Henry Currey

• Birth date            October 1820 at Norwood, Surrey
• Marriage              2 April 1845 to Emily Harriet Rugge-Price in Spring Grove, London
• Death date          23 November 1900 at The Chestnuts, Lawrie Park, Sydenham
• Burial                     27 November 1900 West Norwood Cemetery.

Henry Currey was architect to the Duke of Devonshire. As such he carried out a number of commissions in Buxton and the surrounding district and was also involved with the development of Eastbourne. He was a Fellow of the RIBA from 1856. He was also a fellow of the Surveyors' Institute and an associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers.

THE LATE HENRY CURREY [Fellow] - The following notice of the professional career of the late Henry Currey has been kindly contributed by his son, Mr. Percival Currey [Fellow] —

Mr. Henry Currey, born October 1820, was the third son of Benjamin Currey, of Old Palace Yard, solicitor, and for many years one of the Clerks of the Table, House of Lords. He was educated  at Dr Pinckney's, East Sheen, and at Eton, rowing  in the School Eight against Westminster. He was articled to Decimus Burton for five years, and on leaving his office went into the office of Messrs William Cubitt and Company, Gray's Inn Road, for nine months. He afterwards travelled in Germany and Italy, and commenced practice in 1843, carrying on business at his residence in Brook Street, Grosvenor Square. He married in 1845 the youngest daughter of the late Sir Charles Price, Bart. As a young man he obtained the first premium in a competition for the erection of houses and terraces in Toxteth Park, Liverpool. He also obtained the first premium for the enlargement of the Surrey County Lunatic  Asylum. On his appointment as architect and surveyor to St. Thomas's Hospital in 1847, he moved his offices to No. 4 Lancaster Place, Strand, and afterwards, when that building was acquired by the Metropolitan Board of Works for the purposes of the new approach to the Embankment, to 87 Norfolk Street, Strand. He had a very considerable and varied practice, his principal work being the new St. Thomas's Hospital, rebuilt on the Embankment after its removal from the Borough for railway purposes.  A short account of this removal and reinstatement is given in a Paper read by him before the Royal Institute of British Architects, 28rd January 1871.* [Transactions 1871, p. 61] .

He designed and erected sundry country houses, one at Leigh near Reigate for Mr. James Fredifield, and one at Buxton for Mr. Shaw; hotels at Buxton, Eastbourne, London Bridge, etc.; large bathing establishment and pump-room at Buxton; the Peninsular and Oriental Company's offices in Leadenhall Street, and many other commercial buildings in the City and Southwark.    

He also erected churches at Burbage in Derbyshire, Buxton, Chiswick, Notting Hill, St Peter's, Eastbourne, and superintended sundry renovations. He laid out the Duke of Devonshire's building estate at Eastbourne, and executed large works on sea walls, terraces, etc. He also built sundry houses at Eastbourne, the Pavilion and Theatre at Devonshire Park, the College Building  Chapel, etc. He was architect and surveyor to the Foundling Hospital, and carried out extensive works in the schools, chapel, and new infirmary at that Institution. He was also architect and surveyor to the Magdalen Hospital, and erected their new buildings at Streatham. His services were in constant request as assessor in important  competitions, in valuations for compensation, and  as arbitrator.

Mr. Currey's connection with the Institute began in the year 1848, in which year he was elected Associate, proceeding to the class of Fellows in 1856. He was for many years on the Institute Council, twice being elected Vice-President, and serving in that office from 1874 to 1877, and again from 1889 to 1898. He was also a Fellow of the Surveyors' Institution, and an Associate of the Institute of Civil Engineers.  He took an active interest in the work of the Architects' Benevolent Society, and was one of the trustees of the Institution. [Journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects 19 January 1901]

Address
1841    Old Palace Yard, Westminster
1843    Brook Street, Grosvenor Square.
1847    No. 4 Lancaster Place, Strand
1891-1901    37 Norfolk Street, Strand

Residence
1843        Brook Street, Grosvenor Square.
1851        Sydenham
1851-1861    Penge Lane Beckenham
1871        Beckenham
1881-1900    The Chestnuts, Lawrie Park Sydenham Kent,

Death Notice    Times 24 November 1900 page 1   
Obituary    Journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects 19 January 1901
Obituary    ICE Minutes of the Proceedings, January 1901, pages 339 – 341
Obituary    Times 3 December 1900 page 10