Francis Greenway

Australian architect

• Born: November 20, 1777
• Birthplace: Mangotsfield, England
• Died: September 26, 1837
• Place of death: East Maitland, New South Wales, Australia

Although surrounded by controversy, Greenway attempted to legitimate and regulate building practices in Australia during the period when it was regarded primarily as a British penal colony. More important, however, he gave to the early buildings aesthetically unique designs combining both beauty and practicality.

Early Life

Not much is known of Francis Howard Greenway’s early life beyond the fact that he was the fourth son of Francis Greenway and Ann Webb. His birthright links him with a two-hundred-year tradition of Greenways who were involved in stonemasonry, architecture, and construction in the Bristol area. Thus, his choice of occupation comes as no surprise. There is an indication that Greenway was educated in England and afterward was employed by and became the protégé of the famous architectJohn Nash, with whom he began to build both a minor reputation and career. In 1800, Greenway exhibited two architectural drawings at the Royal Academy, and he later designed the “market house,” the Chapel Library, the Clifton Club, and the restoration of the Thornbury Castle.

In 1804, he married a woman whose identity is established by her first name only, Mary, by whom he probably had three or four children. A self-portrait pictures Greenway as a “fair and ruddy” man of approximately five feet, six inches, with auburn hair, hazel eyes, and a prominent nose. Accounts of Greenway’s personality vary. His friends and admirers saw him as an extremely moral and practical man with a genius and passion for art and beauty. His enemies viewed him as a haughty and volatile man with grandiose ideas about his talents and abilities. His later actions seem to bear out both viewpoints.

Shortly after his marriage, Greenway went into business with his two brothers, Olive Greenway and John Tripp Greenway, offering the following services advertised in the Bristol Gazette in 1805: “All orders for marble monuments, Chimney Pieces, and every kind of ornamental stone work shall be carefully attended to, and executed in the most artist-like manner.” It appears that for the next four years, the business ran smoothly until April, 1809, when legal questions were raised regarding both the family business and some of its present and past contracts. One month later, the word “bankruptcy” appeared in the paper, and Greenway’s career became jeopardized. As a result, the Greenways’ possessions were put up for auction in order to satisfy their creditors. The precise reasons for the legal actions and subsequent bankruptcy have been lost in local legend and unclear newspaper reports regarding a long-standing issue of water rights in and around Bath (where construction of buildings for the use of visitors who wanted to take advantage of the healing waters was common). Greenway tried to show how he had been fooled by speculators and false promises, but his attempt proved fruitless.

Despite this setback, Greenway was still working as an architect in 1810, but another tragedy was in the making. Problems arose regarding a contract that Greenway had made with Colonel Richard Doolan, for whom he was doing some work. Greenway swore that the colonel had authorized an additional œ250 for some extra work Greenway had provided. However, the contract was lost and the colonel denied the charge. Greenway eventually produced the lost contract. In the court proceedings that followed, it was proved that Greenway had forged the contract, and Greenway was held at Newgate prison for sentencing. Three months later, in March of 1812, Greenway found himself in the dock at the Bristol Assizes. He pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced to death by hanging. However, he still had some influential friends, and they managed to get his sentence reduced first to lifelong exile in Australia (which was then a penal colony) and later to transportation to this colony for a term of fourteen years.

Life’s Work

On February 7, 1814, Greenway arrived in Sydney, Australia, a colony made up largely of convicts with a population numbering about twelve thousand. There he found an architect’s dream: a large, sprawling city with scattered houses and buildings showing little sign of any plan, direction, or beauty. Even more amazing to Greenway was the fact that there was little to distinguish private buildings from public or government buildings. The opportunities were immediately apparent to Greenway, and although in his mind he began construction on the future buildings of Sydney, it took him five months to reach Governor Luchlan Macquarie, who had his own visions of a new city.

Greenway assumed not only that the governor would put him to work but also that, as an architect, he would have complete freedom to do as he pleased. The governor, however, even in his desperate need for an architect, had plans of his own and asked Greenway to produce copies of a new courthouse and town hall from a book of previously constructed buildings. Greenway took immediate offense and instead sent to the governor a portfolio of his architectural drawings and a letter dated July, 1814, letting Macquarie know that for an artist merely to copy another’s work is a “rather painful” undertaking. There is no record of the governor’s reaction, but a few days later Greenway sent a letter of apology and a drawing of the buildings just as Macquarie had requested. The governor accepted the architect’s apology, gave permission for Greenway’s wife and family to join him, and unwittingly became Greenway’s benefactor.

It would be quite some time before Greenway would become the “sole designer” of the colony, for the governor was cautious. For the next year or more, rather than fulfilling his role as an architect (despite the fact that he opened a private practice in December, 1814), Greenway acted as a surveyor of the public buildings already in progress. In these reports, Greenway not only cited the aesthetic and structural flaws he found but also made outraged statements against fraudulent contracts, the waste of materials and labor, and the inhumane treatment of the workers. The governor, whose entire building budget had already been used with little to show for it, must have been grateful for Greenway’s reports, for in March, 1816, Greenway found himself appointed acting government architect and assistant engineer for Australia. Along with this position went a house, rations for him and his family, a convict servant, a horse, and a salary of three shillings per day plus the promise of traveling expenses.

It seemed as if Greenway, a convicted exile, had indeed come a long way. Yet, he was not satisfied. He believed that his destiny to bring to the world, in this case Australia, the physical and spiritual merits of art and architecture was being hampered. He wanted to offer humankind the combination of “beauty, strength and convenience,” and he wanted to do this through his idealistic and grand architectural visions. Greenway found that such far-reaching and idealistic ambitions did not fit in with the concerns of the building contractors and suppliers with whom he had to deal. Thus, he continued to keep a close watch on what he saw as unethical building practices and continued to expose fraud, low-quality work, poor structural designs, substandard building materials, and ill-trained workers. In the process he made himself a number of enemies.

Macquarie, however, remained his friend, and between the two of them plans began to emerge for a new Australia. One of the first buildings attributed solely to Greenway was more a monument to the governor’s and Greenway’s artistic visions than a needed public facility. This building was the Macquarie Tower and Light House, for which the foundation stone was laid on July 11, 1816. This first building not only marked the beginning of a continuous building program for the cities of Sydney, Liverpool, Windsor, and Parramatta but also initiated a series of arguments, legal battles, and personal and professional setbacks that were to plague Greenway for the rest of his life.

Between the years 1816 and 1819, however, Greenway managed to break ground on a number of different projects—buildings that were considered superior to anything previously constructed in Australia. Among some of Greenway’s most successful, although controversial, buildings were structures such as Fort Macquarie, the Military Barracks at Sydney, the Female Orphan School at Parramatta, the Liverpool Hospital, and the Government House.

While no one could question Greenway’s artistic talents, and despite the fact that he fought to upgrade the quality of both the structures and the skills of the contractors, many of Greenway’s own buildings became the subject of disputes, delays, structural flaws, or overcosts. Nevertheless, thanks to his friendship with Macquarie, he went ahead with his plans in the midst of controversies and arguments with private contractors. In fact, the governor saw fit to grant Greenway a conditional pardon in 1817, which was then made official in 1819, seven years before the end of his original sentence. He was, in effect, free to move into the higher social classes of Australia, a position to which he felt entitled.

However, freedom, social status, and professional and economic success would not be enough to guard Greenway against his own propensity to make enemies. Also, many in England were becoming concerned that the original plan to keep Australia a penal colony was being diverted (a result, in large part, of Greenway’s architectural plans). Thus, in 1822, with the removal of Governor Macquarie, Greenway’s rocky rise to success received a troubling blow. In June, a letter from John Thomas Bigge, who had been sent in 1819 to Australia to survey and report on the troublesome progress being made in this so-called penal colony, recommended that the “Colonial Architect” (referring to Greenway) introduce a more “uniform and simple style of architecture” into the public and government buildings. Furthermore, Bigge recommended that a corps of engineers be appointed to oversee all future work in the colony.

It appears, however, that Greenway was unaware of Bigge’s recommendations, for, as usual, he was embroiled in arguments and controversies. The most damaging of these ongoing controversies came to a head in 1822, when Greenway faced a libel suit, again over matters of lost contracts and promised payments. When he was denied the right of inquiry and appeal regarding the matter, he refused to continue his official work of “inspecting the progress of public works.”

This refusal, along with Bigge’s earlier letter, produced the following results: “By direction of the Governor I am to acquaint you that from the present date your services to the Government will be dispensed with.” Greenway received this letter on November 15, 1822, and for the second time in his life he was financially and professionally ruined.

Greenway, refusing to admit defeat, continued to live in the house Macquarie had appointed to him in 1814. Meanwhile, he tried in vain to appeal to the government for reimbursements of traveling expenses, compensation for work done by him at the “request” of his old friend and benefactor, and the usual “percentages” of revenues from buildings completed, as well as plans for future buildings. The amount he believed was due him came to œ11,232. His petitions were continually denied, and for a third time in his life Greenway came under suspicion of document forgery, although he was never tried or convicted in this last matter. There also arose questions regarding Greenway’s claim to eight hundred acres of land at Tarro in the Newcastle district.

Again, documents proved faulty, causing Greenway additional anger and embarrassment, and he spent his last years writing letters and haranguing public officials. His efforts were in vain, however, for he died of unknown causes on September 26, 1837, impoverished and disgraced. A century later, a memorial tablet was erected on the North Porch of St. James’s Church that reads: “In Memory of Francis Greenway Architect of This Church and of the Artisans and Labourers Who Erected It.”

Significance

It is difficult to assess accurately Greenway’s life and career. The legal controversies in which he was embroiled, coupled with the personal and professional conflicts that followed Greenway his entire life, cast shadows that cannot be easily dispelled. However, Greenway’s buildings speak for themselves; they are monuments to “beauty, strength and convenience” just as he had intended. He not only raised the standard of architectural design, but he also raised the standards of building construction and workmanship. Although clearly trained in the classical tradition of strict control of form and obviously influenced by the Georgian designs of Bristol during the early nineteenth century, Greenway managed to impose his own vision and imprint upon his designs, marking them as clearly the work of one talent, one man.

For all of his faults and failures, Greenway held firm to his passion for artistic beauty and its benefit to humankind. Australia, especially Sydney, owes much to Greenway’s vision.

Bibliography

Ellis, M. H. Francis Greenway: His Life and Times. Sydney: Shepherd Press, 1949. Ellis has put together an exhaustive study of Greenway’s life and times, as the title indicates. It is the only study of its kind and for this it is extremely valuable. It contains numerous references to and quotations from letters, documents, and papers, some of which were left behind by Greenway, others of which are official public documents and letters. Although the chronology is sometimes difficult to follow, the material proves both interesting and enlightening.

Freeland, J. M. Architecture in Australia: A History. Melbourne, Vic.: F. W. Cheshire, 1968. This is a fascinating account of Australia’s history, from the late eighteenth century to the late 1960’s. The pages dealing with Greenway, although not as specific as they could be, provide a good overview of the importance of his work in Australia’s architectural growth. Freeland manages to highlight both the successes and failures of Greenway’s career without being sidetracked by the turmoil that surrounded much of his life.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. The Making of a Profession. Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1971. Although Freeland’s comments about Greenway barely cover three pages of this study, the information provided is interesting, for it places Greenway at the beginning of a new and rising tradition of architects in Australia.

Herman, Morton. The Early Australian Architects and Their Work. Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1954. Herman’s book is a straightforward account of the beginnings of Australia’s early architecture and architects. The material pertaining to Greenway provides a general overview of his career, referring only briefly to his personal life. It focuses primarily on Greenway’s work and how it fits into the pattern of a new profession in a new land.