Thomas Henry Lyon: Architect and aesthete – his life and work

Thomas Henry Lyon (1869–1953) was an important architect whose work has often been ignored, because he did not take up the Modernist ideas of many of his contemporaries. His work was also almost entirely concentrated in either Cambridge or the edge of Dartmoor. His contribution to the inter-War development of the Colleges of Cambridge was immense and often overlooked: this book seeks to restore his reputation.

The book restores to public consciousness the extensive architectural work carried out by Lyon, particularly in Cambridge, and does not gloss over the disaster of a church in Wembley which had to be closed after less than 30 years. It also looks at the important work he carried out in South Australia in the pre-1914 age, as well as his masterly reconstruction and furnishing of Sidney Sussex College chapel, which established his reputation. It has been extensively researched in archives across England, but particularly in those of the Colleges of Cambridge.

About the author

Michael Yelton is a former undergraduate and Fellow of Corpus Christi College, where Lyon also studied and where he lived for many years. He is a retired Judge who has lived in Cambridge for many years and has written extensively on Anglo-Catholic history and on ecclesiastical architecture.