured drawings which he exhibited in the annual show of the work of students at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art at the end of 1915.(5) Lynes exhibited three watercolours at the Oireachtas Art Exhibition in 1907(6) and three at the RHA: two sketches of Oxford in 1904 and a piece called 'Mild Autumn' in 1911.(7)

AAI: elected member, 1899; wins President's Prize for sketches of artefacts in the Science and Art Museum, 1904;(8) described as 'moving spirit of Watercolour Club', 1906;(9) reads paper on 'Watercolour sketching', 5 February 1907;(10) ceased membership in 1920 or 1921.
RIBA: elected licentiate, 20 July 1911, having been proposed by WILLIAM KAYE-PARRY WILLIAM KAYE-PARRY , GEORGE FREDERICK HICKS  GEORGE FREDERICK HICKS and George Patrick Sheridan.(11)

Addresses: 50 Upper Beechwood Avenue, Rathmines, 1903-1904; 14 Claremont Road West, Sandymount, 1905; 43 Sackville Street Lower, 1906-1909; 1 Albert Road, Dun Laoghaire, 1910-1914; 2 St Andrew's Street, Dublin, 1911; 9 Seafort Parade, Williamstown, Co. Dublin, 1915-1917; 10 Anglesea Avenue, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, 1918-1919.



References

All information in this entry not otherwise accounted for is from Directory of British Architects 1834-1914 (RIBA 2001), II, 88-9, and AAI membership lists in AAI Green Books. Lynes appears in a group photograph of members of the AAI circa 1900 reproduced in IB 69, 15 Oct 1927, 759.


(1) English census returns for 1871, which record only one child in the household. Mother and son were still living in Bromley when the 1881 census was taken.
(2) IB 42, 1 Oct 1900, 502.
(3) In the caption to the AAI photograph noted above, he is described as 'now in New Zealand'.
(4) IB 48, 21 Apr 1906, 314; 52, 5 Mar 1910, 146.  His 'watercolour sketches of sea and sky effects in Dublin Bay' were singled out by the reviewer of the AAI's exhibition of members' work in the Irish Times, 19 Feb 1916.  
(5) IB 58, 1 Jan 1916, 5.
(6) Ann M. Stewart, Irish Art Societies and Sketching Clubs: Index of Exhibitors 1870-1980 (1997), I, 430.
(7) RHA 1904, Nos. 172,257; 1911, No. 237.
(8) IB 46, 18 Jun 1904, 392; AAI Green Book (1905), 31,42.
(9) IB 48, 21 Apr 1906, 314.
(10) IB 49, 23 Feb 1907, 134.
(11) RIBAJ 18 (1910-11), 658.


1 work entries listed in chronological order for LYNES, GEORGE G.


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Building: CO. WATERFORD, WATERFORD, JOHN STREET (OR WATERSIDE?), YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION
Date: ?
Nature: Proposed new premises.
Refs: Sheet of designs showing elevation, sections and plans sold at Adams, auctioneers, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, 12 Jul 2011, Lot 218.