Leonard Barnish was born in Wigan, Lancashire, England on 23 January 1885 and studied at Liverpool University School of Architecture in Liverpool in 1902-03. He then worked as an assistant to Frederick Moore Simpson (1855-1928) in 1904; to George Enoch Grayson (1833?-1912), George Hastwell Grayson (1871-1951) and Augustus Lyle Ould (1852-1909) of Grayson & Ould in Liverpool from 1905 to 1911. He qualified as an architect in 1910 and in 1911 was elected an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (ARIBA).
In 1914, with George Hastwell Grayson, he formed the partnership Grayson & Barnish. The address of the practice was given as 606, Royal Liver Building, Liverpool in 1926. Work by the partnership included War Memorial Obelisk in Sefton (1923); Southport War Memorial in Southport (1923); and Lloyd's Bank, 11-13 Victoria Street, Liverpool (1927-28).
Barnish collaborated with Herbert Thearle (1903-1971) and Herbert Silcock on the design of Liverpool Orphanage which was awarded the RIBA Bronze Medal for Building Merit in 1939.
Barnish subsequently formed another partnership, Barnish, Silcock & Thearle, in Liverpool with Hubert Spencer Silcock (1898-1987) and Herbert Thearle (1903-1971). By the late 1930s Thearle had left the practice.
Barnish was elected a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (FRIBA) in 1921. He was also a member of the Liverpool Architectural Society and its President in 1932-34. He died Surrey in 1975.
Works (with Hastwell Grayson): Liverpool Consumption Hospital; Port Sunlight Hospital; Montgomeryshire Infirmary; extensions: — Selwyn Coll., Trinity Hall, and Clergy Training Coll., Cambridge, and to St. Aldan's Coll., Birkenhead; Church, George's Plain, Jamaica; schools for Liverpool, Bootle Education Committee, and for Cheshire and Cumberland Education Committee; engineering workshops, Liverpool; many private schools; Lloyds Bank (12 branches); Bank of Liverpool (four branches); District Bank (one branch); extension to shipyards, paint works, flour mills, and many churches. [Source: Who's Who in Architecture 1923]
Directory of British Architects 1834-1914. Compiled by Antonia Brodie, et al. Volume 1: A-K. London; New York: British Architectural Library, Royal Institute of British Architects/Continuum, 2001
‘Obituary’. Building vol. 228, no. 8, 21 February 1975 p.63
Sharples, Joseph, Powers, Alan and Shippobottom, Michael. Charles Reilly & the Liverpool School of Architecture 1904-1933. Catalogue of an exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, 25 October 1996 - 2 February 1997. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1996 pp. 166-167 [May contain other references to Barnish, unfortunately, the catalogue is not indexed]
Who's Who in Architecture 1923. Edited by Frederick Chatterton. London: Architectural Press, 1923