Sydney Smirke was born in London, England on 20 December 1797 and baptized on 14 January 1798. He trained as an architect under his brother, Robert Smirke (1780-1877). He also attended the Royal Academy Schools in London where he was awarded the RA gold medal in 1819. In 1820 he visited what is now Italy. Following his return to England he embarked on a career as an architect. From 1828 to 1832 he was Clerk of Works at St. James's Palace. He was also Surveyor of the Inner Temple. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (FRIBA) in 1844, and in 1860 was awarded the RIBA Gold Medal.
He is estimated to have worked on about eighty architectural commissions. These ranged from private mansions in Suffolk early in his career, a juvenile reformatory at Parkhurst on the Isle of Wight, to the project for which he is probably best known, the Round Reading-Room at the British Museum, London.
He was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy (ARA) in 1847 and a full Academician (RA) in 1859. From 1860 to 1865 he was Professor of Architecture at the Royal Academy. He died in Frant, near Tunbridge Wells, Kent, on 8 December 1877.
A biographical file on Sydney Smirke is available on request at the Enquiry Desk, Royal Institute of British Architects Library, London
Alterations to Bridewell Hospital, Blackfriars, London (1829); Custom House, Shoreham, Sussex (1830); Library, Wroxton Abbey, Worcestershire (c.1830); Custom House, Gloucester (c.1830); alterations to Clumber Park, near Worksop, Nottinghamshire (c.1832); additions to Blackwall, Northiam, Sussex (1832-42); reconstruction of the Oxford Street Pantheon in London (1833-34); Gunsbury PPark, Ealing, Middlesex (1834); restoration of Westminster Hall, London (1834-37); Medway Bathing Establishment, Rochester, Kent (1835); façade of Oxford and Cambridge Club, London (1835-38); Custom House, Bristol (1936); St. Mary, Northiam, Sussex (1837); Thornton Hall, Suffolk (c. 1837); The Rocks, Uckfield, Sussex (1938); Holy Trinity, Leicester (1838); extensions to Bedlam Hospital, Southwark (1838-46); Custom House, Newcastle upon Tyne (c.1840); restoration of Temple Church, London (1840-43); restoration of Yorek Minster (1840-45); St. Mary the Virgin, Andover, Hampshire (1840-46); alterations to Knowsley Hall, Lancashire (1842); Holy Trinity church, Bickerstaffe, Lancashire (1842-43); reconstruction of Luton Hoo, Bedfordshire (1843); Morning Post offices, Wellington Street, Stand, London (1843-44); Reformatory, Isle of Wight (1843-44); Conservative Club, London, with George Basevi (1843-45); Holy Trinity, Penrhos, Montgomeryshire, Wales (1844); Rectory, Halsall, near Ormskirk, Lancashire (1844-45); additions to Edmond Castle, Cumberland (1844-46); Portrait Gallery, Drayton Manor, Staffordshire (1844-48); Mausoleum for Thomas Frewen Turner, St. Mary's, Northiam, Sussex (1844-66); , School, Eastmor, Hertfordshire (c.1845); Carltion Club, Pall Mall, London (1845-56); St. John the Baptist, Loughton, Essex (1846); alterations to St. Mary, Battle, Sussex (c.1846); Assembly Rooms, hotel and Atheneum, Bury, Lancashire (1845-47); Hunting box, Barleythorpe, Rutland (1847); extension to Paper Buildings, Inner Temple, London (1847-48); parsonage, Burscough, near Ormskirk, Lancashire (1848); St. Mary, Theydon Bois, Essex (1850); Christ Church, Folkestone, Jent (1850); St. James church, Wesathead, near Lathom, Lancashire (1850-51); School House, Oakham, Rutland (1850-55); Grammar School, Tamworth (1851); Kensington Palace Gardens, London (1852-54); Brookwood Cemetery, near Woking, Surrey (1854-56); Round Reading Room at the British Museum, London (1854-57); Christ Church, Teales, Lancashire (1855); 20 Irish Street, Whitehaven, Cumberland (1856)Dr. Johnson's Buildings, Inner Temple, London (1857-58); Parsonage, Treales, Lancashire (1858); Galleries of the Horticultural Society, Kensington (1859-62); Burlington House - Academy Schools and Exhibition Galleries (1859-74); reconstruction of Lambton Castle, Co. Durham (1862); steps and lower library, Radcliffe Camera, Oxford (1863-64); King Edward's School, Witley, Surrey (1867); and Inner Temple Hall, London (1867-70).
Images of Works by Smirke
Crook, J. Mordaunt. ‘Sydney Smirke, the architecture of compromise’ in Seven Victorian Architects, edited by Jane Fawcett. London: Thames & Hudson, 1976 pp. 50-65, 141-144, 152-153
Crook, J. Mordaunt. ‘Sydney Smirke: the architecture of compromise’ in Seven Victorian Architects edited by J. Fawcett. London: Thames & Hudson, 1976 pp. 50-65
Crook, J. Mordaunt. ‘Sydney Smirke’ in Macmillan Encyclopedia of Architects, volume 4. New York, NY: Macmillan, 1982 p. 87
Directory of British Architects 1834-1914. Compiled by Antonia Brodie, et al. Volume 2: L-Z. London; New York: British Architectural Library, Royal Institute of British Architects/Continuum, 2001
Hussey, Christopher. ‘Lambton Castle, Durham’. Country Life vol. 139, 31 March 1966 pp. 726-729 [Part two of a two-part article on Lambton Castle rebuilt by Sydney Siorke on the nineneteenth century]
Hussey, Christopher. ‘Lambton Castle, Durham’. Country Life vol. 139, 24 March 1966 pp. 664-667 [Part one of a two-part article on Lambton Castle rebuilt by Sydney Smirke on the nineneteenth century]
Hussey, Christopher. ‘Lambton Castle, Durham’. [[Partially rebuilt by Sydney Smirke in 1862-65 and demolished in the 1930s] Country Life 31 March 1966 pp. 726-729.
Hussey, Christopher. ‘Lambton Castle, Durham’. [[Partially rebuilt by Sydney Smirke in 1862-65 and demolished in the 1930s] Country Life 24 March 1966 pp. 664-667.
Lockett, Richard. ‘Sydney Smirke, George Gilbert Scott and 'the rearrangement of Lichfield Cathedral for divine worship': 1854-1861’. University of Birmingham. Institute for the Study of Worship and Religious Architecture. Research Bulletin 1980, pp. 3-58.
Ramsey, Stanley C. ‘London clubs’. Architectural Review vol. 35, March 1914 pp. 56-59 [Discusses the collaboration between Smirk and George Basevi (1794-1845) in the design of the Conservative Club in London (1842-45)]
Ramsey, Stanley. ‘London clubs. IX, The Union Club: Trafalgar Square’. [Architect: Sydney Smirke]. Architectural Review vol. 35, 1914 pp. 115-118.
Ramsey, Stanley. ‘London clubs. VII. Conservative Club, St. James Street’. [Architect: Sydney Smirke]. Architectural Review vol. 35, 1914 pp. 56-60
Ramsey, Stanley. ‘London clubs. X, The Carlton’. [Architect: Sydney Smirke]. Architectural Review vol. 36, 1914 pp. 15-17
Smirke, Sydney. Observations on the origin of the pointed arch in architecture. London: Pby J.B. Nichols and Son for the Society of Antiquaries, 1827
Smirke, Sydney. Recollections of Sicily. London: Royal Institute of British Architects, 1861
Watkins, Jack. ‘Britain's greatest masterpieces. British Museum by Sir Robert Smirke’. Country Life vol. 220, no. 7, 15 February 2023 pp. 44-45
‘Obituary’. Royal Institute of British Architects Transactions 1878-79 pp. 5-6
‘Obituary’. Royal Institute of Brirtish Architects Journal 1878-79 pp. 5-6
‘Obituary’. Illustrated London News vol. 81, 1877 p. 605
‘Obituary’. American Architect and Building News vol. 2, 15 December 1877 p. 404
‘Obituary’. The Builder vol. 35, 15 December 1877 p. 1256