Deane & Woodward

Deane & Woodward, architectural firm, were the principal exponents of the Ruskinian Gothic revival in England and Ireland. The firm was an offshoot of the Cork practice of Sir Thomas Deane, and consisted of the core partnership between Thomas Newenham Deane (1828–99) and Benjamin Woodward (1816—61). Woodward, a native of Tullamore, Co. Offaly, joined the firm in 1845; his involvement in work at Queen's College, Cork (1846–9), and Killarney lunatic asylum (1847–50) reflects his academic interest in the work of the Gothic revivalists. Woodward and T. N. Deane were made partners in 1851. Their first major collaboration, the Venetian Museum building, Trinity College, Dublin (1852–7), was hailed as the first true embodiment of the ideals of John Ruskin. It incorporates many of the features that were to characterize the firm's work in the following decades: emphasis on structural symmetry, the use of local building materials, polychrome fabric, rich embellishment, and good craftsmanship. The most famous building of the partnership was the Oxford Museum (1855–61); the first public secular Gothic building to be erected in England since the Houses of Parliament (1836–66), it set the trend for many English public buildings in subsequent decades. Other examples of the firm's work include the Crown Life Assurance Company office, Blackfriars, London (1855–7, no longer extant), the Kildare Street Club, Dublin (1858–61), and extensive alterations to Kilkenny Castle (1858–63).

Rachel Moss