WILKINSON, George. Practical Geology and Ancient Architecture of Ireland. Illustrated with seventeen plates and seventy-two woodcuts.

London: John Murray & Dublin: William Curry, 1845. First edition. Royal octavo. pp. viii, 348, 44 (Tables of experiments on the principal building stones of Ireland), [17] plates. Black buckram, title in gilt on spine. Ex lib The Irish Central Library for Students with neat circular stamp. Spine professionally rebacked, new endpapers. A very good copy. Scarce.
George Wilkinson was born in 1814, the son of a carpenter and builder in Witney, Oxfordshire. Having trained as an architect, Wilkinson won a competition in 1835 to design the workhouse at Thame, Oxfordshire. This launched Wilkinson’s career, and he designed many other English workhouses and public buildings such as the town hall at Brampton, Oxfordshire. In about 1840 George Wilkinson went to Ireland as the architect of the Poor Law Commissioners. As well as designing workhouses he also designed other buildings including the Harcourt Street Station in Dublin (1858-9). In 1845 he published Practical Geology and Ancient Architecture of Ireland. The book is divided into three sections. The first gives a survey of the geology of Ireland. The second a study of the ancient architecture of Ireland, including early forts, round towers, ecclesiastical edifices, castles and domestic architecture. The third is a description of the geology of each county, with notes on the use of local stones in buildings. George Wilkinson returned to England in 1888 and died two years later.

[Cat 161]