Henry Bowyer Joseph Lane (1817–1878) was an English architect who worked in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

from . Lane was born to Henry Bower Lane, a

Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

Captain and Elizabeth Lacey in 1817 and moved to

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...

, England after 1819. Lane's education included time at

Blundell's School Blundell's School is a co-educational day and boarding independent school in the English public school tradition, located in Tiverton, Devon. It was founded in 1604 under the will of Peter Blundell, one of the richest men in England at the t ...

in Tiverton and subsequent professional training in England before he emigrated to Canada in 1841, living first in Cobourg,

Upper Canada The Province of Upper Canada (french: link=no, province du Haut-Canada) was a part of British Canada established in 1791 by the Kingdom of Great Britain, to govern the central third of the lands in British North America, formerly part of th ...

, and then in Toronto (around 1843–1844). One of Lane's most significant contributions is

Osgoode Hall Osgoode Hall is a landmark building in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The original -storey building was started in 1829 and finished in 1832 from a design by John Ewart and William Warren Baldwin. The structure is named for William Osgood ...

, namely the west and central wings from 1844 to 1846. He designed and oversaw the construction of the incorporated city of Toronto's second city hall in 1844. Lane's limited commissions outside of Toronto, in Niagara-on-the-Lake and Cobourg, were never as grand as his work in Toronto. During his time in Toronto, Lane married Lucy Anne Sharpe in 1844, and they left the city in 1847. He is known to have been in the Colony of Victoria, Australia thereafter. In the Ovens Directory for the year 1857, (State Library of New South Wales), he is listed as Henry Bowyer Lane Esq., Subwarden and Chinese Protector and Magistrate for the Yachandandah Creek Goldfield, near Bright. He was still in the Victorian Alps in 1862, because his fine watercolour, The Buckland near the Camp, clearly signed and dated May 1862, is held by the State Library of Victoria (Australia). It shows the Buckland Hotel and the Buckland Post Office, and eight Chinese gold miners crossing the bridge over the Buckland River during the Australian gold rush. A European man (maybe the postmaster, William McKay) is sitting on the steps of the Post Office, chatting to a European woman. The Buckland River goldfield was near the present town of Bright in the Australian Alps. Lane is believed to have died in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...

, England in 1878.

Works

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External links

LANE, HENRY BOWYER JOSEPH
at Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online 1817 births 1878 deaths People educated at Blundell's School People from Old Toronto Pre-Confederation Ontario people 19th-century Canadian architects {{Canada-architect-stub