My last post was about one of Sir Charles Barry’s early buildings, The Travellers Club in London, UK (Building #37).
This post will cover two opera houses designed by one of Sir Charles’ two architect sons, Edward Middleton Barry (EMB for short). One of these was also in London and one in Valetta, the capital city of Malta. The Royal Opera House in Covent Garden is by far the more famous of these two buildings. See my recent photo of it below with the accompanying Floral Hall to the left, also by EMB.
EMB lived under the shadow of his celebrated architect father, just like his elder brother Charles Barry junior who will also be covered in these series of posts.
It must be difficult to be considered as mainly the progeny of a great predecessor, rather than to be fully respected for your individual worth. EMB was born in 1830, the year after his father won the architectural competition for the Travellers Club. He entered his father’s design office at seventeen years of age, having been considered ‘serious and thoughtful’ as a child.
He would assume the role of chief assistant to Sir Charles on his major project rebuilding the Palace of Westminster/Houses of Parliament in London (see below image), eventually taking over full responsibility on his father’s death in 1860.
EMB began to acquire projects of his own while still relatively young for an architect. One of these was to rebuild an opera house in Covent Garden, London.
He had been put forward by his father to the theatre manager Frederick Gye, who would continue to consult with Barry senior on certain aspects of the design – they had originally come into contact many years back over the use of fire-resistant wood in theatre buildings, for which Gye had been developing a patent. Ironically, his theatre had burned down in March 1856, illustrating the very real problem such venues faced.
One of EMB’s key tasks was to design a more fire-resistant structure, which he would have done in consultation with the same contractors who had been working with his family on various construction projects for many years. What would eventually be named the Royal Opera House was completed in 1858.
The Royal Theatre or Opera House in Valetta, Malta was designed by EMB three years after finishing his London venue and it opened in 1866. The image below shows the ruins of the building in modern day Valetta where it is still used as a performance venue, albeit relying on a drier climate …
Sadly the whole magnificient structure had burned down a few years after it was first built, despite its own fire-resistant features. Following rebuilding it thrived over many decades before suffering yet again the same fate during World War 2, when Malta was destroyed in bombing raids by the Nazis, who targeted the island as an Allied shipping refuge for dangerous Mediterranean supply routes.