Sir Robert was one of many people who, when they retired, came to Budleigh but then moved elsewhere for their final home.  He was a very successful architect (1,2,3,4).  His first official appointment was as architect to the Board of Trade in 1807 and he was responsible for the design of the new Royal Mint in 1809-11 and, along with John Nash and Sir John Soane, he became official architect for the Office of Works in 1813.  In that capacity they worked amongst others for the Church Commissioners and he designed several churches to the brief “of accommodating the greatest number of persons at the smallest expense, within the compass of an ordinary voice”.  

Other important commissions in London included, the General Post Office and the British Museum (both started in 1823), the central portion of the London Custom House and the College of Physicians (now Canada House) both in 1825, and the East Wing of Somerset House (King’s College London) 1828-31.  He was also involved in the design of country houses e.g Eden Hall, Eastnor Castle, and of shire halls e.g in Gloucester, Hereford & Shrewsbury; buildings for the judiciary in Lincoln and Gloucester, and after the fire in 1829, the Gothic Choir Stalls in York Minster, and many more commissions. He was knighted in 1832. 

He was born the second son of Elizabeth Russell and Robert Smirke (1752-1845) who was an artist who lived in Upper Charlotte Street in London and who had rather revolutionary ideas that hampered his promotion prospects after he became a member of the Royal Academy.  The pair apparently had twelve children (2).  

Son Thomas was educated at Apsley School, Bedfordshire, and then attended the Royal Academy Schools.  From 1801-5 he was on a grand tour studying architecture in Italy, Sicily and Greece and this influenced his later designs which were classical in style, although he also occasionally employed gothic designs e.g at Eastnor and Lowther Castles.  He trained his younger brother Sydney (2) and, although they had separate architecture practices, they collaborated on several projects, and Sydney added the Reading Room to his brother’s work at the British Museum.  

Thomas retired in 1845 and around that time he moved to Budleigh Salterton and can be found in Baker’s Directory for that year living in Chapel (East) Terrace with Lady Smirke.  Around that time he appears to have had a visit from his sister Mary Smirke (1779-1853) who was, like her father, a gifted artist and was active as a landscape painter and exhibited at the Royal Academy (5).  She painted a watercolour entitled “Coastal View at Budleigh” (6) which I assume she did around 1845 during a visit; it shows a view of the beach and east end of Marine Parade looking towards what became the Gentleman’s Club.

(Copy of Arcadja web image inserted by Moderator for ease of reference). 

After his retirement Robert Peel made him a member of the Commission for London Improvements and he received the RIBA Royal Gold Medal for Architecture in 1853.  By 1851 he had moved to Cheltenham where he died in April 1867. 

Researched and Compiled by Roger Lendon, © 2011

(1)Dictionary of National Biography

(2)Wikipedia

(3)Cheltenham Local History Society Journal Vol 23 (2007)

(4)Oxford Dictionary of Architecture & Landscaping

(5)Oxford Grove Art: Smirke

(6)Illustrated at:  http://www.arcadja.com/auctions/en/smirke_mary/artist/26867/

115 BS-B-00044  Biography any