Samuel Beazley

Beazley's other activities included translating opera libretti into English, and writing novels and non-fictional works on architecture.

Both facets of Beazley's future career were displayed when he was still a boy: at school at Acton, aged 12, he wrote a farce and constructed the stage on which he and his schoolfriends performed it.

[2][3] As a youth, Beazley volunteered for service in the Peninsular War, in Spain, and experienced many adventures, which he was fond of relating in later life to his friends.

[5] Hundreds of persons – including tradesmen, doctors, lawyers, priests, the Governor of the Bank of England, the Duke of York, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Lord Mayor of the City of London – arrived at the address on 27 November.

He had already had a work professionally produced at the Theatre Royal English Opera, Lyceum in 1811: The Boarding House; or, Five Hours at Brighton, a musical farce in two acts.

[2][n 2] Among Beazley's other works were Gretna Green, The Steward, Old Customs, The Lottery Ticket, My Uncle, Bachelors' Wives, Hints to Husbands and The Bull's Head.

[1] Beazley also translated opera librettos, including Robert le diable, Caterina Cornaro and La sonnambula.

The last is said to have been adapted by Beazley to fit the English pronunciation of the opera star Maria Malibran during a series of morning interviews with her at her bedside.

Earl added, "[Beazley's] theatre designs were invariably neo-classical and not strikingly innovative; he drew on European architectural precedents but adapted them skilfully.

"[2] Beazley's non-theatre work included several buildings in Leamington Spa, Ashford Town Hall, and Studley Castle in Warwickshire.

[2][3] His last important works were for the South-Eastern Railway Company, and include its terminus at London Bridge, most of its stations on the North Kent line, and the Lord Warden Hotel and Pilot House at Dover.