James Elmes

James Elmes (born October 15, 1782 in London , † April 2, 1862 in Greenwich ) was an English architect and civil engineer , also writer and father of the architect Harvey Lonsdale Elmes .

He went to the Merchant Taylors School, learned the building trade from his father, then architecture from George Gibson . He later became a student at the Royal Academy of Arts , where he won a silver medal in 1804. He designed a large number of buildings in London and eventually became a surveyor and civil engineer for the Port of London. But he is best known today as a humanities and artistic writer. In 1809 he became Vice President of the Royal Architectural Society . He had to give up this office like that of surveyor in 1828 because he had partially lost his eyesight.

Literary works

• Sir Christopher Wren and his Times (1823)
• Lectures on Architecture (1823)
• The Arts and Artists (1825)
• General and Biographical Dictionary of the Fine Arts (1826)
• Treatise on Architectural Jurisprudence (1827)
• Thomas Clarkson: a monograph (1854)