Name

Brightwen Binyon

Designation
architect
Born
1846
Place of Birth
Manchester
Location
Ipswich
Died
1905

Birth date    30 May 1846
Marriage        18 September 1879 Rachel Mary Cudsworth at Darlington
Death date    21 September 1905 at Bushley Hertfordshire


Brightwen Binyon was born at Headley Grange, Victoria Park, Manchester, on 30 May 1846, the son of Edward Binyon (1791–1855), a sugar refiner and tea dealer, and his wife Jane née Brightwen (1805–1890). He was educated at the Quaker School (Stramongate School) in Kendal, before training as an architect under Alfred Waterhouse between 1863 and 1871. In 1872 he was elected an Associate of the RIBA when he left England for a tour of the Continent, Egypt and Palestine. Returning to England he settled at Ipswich where, in 1874, he was living with his mother at 43 Fonnereau Road. On 18 September 1879, he married Rachel Mary Cudworth (1853–1949) of Darlington. She was the daughter of William Cudworth and Mary Thompson. They then lived at 5 Henley Road, Ipswich with Brightwen having an architect’s office at 36 Princes Street, Ipswich. In 1891 the Building News provided the following biography:

Mr. Brightwen Binyon, ARIBA, the architect of Sunderland Town Hall, was born in Manchester, and was the son of Edward Binyon, a large sugar-refiner and tea-dealer, and a member of the Society of Friends. He was educated at one of their schools at Kendal, in Westmoreland. Early developing a taste for architecture, he entered the office of Mr. Alfred Waterhouse, R.A., as pupil, in 1863, but left in 1871 for the purpose of taking a tour abroad, in the course of which he visited Egypt and Palestine. Towards the close of the same year he began practice as an architect at Ipswich, and his present address is in that town. His first client was the Duke of Hamilton. He has been very successful in competitions, having won six out of the last eight. Among them may be mentioned the Folkestone Public Library, Swindon Public Offices, and large blocks of Board Schools for the Swindon School Board, for whom he has built, in all, eight schools. He also won the competition for the Ipswich Corn Exchange and the Sunderland Town Hall. Among his chapels is Burlington, Ipswich; and of many private buildings designed by him may be mentioned a mansion at Wonham in North Devon, for Mr. J. R. Holland, late M.P. for Brighton, and another mansion, “The Grove,” at Stanmore, Middlesex. Mr. Binyon is also engaged in extensive works altering and enlarging the Hall at Stanmore for Mr K. D'Arcy, for which Messrs. Morris and Co. are preparing special wall-hangings, the figure designs being by Mr. Burne-Jones, in conjunction with Mr. Wm. Morris. In 1879 Mr Binyon married the only daughter of Mr. William Cudworth, C.E., engineer to the Darlington District of the North-Eastern Railway Company. Mr. Binyon has resided for some years in Ipswich, and has built himself a residence at Felixstowe, on the East Coast, where he has erected other seaside villas. He is now engaged in developing the Stanmore Park estate for Mr. Frederick Gordon, of London. Mr. Binyon is an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects, and is well-known in Ipswich. Mr. Binyon's photograph is by Mr. John White, of Ipswich. [Building News 6 March 1891 page 650]

About 1892 he moved to ‘The Cedars’, Anglesea Road, Ipswich and, after being in practice for over 25 years, retired in 1897, owing to failing health, when his practice was continued by his first pupil (Mr. Frank Brown) and Mr. Burgess, who had been associated with him for many years. About 1903, when he resigned from the Ipswich Art Club, he moved to Haydon Ridge, Bushey, Hertfordshire where he died on 21 September 1905. He had four children Janet (1880-1963); Mary Sims [Binyen], artist and modeller; Basil (1885-1947), a well-known electrical engineer and director of the BBC in 1922; and Olive [Fielden] (1888-1971) whose son was Sir Bernard Fielden (1919-2008), the conservation architect.

Brightwen Binyon died on 21 September at Haydon Ridge Grange Road Bushley, aged 59 years.

Address
1879    36 Princes Street, Ipswich

Residence
1874    43 Fonnereau Road, Ipswich
1879    5 Henley Road, Ipswich
1885    5 Henley Road, Ipswich
1891    Felixstowe
1891    ‘The Cedars’, 46 Anglesea Road, Ipswich
1897    ‘The Cedars’, 46 Anglesea Road, Ipswich
1901    'Brantover', Wolsey Terrace, Walton-cum-Felixstowe
1903    Haydon (Haydn?) Ridge, Bushey, Hertfordshire

Reference    Building News 6 March 1891 page 650 with portrait
Reference    Builder 30 September 1905 page 347] - obituary