Thomas Cooley (architect)

[2] Cooley worked as a draughtsman and clerk to the architect and engineer Robert Mylne (1733–1810), while the latter was building Blackfriars Bridge in London, between 1761 and 1769.

In 1769, he won the competition to design a new Royal Exchange in Dublin, and the building, now the City Hall, was completed in 1779.

Together with James Gandon (1743–1823), Cooley was part of a small school of architects influenced by Sir William Chambers (1723–1796).

[3] Cooley also designed Newgate Prison (demolished 1893), the Royal Hibernian Marine School, and a chapel, all in Dublin.

[4] In 1768 he began another public building in the city, but on his death at the age of 44 in Dublin, the project was handed over to Gandon, who completed it, to his own design, as the Four Courts.