page_title: Thomas Ivory
section_title: Life
hierarchical_section_title: Thomas Ivory / Life
caption_attribution_description: English: Octagon Unitarian Chapel, Norwich The Presbyterians built this chapel in 1756 on the site of their 1680 chapel. The architect was Thomas Ivory. See church website http://www.octagonchapel.org.uk/ for contact and service times, and Norfolk Churches website http://www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/norwichoctagon/norwichoctagon.htm for an enthusiastic account and history. "A place in history" http://www.edp24.co.uk/content/edp24/norfolk-life/PlaceinHistory/content/59OctagonChapel.aspx on the EDP site also describes the building and its history. Not long after its building some Presbyterian congregations in England were moving more to the Unitarian view that there is only one God rather than a Trinity, and in 1820 this church became Unitarian. Prominent dissenting families who worshipped there included the botanist and co-founder of the Linnean Society Sir James Edward Smith.
context_page_description: Thomas Ivory was an English builder and architect, active in Norwich.
context_section_description: Ivory was born in  1709.  His early years and education remain obscure. His earliest recorded large commission was in his capacity as a builder and timber merchant at Thrigby Hall in 1735.  He bought the freedom of Norwich in 1745 and was appointed carpenter the Great Hospital in the city in 1751. In May 1750 he had put his house in the parish of St Martin-at-Oak for sale. He then leased a piece of  land on the west forecourt of the Great Hospital on which he built a substantial residence for himself, into which he moved in 1756. It is now known as St Helen's House. He went on to build the Assembly House (1754), the neighbouring theatre  (1757, since destroyed),  the Methodist meeting-house  in Bishopsgate Street (1752–3),  the Octagon Chapel in Colegate (1754–6) and the artillery barracks (1771). He was also responsible for various houses in the city.
  Between 1767 and 1779, along with two members of his family,  his son William and his nephew John Ivory,  he built a new range at Blickling Hall, closing in the open courtyard in a style sympathetic to the existing Jacobean house.
  In addition to work as a builder and architect,  Ivory carried on an extensive trade importing timber, with his own yard in Bishopsgate.  He also operated the Norwich Theatre,  and is recorded as having obtained a licence for his company of actors, the Norwich Company of Comedians, to perform in Norwich in 1768.
  Ivory died at Norwich on 28 August 1779  and was buried in Norwich Cathedral, where he is commemorated  by a wall monument made by his nephew  John Ivory.  In his will he is described as ‘builder and timber merchant.
caption: Octagon Unitarian Chapel, Norwich.
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