Edmund Kirby (8 April 1838 – 24 April 1920) was an English architect. He was born in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

, and educated at

Oscott College St Mary's College in New Oscott, Birmingham, often called Oscott College, is the Roman Catholic seminary of the Archdiocese of Birmingham in England and one of the three seminaries of the Catholic Church in England and Wales. Purpose Oscott Coll ...

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

. He was articled to

E. W. Pugin Edward Welby Pugin (11 March 1834 – 5 June 1875) was an English architect, the eldest son of architect Augustus Pugin, Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin and Louisa Barton and part of the Pugin & Pugin family of church architects. His father was ...

in London, then became an assistant to John Douglas in Chester. He travelled abroad in France and Belgium, and had started to practice independently in Liverpool by 1867, initially having offices in Derby Buildings, Fenwick Street. Between 1880 and 1914, his offices were in Union Buildings, Cook Street, Liverpool. In 1905 Kirkby took his two sons, Francis Joseph and Edmund Bertram, into partnership. He retired in 1917, and died in 1920. His practice continued after his death, until it merged with Matthews and Goodman in 2011. Most of Kirby's works were in Northwest England, with occasional examples in North Wales,

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...

, and elsewhere. He was an architect to the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, and most of his ecclesiastical works were for this denomination. His most notable work in this genre is the

Sodality Chapel The Sodality Chapel is a historic Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic chapel building on the campus of Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama, Mobile, Alabama, United States. It was built in 1850 in a simple Greek Revival architecture, Greek Re ...

for St Francis Xavier's Church, Liverpool. In 1869 he designed Sacred Heart Church in

Hindsford Hindsford is a suburb of Atherton in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. It is situated to the west of the Hindsford Brook, an ancient boundary between the townships of Atherton and Tyldesley cum Shakerley, and east of ...

which Pevsner described as a "pretty church". His

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

churches include St Michael and All Angels, Little Leigh, and St Cross, Appleton Thorn. He also designed and carried out work on commercial and domestic properties, including

Dee House Dee House is in Little John Street, Chester, Cheshire, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building. The house is built on the southern part of the site of Chester Amphithea ...

Chester Chester is a cathedral city and the county town of Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Dee, close to the English–Welsh border. With a population of 79,645 in 2011,"2011 Census results: People and Population Profile: Chester Loca ...

References

Citations Sources * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kirby, Francis 1838 births 1920 deaths 19th-century English architects English ecclesiastical architects Architects from Liverpool 20th-century English architects

See also

References