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 populat ...

, and educated at Oscott College 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. ...

. He was articled to E. W. Pugin 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,

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 ...

, 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 which Pevsner described as a "pretty church". His Anglican 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, Chester.

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