Sir Charles Barry

Sir Charles Barry 1795-1860, English architect. A leader in the revival of the Renaissance style of architecture in England (also called Anglo-Italian), he designed the Travellers Club and the Reform Club in London. He planned one of the most important works of the period, the Houses of Parliament (1840-60). In this project he designed a basically classical structure with neo-Gothic detail contributed largely by his assistant, A. W. N. Pugin.

Bibliography: See biography by A. Barry (1870).

Barry, Sir Charles (1795–1860) English architect. He redesigned the Houses of Parliament at Westminster, London, in a Gothic style after the original building burned down. He worked on the project with Augustus Pugin, who was responsible for much of the exterior and interior decoration. Barry's preference for Italian Renaissance architecture shows in the classical ground plan for the parliament building.

Barry, Sir Charles (1795–1860). Victorian architect. After travel in 1817–20 through France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Egypt, and Syria, he returned to London and built several churches in a Gothic idiom. Turning to the Greek revival, he designed first the Royal Institution of Fine Arts (1824–35) and then the Athenaeum (1837–9), both in Manchester. By this time he was using Italian palazzi as models for the Travellers' (1830–2) and Reform Clubs (1838–41) in Pall Mall. His magnum opus, the Houses of Parliament, won in competition in 1836, was in the required ‘Gothic or Elizabethan’ style, but its construction took its toll on Barry's health and hastened his death in 1860.