Francis Johnston (architect)

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Nelson's Pillar ca 1830

Francis Johnston (1760 – 1829) was born in Armagh, Ireland. He studied architecture and in 1805 was appointed to the Board of Works as an architect. Johnston is most well known for building the General Post Office(GPO) on O’Connell Street, Dublin.

An Irish architect, he designed Nelson's Pillar in Dublin, now destroyed.

At a time of huge rebuilding in Georgian Dublin, Johnston was one of the architects responsible for Sackville Street (now O'Connell Street). The great pillar and post Office were designed to harmonise with each other in the street adding grandeur and elegance to the boulevard. He was also responsible for the design of Charleville Forest Castle in Tullamore, County Offaly.

His work is interesting from an architectural point of view, in that it spans both the Neo-Classical and Neo-Gothic styles. His Chapel Royal in Dublin Castle, the pulpit of which is now in St Werburgh's, is a fine example of an early Gothic revival church in Dublin. This later proved a seminal building for later Gothic revival architects in Ireland, with Thomas Deane using the detailing from the windows as a model for those of the Aula Maxima of Queens College Cork.

Among his other most notable projects was the construction of St George’s Church, for overseeing the conversion of Parliament House into Bank of Ireland and for the construction of the Tudor gothic entrance to Kilmainham Hospital.

He also designed the Chapel Royal at Dublin Castle and Charleville Castle in Tullamore, Co. Offaly.

In 1824 he was made president of the Royal Hibernian Academy of Arts which had been founded the previous year, and he provided headquarters for the Academy in Lower Abbey Street at his own expense^[1].