Henry Bowyer Lane Explained

Henry Bowyer Joseph Lane
Nationality:English
Birth Date:1817
Birth Place:Corfu, United States of the Ionian Islands
Death Date:1878
Death Place:Birchfield, Birmingham, England
Significant Buildings:Osgoode Hall
Toronto's second City Hall
Alma Mater:Blundell's School

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

Lane was born to Henry Bower Lane, a Royal Artillery Captain and Elizabeth Lacey in 1817 and moved to Devon, England after 1819.[1]

Lane's education included time at Blundell's School in Tiverton and subsequent professional training in England before he emigrated to Canada in 1841, living first in Cobourg, Upper Canada, and then in Toronto (around 1843–1844).

One of Lane's most significant contributions is Osgoode Hall, 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.[2] 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, England in 1878.[1]

Works

width=15%Buildingwidth=8%Year completedwidth=20%Locationwidth=30%Noteswidth=7%Image
Diocesan Theological Institute/Haskell House1842174 Green Street and Queen Street, Cobourg, OntarioCollege of Theology for Alexander Bethune, Anglican Bishop of Toronto[3]
St. Peter's Church original facade and tower1844240 College Street, Cobourg, Ontario1st church 1844–1854 Demolished in 1854
Brock's Monument1843Queenston Heights, Niagara Falls, OntarioPlans to rebuild with a submission or proposal that did not win
Little Trinity Anglican Church1843425 King Street East, Corktown, TorontoGothic Revival church with polychromatic brickwork.
Church of St. George the Martyr1845197 John Street, TorontoGothic Revival church. Remnants survived a 1955 fire.
City Hall and New Market1845Front Street at Market Street, TorontoGeorgian architecture. Toronto's second city hall, John Wilson Siddall incorporated into St. Lawrence Market South in 1899-192 with the centre block retained without the cupola and pediment.
St. Mark's Church, Niagara-on-the-Lake184541 Byron Street, Niagara-on-the-Lake, OntarioEcclesiastical furnishings only
St Paul's Church Anglican, Kingston1846137 Queen Street, KingstonPlans only
Osgoode Hall1846TorontoCentral and west wings. Palladian architecture.
Church of the Holy Trinity1847Trinity Square, TorontoGothic Revival
Enoch Turner School1848106 Trinity Street, TorontoGothic Revival school house is believed to have been designed by Lane,[4] who had left Toronto in 1847

External links

Notes and References

  1. Stephen A. . Otto . Marion Bell . MacRae . Lane, Henry Bowyer Joseph . 8 .
  2. Book: Pound, Richard W. . Fitzhenry and Whiteside Book of Canadian Facts and Dates . Fitzhenry and Whiteside . 2005.
  3. Web site: Cobourg ACO Walking Tour . Architecture . Cobourg History . December 21, 2015.
  4. Web site: Enoch Turner Schoolhouse Foundation. 15 June 2023 .