Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Scottish architect, of Edinburgh, for whom see Howard Colvin, A Biographical dictionary of British architects 1600-1840 (4th edn, 2008), 813-816. In Ireland Playfair designed Drumbanagher, Co. Armagh (1829), for Maxwell Close, and Brownlow House, Lurgan, Co. Armagh (1833-35), for the Rt. Hon. Charles Brownlow. He was also asked to make plans for Crom Castle, Co. Fermanagh,(1) which was rebuilt in 1834-36 to designs by EDWARD BLORE.  EDWARD BLORE.

See WORKS, for Irish work only.



References



(1) NLI MS. 1658 (E.McO.); the request may have had something to do with the fact that the contractor for rebuilding Crom, Charles MacGibbon of Edinburgh, also worked on Brownlow House.


4 work entries listed in chronological order for PLAYFAIR, WILLIAM HENRY #


Sort by date | Sort alphabetically


Building: CO. ARMAGH, DRUMBANAGHER HOUSE
Date: 1829-1837
Nature: Italianate house for Maxwell Close and his wife, Anna Elizabeth, sister of Charles Brownlow, builder of Brownlow House. Built in Scottish sandstone. Cost: £80,000. (Demolished.)
Refs: Drawings, letter books and ledgers from Playfair's office in Edinburgh University Library; PRONI VAL 1B 217 & VAL 12B/15/23 A-E (ref. from Brett, op. cit., below); Angélique Day & Patrick McWilliams, Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland, Vol. 1: Parishes of Co. Armagh, 1835-9, 52; J. Binns, Miseries and beauties of Ireland (1837), 66-7; J.P. Lawson, Gazetteer of Ireland (1842), 345; J.B. Burke, Visitation of Seats & Arms, (2nd ser., 1855), I, 193-4; High Dixon, Ulster Architecture 1800-1900 (UAHS, 1973), 10(no. 13) Ian Gow, '"An Architect's Melancholy": furniture by W.H. Playfair for an Irish House', Irish Arts Review 14 (1998), 57-61(illus.); C.E.B. Brett, Buildings of Co. Armagh (1999), 271-2(illus.);  Kevin V. Mulligan, The Buildings of Ireland: South Ulster (2013), 361.

Building: CO. ARMAGH, LURGAN, BROWNLOW HOUSE
Date: 1833-1842
Nature: Elizabethan Revival house for Charles Brownlow, later 1st Baron Lurgan. (who had known Playfair as a student at Edinburgh). Built of Scotch freestone.  Builder: Charles MacGibbon, Edinburgh.
Refs: Drawings and other documentation re building of house in PRONI D1928/P/8/A1-286, D1928/W/5, VAL 1B/22B,p.62; drawings, letterbooks and letters in Edinburgh University Library; Country Life 149, 29 Apr 1971, 1038; Ian Gow, '"An Architect's Melancholy": furniture by W.H. Playfair for an Irish House', Irish Arts Review 14 (1998), 58; C.E.B. Brett, Buildings of Co. Armagh (1999), 100-102(illus.);  Kevin V. Mulligan, The Buildings of Ireland: South Ulster (2013), 435-438, Pl. 93.

Building: CO. FERMANAGH, CROM CASTLE (NEWTOWNBUTLER)
Date: ?
Nature: 'Asked for plans for Crom'. For 2nd Earl Erne.
Refs: NLI, MS 1658 (IAA, Edward McParland files, Acc.2008/44).

Building: CO. ARMAGH, POYNTZPASS, NATIONAL SCHOOL
Date: ?
Nature: 'A small idiosyncratic mid C19 building which local tradition has ascibed to William Henry Playfair.'(Mulligan) Derelict in 2013..
Refs: Kevin V. Mulligan, The Buildings of Ireland: South Ulster (2013), 513.