Henry Currey
Henry Currey (1820-1900).
1901 Obituary [1]
HENRY CURREY, born in October, 1820, was the third son of Mr. Benjamin Currey, of Old Palace Yard, solicitor, and for many years one of the Clerks at the table of the House of Lords.
Afterbeing educated at East Sheen and at Eton, he was articled for five years to Decimus Burton, the well-known architect.
On the expiration of his articles he entered the office of Messrs. William Cubitt and Company, Gray’s Inn Road, where he was engaged for nine months. He subsequently travelled in Germany and Italy, and on his return to England in 1843 began to practise as an architect.
In 1845, he married the youngest daughter of the late Sir Charles Price, Bart., and carried on business at his residence in Brook Street, Grosvenor Square.
As a young man Mr. Currey obtained the first premium in a competition for the erection of houses and terraces in Toxteth Park, Liverpool, and the first premium for the enlargement of the Surrey County Lunatic Asylum.
In 1847, he was appointed Architect and Surveyor to St. Thomas’s Hospital, and moved his offices to 4 Lancaster Place, Strand, where he practised for many years, subsequently removing to 37 Norfolk Street, Strand.
Mr. Currey had a considerable and varied practice, his chief work being the new St. Thomas’s Hospital, rebuilt on the Albert Embankment after its removal from the Borough. A short account of this removal and re-instatement is given in a Paper presented by him to the Royal Institute of British Architects, in 1871.
He also designed and erected hotels at Buxton, Eastbourne and London Bridge; a large bathing establishment and pump room at Buxton; the Peninsular and Oriental Company’s offices in Leadenhall Street, and many other commercial buildings in the City and Southwark; and churches at Burbage, in Derbyshire, Buxton, Chiswick, Notting Hill and St. Peter’s, Eastbourne.
He laid out the Duke of Devonshire’s building estate at Eastbourne, and executed large works, such as sea-walls, terraces, etc. He also built sundry houses at Eastbourne, the pavilion and theatre at Devonshire Park, and the College Chapel, etc. Mr. Currey was Architect and Surveyor to the Foundling Hospital, and executed various extensive works in the School and chapel of that Institution. He was also Architect and Surveyor to the Magdalen Hospital, and erected their new buildings at Streatham. He designed and erected sundry country houses, one at Leigh, near Reigate, for Mr. James Freshfield, and one at Buxton for Mr. Shaw. He acted as assessor in several important competitions, and was also much engaged in valuations for compensation and as arbitrator. He was a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, on the Council of which he served for many years, including two periods of four years each as Vice-President. He was also a Fellow of the Surveyor’s Institution.
Mr. Currey died at his residence, The Chestnuts, Sydenham, on He was for more than 52 years an Associate of the Institution, the 23rd November, 1900, having been elected on the 4th April, 1848.